Archive for January 29th, 2009
Texas Spending 5 Billion for Wind Power Lines
Author: skibare29 Jan
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Texas regulators Thursday picked more than a dozen developers to build nearly $5 billion in high-voltage transmission lines to move wind-generated electricity.
The decision by the Texas Public Utility Commission assigns companies including Oncor, American Electric Power Co. (AEP), MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. and FPL Group Inc. (FPL), an estimated 2,900 miles of transmission projects. These will connect rural wind farms to more urban areas with high power demand. Traditionally, transmission lines are built and operated by local utilities, but the commission conducted a competitive process to select developers.
The build-out is one of the first efforts in the U.S. to tackle a chicken-and-egg problem that has stifled growth of wind power. Developers don’t want to invest in turbines until lines are in place, while utilities and regulators don’t want to spend billions of dollars on lines until wind generation is ready to feed power to the grid.
Oncor, a subsidiary of privately held Energy Future Holdings, received an estimated $1.34 billion in projects. Electric Transmission Texas, a joint venture of AEP and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRKA, BRKB) MidAmerican, received an estimated $790 million, while FPL Group’s (FPL) Lone Star Transmission was awarded $560 million in projects.
Three other groups each won around $400 million in projects. These are Cross Texas Transmission, which is owned by LS Power Associates, privately owned Sharyland Utilities and a partnership of Spain’s Isolux Corsan SA and Brookfield Asset Management.
The commission awarded the Lower Colorado River Authority $750 million in projects. Six additional developers received smaller projects.
Before voting, commissioners debated the ability of potential developers to finance projects in a difficult credit environment, while deciding not to concentrate too much of the build-out in the hands of one company.
“I like the fact we are trying to diversify the risk,” Chairman Barry Smitherman said.
Federal and state policy makers look at the Texas process, known as competitive renewable energy zones, as a possible model for other regions struggling to connect wind power with customers. But outside Texas, transmission projects face high hurdles as states disagree with each other and the federal government over routes and plans and amid public resistance to new energy infrastructure.
Texas’ high-voltage expansion will take place under a regulated model in which companies receive a set rate of return, plus their costs. Steady, multiyear returns and limited risk make the projects attractive to companies. Although selected by the PUC, the developers have additional steps ahead. Projects still need to receive regulatory approval for their design and cost, a commission spokesman said.
When completed over the next four to five years, the system regulators have planned would carry about 18,500 megawatts of wind, enough electricity for an estimated 14 million to 18 million typical homes.
Wind Energy Now Employs More than Coal Industry
Author: skibare29 Jan
Here’s a talking point in the green jobs debate: The wind industry now employs more people than coal mining in the United States.
Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday from the American Wind Energy Association. In contrast, the coal industry employs about 81,000 workers. (Those figures are from a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report but coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it’s down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the deindustrialization of the past two decades.
The big spike in wind jobs was a result of a record-setting 50% increase in installed wind capacity, with 8,358 megawatts coming online in 2008 (enough to power some 2 million homes). That’s a third of the nation’s total 25,170 megawatts of wind power generation. Wind farms generating more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity were completed in the last three months of 2008 alone.
Another sign that wind power is no longer a niche green energy play: Wind accounted for 42% of all new electricity generation installed last year in the U.S. Power, literally, is shifting from the east to west, to the wind belt of the Midwest, west Texas and the West Coast. Texas continues to lead the country, with 7,116 megawatts of wind capacity but Iowa in 2008 overtook California for the No. 2 spot, with 2,790 megawatts of wind generation. Other new wind powers include Oregon, Minnesota, Colorado and Washington state.
Vestas Receives Over 500MW Wind Order from China
Author: skibare29 Jan
will this 500MW wind order from China be enough to salvage the year for Vestas going forward????
Vestas manages the winds of change
The company’s financial results and forecasts are positive, but falling energy prices and the global financial crisis may yet take their toll on Vestas, writes NJ Watson
VESTAS Wind Systems ended 2008 on a high, receiving large orders for its wind turbines from China. But with banks cutting their target prices for the Danish wind-turbine manufacturer’s stock in December, there are fears that the company will not escape the gathering financial storms in 2009.
On 31 December, Vestas said it had received two orders for wind turbines, with a total capacity of 100 megawatts (MW), to be delivered to two projects in China – at the customer’s request, further details were not disclosed. This followed a 29 December announcement that China Guangdong Nuclear Wind Power had ordered 116 of its 850 kilowatt (kW) V52 turbines, bringing the total capacity of V52 wind turbines sold to the company to 500 MW.
Before the China deals, Danske Bank analyst Henrik Breum claimed Vestas’ order intake for fourth-quarter 2008 had almost doubled from the previous quarter
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