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Small wind heading into boom period, report says

The small wind industry is about to enter a major growth spurt.

It is poised to grow from a $255 million industry in 2010 to $634 million industry in 2015, according to a recent Pike Research report.

The report attributes a growing interest and expected success in the coming years to the fact that small wind is currently more efficient and, therefore, cheaper on a cost-per-watt basis than solar photovoltaic cells. Because the return on investment can take as little as 5 years to 10 years, depending on area wind conditions, it offers an accessible option to small businesses, farms, … Read more

'WindMade' label proposed for U.S.

Call it a "wind-win" opportunity: there's a new push on for a "WindMade" certification label for U.S. companies, services, and products.

The announcement yesterday (on Global Wind Day) in New York by a group of organizations marks the start of a two-month development period. But the first draft of the standard allowing the use of the WindMade label requires that a company source at least 25 percent of its electricity from wind in order to qualify.

The idea for a WindMade label was originally proposed in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos … Read more

U.S. wind power drops off despite falling prices

The American Wind Energy Association reported a substantial fall in U.S. wind power installations in 2010, saying some project developers held off from investing because of uncertain federal policies.

The trade association said that 5,115 megawatts of wind power capacity were put online last year, compared to 10,000 megawatts of capacity in 2009. The 2010 number also falls below annual installations for 2008 and 2007, according to AWEA data. (Click for PDF of report.)

At the same time, AWEA reported that the price for electricity from wind has fallen. Recent power purchase agreements to buy energy from … Read more

U.S. wind energy popular, but lacks investment

Despite public approval, U.S. wind energy investment is slowing down instead of growing, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support a renewable electricity standard, and wind energy investment in particular, according to a poll of 600 likely voters conducted in March by Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Bennett, Petts & Normington.

Specifically, 89 percent of Americans said increasing the amount of energy the U.S. gets from wind is a good idea. Broken down by ideology, 84 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents support increasing the … Read more

European offshore wind setting records in 2010

Offshore wind installations and connections in Europe are at a record high.

For the first half of 2010, over 118 new offshore wind turbines totaling 333 megawatts worth of capacity became operational in Europe. For comparison, a total of 577 megawatts worth were installed for the entire year of 2009. In addition to those turbines up and running, another 151 turbines have been installed and await grid connection, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

Europe now has 948 offshore wind turbines offering a total capacity of 2,396 megawatts in operation.

Of those offshore wind projects connected to the grid in the first half of 2010, EWEA estimates that E.ON Climate and Renewables developed 64 percent of them, while Siemens supplied 55 percent of the turbines.

Of course, Siemens, a major wind turbine supplier, will soon face more competition. GE announced in March that it plans to put $450 million into developing its wind turbine business in Europe over the next 10 years.

Within days of the EWEA report, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced it's forming the Offshore Wind Development Coalition (OffshoreWindDC), a coalition made up of wind developers and supportive organizations whose sole purpose will be to educate the public on the pros and cons of offshore wind, and promote its installation.

They have a good reason to develop a lobby group.

While the residents of the European Union seem to have been sold on the idea that offshore wind can be a significant contributor to their pledge to get 20 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020, the U.S. public has yet to embrace it despite predictions of a positive impact.… Read more

Iowa, Texas tops in wind power efforts

Iowa and Texas lead the nation in wind energy efforts, according to the annual report released Thursday from the American Wind Energy Association.

Iowa claims the title for the state with the largest percentage of electricity from wind energy. As of the end of 2009, over 14 percent of Iowa's power was from wind energy.

And while the large state of Texas may still only get a modest percentage of its power from wind energy, it actually has the most wind power capacity of any U.S. state. Texas is also home to the largest wind farm in the U.S.… Read more

Small wind turbines blow out big sales

Updated on May 29 at 7:25 a.m. PT with corrected figure of installed turbines last year.

Sales of turbines big enough to serve a single home or office building grew rapidly last year and are poised for even faster growth this year, according to a report from the American Wind Energy Association.

The report, published on Thursday (click for PDF), found that sales of small wind turbines smaller than 100 kilowatts grew 78 percent last year, even though there was a sharp drop-off at the end of last year and beginning of this year.

The actual number of … Read more