This report was written by Jennifer Dlouhy of the Washington bureau.
Texas still has bragging rights as the self-proclaimed “Saudia Arabia of wind power,” but a new report released this week shows that Midwestern states are giving the Lone Star State some new competition.
Texas has competition in the wind-power biz.
The wind-energy industry last year installed roughly 5,700 new turbines with more than 10,000 megawatts of generating capacity — enough to serve more than 2.4 million homes — according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Texas leads the nation with more than 9,000 megawatts of total wind generation capacity, including 2,292 megawatts added last year.
But Iowa is the U.S. leader in relying on wind-generated electricity. Last year, 14.2 percent of the state’s electrical power came from wind — compared to 1.8 percent nationwide.
Indiana added 905 megawatts of capacity in 2009, second only to Texas in the amount of wind generation capacity added last year.
Measured by total installed capacity, the top five states are Texas, Iowa, California, Washington and Oregon.
The new data from AWEA reveals another year of continued growth for wind power. But industry leaders said they are constrained by the nation’s aging electrical transmission system and that sustained growth depends on the continuation of expiring federal tax credits as well as a new national requirement that power companies must get a certain portion of their electricity from renewable power sources.
“What we have to do is get these policies in place that really provide that long-term commitment, so we can have that exponential growth,” said Denise Bode, AWEA’s CEO.
Renewable electricity standards mandate the use of wind, solar and other easily replenished power sources in 39 countries and 29 states, including Texas and California. There is no similar nationwide mandate, though proposals for a federal requirement are pending in Congress.
The House has passed legislation that would require that renewable power make up 15 percent of utilities’ supplies by 2020, and a Senate committee approved an energy bill last year that would mandate 15 percent renewable power by 2021.
A national renewable electricity requirement could steer utilities away from some lower-cost energy sources and encourage investment in wind and solar power.
“We’re the only major developed country that does not have a renewable energy standard or the functional equivalent,” said Don Furman, a senior vice president for Iberdrola Renewables, an international company with U.S. headquarters in Portland, Ore.
“Without a policy that gives clear guidelines to utilities to add renewables to the mix, we don’t necessarily see the public (enthusiasm) for renewables translating to actual demand” by utilities.
Fourteen states now have landed in what AWEA calls the Gigawatt Club” — those with at least 1,000 megawatts of wind power, compared to just seven in 2008.
Although an increasing number of states are adding wind power to their energy portfolios, turbines remain concentrated in the Great Plains and along the Pacific Coast. The industry has not secured a foothold in the southeast, where less gusty conditions make the power source less attractive.
The nation’s six largest wind farms are in Texas, with the biggest — the Roscoe Wind Farm near Abilene — boasting 782 megawatts of generating capacity.
Bode emphasized that wind power projects are spurring domestic manufacturing and said the industry supported 85,000 U.S. jobs in 2009. “We’re really one of the only bright spots out there in terms of growing the U.S. manufacturing sector,” Bode said.
Nine turbine manufacturers now have facilities in the U.S. GE Energy is the nation’s largest supplier — with its turbines providing about 40 percent of the capacity added last year. GE is followed by foreign manufacturers, including Vestas, Siemens and Mitsubishi.
Not everyone is as enthusiastic. Natural gas producers worry that fossil fuel will be displaced if utilities are forced to shift to renewable sources. James Mulva, the CEO of ConocoPhillips, told the U.S. Energy Association Wednesday that mandated use of renewables for electricity generation “could prove pretty expensive” by unfairly giving an advantage to energy sources, even though they have a higher price tag.
“Why not just implement clean energy standards” and let natural gas and renewable power “compete on a level playing field?” Mulva questioned.