Wind Energy Gains Speed in Wisconsin, Nation

Apr 28 - Daily Reporter (Milwaukee)

Wisconsin has 53 megawatts of wind power installed, according to the American Wind Energy Association's 2006 rankings released this month, placing the state 18th in the nation.

That wattage will increase to 452 after two proposed wind projects in Fond du Lac County - the 200-megwatt Forward Wind Energy Project by Alliant Energy and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and the 145-megawatt Blue Sky Green Field by We Energies - as well as Eurus Energy's 54-megawatt Butler Ridge in Dodge County are completed.

We Energies plans to start construction of its $300 million project this summer, Eurus expects to begin generating electricity next year, and Alliant's proposal is being reviewed by state regulators.

Two other major wind projects planned for 2008 or beyond - a 99- megawatt farm by Horizon Wind Energy in Lafayette County and a 98- megawatt farm by Navitas Energy in Manitowoc County - would push the total to about 650 megawatts.

"Wisconsin does not have the wind resources other states do, but there has been a lot of progress made and a lot of wind support by local utilities," said Ingrid Kelley, project manager for the Energy Center of Wisconsin, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving energy sustainability.

At 650 megawatts, the state would jump to sixth highest in the country. Texas and California have by far the most wind power at 2,738 and 2,361 megawatts, respectively, followed by Iowa (936), Minnesota (895) and Washington (818). About 20 states have little or no wind power generation registered by AWEA.

Kelley said there was more room for developing Wisconsin's wind resources; however, the wind-heavy northeastern part of the state comes with impediments.

"Our best wind-resistance areas tend to be more densely populated areas, and then you get the controversy from people that don't want to look at the turbines," she said. "Wind power works best in rural areas as something else for farmers to farm."

Big getting bigger

The last major wind project completed in Wisconsin was FPL Energy's 30-megawatt Monfort Wind Farm in Iowa County in July 2001, according to AWEA. Both We Energies and Alliant Energy use power from those wind turbines.

FPL Energy, based in Florida, is the leading developer of wind power nationally with 4,016 megawatts installed, including 777 constructed last year. The next closest is Portland, Ore.-based PPM Energy, which owns 1,058 megawatts.

More than 2,400 megawatts were installed nationwide in 2006, a 27 percent increase and $4 billion investment. Overall, the United States has 11,600 megawatts of wind power capacity installed, enough to serve 3 million average households, and AWEA expects that to increase an additional 26 percent in 2007.

"The demand for clean, cost-effective wind power is growing fast, and the U.S. wind energy industry has turned in a record-breaking performance in 2006 to meet that demand," said Randall Swisher, AWEA executive director, said in a statement. "Wind power is now one of the largest sources of new power generation in the U.S. and an essential element of the climate-change solution."

Production of wind power increased after 2005 when Congress extended the 1.9 cent-per-kilowatt-hour federal Production Tax Credit for wind-generated electricity over the first 10 years of a project's operations through the end of 2007. That credit has since been extended to the end of 2008.

Becoming cost competitive

A big reason for the current wind surge within the state is a mandate passed last year that 10 percent of the electricity utilities sell comes from renewable sources by 2015.

"It's not one thing that got it moving, more a bunch of factors coming together," said Kelley. "Federal tax credits are important to wind developments nationwide, and the whole industry stalls when they're off."

Kelley said the threat of expiring tax credits keeps the big European turbine manufacturers from building factories here.

"That's the biggest crimp in wind power development over here, because it's expensive to haul these huge turbines across the Atlantic Ocean," she said.

We Energies announced in March that it accepted a bid by Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark to manufacture the 88 wind turbines for Blue Sky Green Field. Vestas is the world's largest turbine supplier but ranks behind GE Energy and Siemens in U.S. market share.

Electricity produced by windmills often costs two to three times as much as power derived from coal and natural gas, although the margins are shrinking due to newer, more cost-effective technology. However, Kelley said wind energy tax credits are still needed to help it compete with conventional fossil fuel energy.

"Wind power is teetering on the edge of being economically viable - you can't say that it always is, but you can't say that it never is either," she said. "The tax credit boosts it over the line. I don't know how long the credit will be necessary, but I foresee the cost of fossil fuels going up - natural gas supplies are pretty iffy already - so that should help (wind power's competitiveness)."