January 23, 2008
Martin Rosenberg
Editor-in-Chief
EnergyBiz Magazine
The Front page of the Wall Street Journal recently featured the story of William Kamkwamba of Malawi. Kamkwamba, 20, is intent on providing electricity to his country "one windmill at a time."
He has started with three, putting them together with plastic pipes and bicycle parts - and anything he can get his hands on. One provides electricity for a television, radio and ten small light bulbs in his family home. Local villagers use it to charge cell phones. He has become a local hero - with reason.
Jeannot Boussougouth, energy analyst with Frost & Sullivan, is an expert on the energy needs of Africa. The continent's electricity supply industry is expected to require investment of $563 billion over the next two decades.
Kamkwamba is now receiving a fine education in Malawi's capital, and perhaps he will one day become part of a massive campaign to attack endemic African suffering and poverty with new power technologies. Wind power could well play an important role, since it is becoming increasingly easy to put small wind turbines close to where electricity is needed.
In this country, there is some stubborn skepticism about the potential of wind power. You can get a good debate going even in the Aurora, Colo. offices of Energy Central. Wind is intermittent and, at least in America, seems to blow more abundantly in the wrong places far from population centers.
While the arguing continues, facts on the ground are fast accumulating. Denmark has declared it intends to get half of its electricity from wind power in the near future. Energy Central recently traveled to the country to learn more about whether such goals are achievable and exportable.
Denmark is not America. But it is a national lab where new wind turbines can be tested and adaptation of the power grid to widespread use of the devices can be perfected.
Denmark has spent many decades investing in development of wind technology. That in turn has sparked the growth of companies like Vestas and LM Glasfiber, which are ready and intent on conquering fast-developing world markets for wind. GE is a major player, but the American manufacturer faces robust competition from many foreign firms, including several well-entrenched Danish players.
Meanwhile, the United States is the world's largest market for wind turbines and ready for explosive growth. Consider Texas: One Danish scientist says that an area 1.5 times the size of the Lone Star state could generate sufficient wind power to power the world. Of course, putting adequate globe-straddling transmission in place could be a challenge.
Legendary Texas oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens also knows wind's potential. The Burns & McDonnell engineering firm is helping him develop a $10 billion, 4,000-megawatt wind farm. TXU and Shell have teamed up on a $4.8 billion, 3,000-megawatt wind project, also in the Texas Panhandle. They would be the world's biggest wind farms.
As Texans and Danes race ahead, the rest of the world watches and wonders about the possibilities.
Back in Malawi, Kamkwamba's mother now knows something about wind power. "Our lives are much happier now," she said.
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