The growth of wind power may be curtailed by a growing coalition of naysayers, ranging from electric utilities to Senators

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Peter Behr and Climatewire

Not many years ago, there wasn't enough wind power coming from the Great Plains to worry about. Now there is, and lots of people are worrying.

A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region's wind power too cheap for its members to compete with, unless developers there are made to pay the costs of moving wind power eastward.

Influential natural gas producers and generators in Texas are worried. They are demanding that the state's wind developers share the costs of backup natural gas generators that must pick up the slack when the wind doesn't blow. The gas industry, threatened by state policies that promote wind power, is asking regulators to impose penalties on wind generators that can't deliver scheduled energy when the wind dies down.

And last week, four senators representing New York, Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania proposed to deny federal clean energy grants to wind developers that buy blades, turbines and other components from abroad.

"It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, pointing at a proposed Texas wind farm whose backers include a Chinese power company.

Some renewable policy advocates say the problem has less to do with China and more with on-and-off-again federal energy policies, and arguments over how to pay for the vast expansion of transmission lines needed to maximize wind power delivery. Instead of looking at foreign rivals, members of Congress should start with a look in the mirror, says this side in the debate.

"We've had so many studies," said Lisa Barton, vice president for transportation strategy and business development at Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power, a strong proponent of grid expansion. "It's 2010, and yet we still don't have a decision on how to move forward in connecting wind or in building a more robust transmission system."

How 'American' should the jobs be?

The issue of allocating costs for new transmission lines among states and regions is one of the high hurdles ahead for the Senate, if it can get climate and energy legislation to the floor this spring. The debate pits utilities and power generators in the North, Southwest and Pacific Northwest against companies like AEP that hope to move large amounts of competing wind power to the coasts.

Wind power development poses "a perceived threat to the embedded generators," said David Corbus, senior engineer with the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "They color it in different ways. But when you come down to it, that's the bottom line on a lot of these issues." Corbus was project manager for the NREL's recently released 14-month study of wind power.

"You can't ignore the interests of the folks involved in the debate," Barton said.

Schumer and his three Democratic colleagues, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jon Tester of Montana, say new wind power projects receiving federal stimulus grants should use U.S. manufacturing -- some of which lies in their backyards.

"Companies located in New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere across the United States are fully capable of manufacturing the range of clean-energy components," they said in a letter last week to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

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A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region's wind power too cheap for its members to compete with ...

Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy - nice name. Sounds so benign, even fair. With a name like that they can't be wrong.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

We're complaining about cheap energy?

What?

I suppose everyone has a gripe.

Mine is ugliness of wind farms after the initial "interesting" thought pops into my head.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We're complaining about cheap energy?

What?

I suppose everyone has a gripe.

Mine is ugliness of wind farms after the initial "interesting" thought pops into my head.

Any worse than seeing the grasshopper oil rigs of Texas?

[Danno 1,228]

We're complaining about cheap energy?

What?

I suppose everyone has a gripe.

Mine is ugliness of wind farms after the initial "interesting" thought pops into my head.

Thats exactly why we need to add "Greens" to the list of opposition, everywhere you try to put'em they complain.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Any worse than seeing the grasshopper oil rigs of Texas?

Hey, at least we produce oil AND wind energy more than anyone else in the nation

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Hey, at least we produce oil AND wind energy more than anyone else in the nation

California isn't that far behind. My point though is that we have thousands of miles of above ground power lines, grasshopper rigs, coal plants and their smoke stacks. Lets not suddenly become aesthetic snobs over solar panels and wind turbines.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

The growth of wind power is curtailed because as it exists now, it is not the answer. were it the answer, no one could curtail it's growth any more than we curtailed the growth of personal computers, cell phones, CDs/DVDs, electronic ignition, fuel injection, diesel locomotives, and jet engnes.

The solution to energy problems lies in the private sector and the neccessity of invention. Government cannot shoose what it will be.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Thats exactly why we need to add "Greens" to the list of opposition, everywhere you try to put'em they complain.

Very true observation. Envirofreaks cannot expect to be take seriously with their approach which I'd sum up like this: Nuke power? Coal power? Wind power? Why do we need any of it? Let's just take our electricity from the sockets in our walls.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

California isn't that far behind. My point though is that we have thousands of miles of above ground power lines, grasshopper rigs, coal plants and their smoke stacks. Lets not suddenly become aesthetic snobs over solar panels and wind turbines.

I agree with what you're saying, but you are wrong on the California thing. They are WAY behind and falling behind quickly. Texas blows everyone out of the water, and Iowa has already surpassed them looks like Minnesota is on track to do so as well.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The study estimates that the number of avian fatalities, for all species combined in the US is 2.9 per turbine, per year.

This equates to a figure of wind turbines causing one in 5,000 to 10,000 collision related deaths for avian species, or

0.01 to 0.02 percent. (The total number of fatalities from all sources is estimated at a staggering 200-500 million birds

killed annually by collisions in the US.)

This estimate includes the fatalities at wind facilities such as the Altamont, California wind farm which is sited in areas

of high avian usage. The figure would be lower for turbines located outside of these areas.

It should be noted that the figures for fatalities from wind turbines are the most accurate estimates of all types of

collisions presented in the study, as they are based on the most extensive and accurate data. It is also important to

understand that the figures above only deal with avian deaths as a result of collision with various structures. There are

also many other significant human-related sources of fatality including hunters, domestic and feral cats, climate change

and pollution. US bird experts Curry and Kerlinger have estimated that 100 million bird deaths a year can be attributed

to domestic cats.4 And the Exxon Valdez oil spill alone is estimated to have killed up to 500,000 birds.

http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/NR/rdonlyr.../2284/birds.pdf

This Australian study would suggest that birds kills are insignificant as far as a percentage of bird kills, but a large portion of the Altamont Pass in Northern California is unusable due to a high number of bird kills. It turns out, that the best location to place windmills, is in the same path that predatory and migratory birds like to fly through.