Environmental awareness - combined with FALLING PRICES AND INCREASED NEED for reliable power expands markets for wind, solar and other power alternatives
Although fossil fuels - notably coal and natural gas - are finite resources, the United States still depends on these two sources for 68 percent of its electricity generation. Another 20 percent is supplied by nuclear power. Of the remaining 12 percent, about 7 percent is hydropower and less than 1 percent is wind power.
Put another way, the United States uses about 71 quadrillion Btus (quads) annually, according to Richard Moorer, deputy assistant secretary for technology development in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy. Renewable energy, including hydropower and biomass, accounts for 5.9 quads, or about 8 percent.
But though the numbers are small, they are growing. "The combined annual compound growth rate for wind and solar renewables is about 30 percent," says Steve Strong, president of Solar Design Associates in Harvard, Mass. "That means this market is growing faster than computers and cell phones in their early days."One sign of the strength of alternative energy is the number of utilities offering green pricing programs. According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory data, as of October 2003, 33 states had utilities with such programs.
As of December 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy reported the top 10 utility green pricing programs were Austin Energy, Portland General Electric, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, PacifiCorp, Xcel Energy, Los Angeles Department of Power & Water, Tennessee Valley Authority, We Energies, Alliant Energy and Puget Sound Energy, with average megawatts supplied ranging from 33 to 3.1.
"Facility executives willing to purchase green power actually are helping to pay for adding green power solutions someplace on the grid," says Terry Peterson, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) consultant for solar power and green power marketing. "You cannot purchase specific electrons, of course. You get the electrons on the grid. It's like dipping your canteen into a lake. You get whatever mixture of water is in that lake. But when there are cleaner streams feeding that lake, everyone benefits. And green power customers are helping to pay for clean streams into those lakes."
WIND POWER DEVELOPMENTS
Among renewables, wind energy capacity is soaring, with the United States installing 1,687 megawatts in 2003, according to data from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). AWEA places current cumulative capacity in the United States at 6,374 mw by year-end, with utilityscale turbines operating in 30 states. California has 2,043 mw of installed capacity. Texas is second with 1,293 mw; then come Minnesota with 563 mw, Iowa with 472 mw and Wyoming with 285 mw.
Those numbers pale in comparison to the picture in Europe. AWEA says Germany alone has an installed capacity of 14,609 mw. Spain has 6,202 mw, and Denmark is at 3,110 mw. According to estimates by the European Wind Energy Association, the installed capacity of wind power in the European Union by the end of 2003 was equal to about 2.4 percent of total EU electricity. By comparison, less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity is generated by wind.
Wind power potential is highest in many pockets in the far West, as well as large areas in the central Midwest, according to National Renewable Energy Laboratory data.
Wind is an established renewable resource, capable of competing head to head with dirty coal, says Strong. To prove how mainstream the technology is becoming, Strong cites the willingness of conservative conglomerate GE to scoop up the wind division of Enron. "They booked more than $1 billion in sales in less than the first year of operation," says Strong. "The strategists at GE are all business and they are enthusiastically embracing wind." he adds that GE also is in photovoltaics again, which suggests to Strong that wind and its sister solar will continue enjoying double-digit, compound annual growth rates.
SOLAR DEVELOPMENTS
According to Glenn Hamer, executive director of Solar Energy Industries Association, global electricity production from photovoltaics is doubling every two years. "We expect to produce more than 1 billion watts in 2004," Hamer told the House and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. "However, increasingly, that production occurs in Japan and Germany."
Worldwide solar production in 2003 was more than 760 mw, up significantly from 550 mw in 2002. However, the U.S. produced just 109 mw of that power, leaving the country that produced the first watt of commercial photovoltaic power - in 1954 at Bell Labs - significantly behind Japan and Germany.
But hope is shining on the horizon. Concentrating solar power systems currently produce 354 mw of clean power in the California desert. Construction has begun on a 50mw plant in Nevada and a 1-mw plant in Arizona.
The Department of Energy's Photovoltaics Roadmap now predicts that solar electricity will be available for less than 8 cents per kilowatt-hour within 10 years.
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