Wonder wind power, Activate!
Wall Street Journal|Keith Johnson|February 6, 2008
GWEC figures wind power's capacity in 2005 was about 24%-that is, wind turbines spin 1 hour out of 4, year-round. That will improve, but slowly. Bigger and taller turbines, in more favorable locations-especially offshore-will make wind turbines more efficient. But it will be a long time before wind power's paper strength starts to be reflected in real electricity generation. GWEC's own figures point to wind power creeping toward 30% efficiency over the next twenty years. Wind power may be the most mature horse in the renewable-energy stable. But even a thoroughbred is going to have a tough time catching up with the supertanker that is the fossil-fueled energy establishment.
GWEC figures wind power's capacity in 2005 was about 24%-that is, wind turbines spin 1 hour out of 4, year-round. That will improve, but slowly. Bigger and taller turbines, in more favorable locations-especially offshore-will make wind turbines more efficient. But it will be a long time before wind power's paper strength starts to be reflected in real electricity generation. GWEC's own figures point to wind power creeping toward 30% efficiency over the next twenty years. Wind power may be the most mature horse in the renewable-energy stable. But even a thoroughbred is going to have a tough time catching up with the supertanker that is the fossil-fueled energy establishment.
Here's the good news for clean-energy fans: Wind power shrugged off supply concerns and posted its best-ever year in 2007, adding 27% more capacity around the world.
And here's bad news: For all its double-digit growth, wind power is still just a drop in the bucket in the global energy mix, even in countries like the U.S. and China which are rapidly becoming global leaders. New wind farms around the world accounted for $36 billion in capital investment last year. In old-energy terms, that's just under 11 months of profit at ExxonMobil.
The Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council released its final 2007 scorecard today, chalking up additions of 20 gigawatts of wind power capacity from Sweetwater to Shanghai. How much is 20 gigawatts? …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Here's the good news for clean-energy fans: Wind power shrugged off supply concerns and posted its best-ever year in 2007, adding 27% more capacity around the world.
And here's bad news: For all its double-digit growth, wind power is still just a drop in the bucket in the global energy mix, even in countries like the U.S. and China which are rapidly becoming global leaders. New wind farms around the world accounted for $36 billion in capital investment last year. In old-energy terms, that's just under 11 months of profit at ExxonMobil.
The Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council released its final 2007 scorecard today, chalking up additions of 20 gigawatts of wind power capacity from Sweetwater to Shanghai. How much is 20 gigawatts? That's roughly 73 of the FutureGen experimental clean-coal plants, whose funding was just pulled by the Bush administration. Or less than half as much total power as China adds each year.
One big change: Wind power appears to have flown the European nest where it was nurtured with decades of subsidies. For the first time ever, more wind power was built outside the Old Continent than in it. Leading the pack was coal country. The U.S. and China together accounted for more than 40% of wind's global growth last year.
The growth isn't accidental. China faces tightening coal supplies and has ambitious renewable-energy targets, and is working double-time to build its own wind energy manufacturing industry. What the U.S. lacks in five-year plans it made up with three years of tax breaks for clean energy. But even with the record-setting 2007-wind made up about one-third of new power added in the U.S. last year-it still accounts for just under 1% of America's electricity generation.
That's not going to grow too fast, no matter how many wind farms spring up. Wind power, unlike nuclear, coal- or gas-fired plants, doesn't work overtime. GWEC figures wind power's capacity in 2005 was about 24%-that is, wind turbines spin 1 hour out of 4, year-round.
That will improve, but slowly. Bigger and taller turbines, in more favorable locations-especially offshore-will make wind turbines more efficient. But it will be a long time before wind power's paper strength starts to be reflected in real electricity generation. GWEC's own figures point to wind power creeping toward 30% efficiency over the next twenty years.
Wind power may be the most mature horse in the renewable-energy stable. But even a thoroughbred is going to have a tough time catching up with the supertanker that is the fossil-fueled energy establishment.