[Vision2020] Wall Street Journal: US Fails To Supply Windmill Technology

[Ted Moffett]

All-

In today's Wall Street Journal, front page, an article claims US demand for
wind energy technology is not being met domestically, resulting in a slow
down of implementation, offering an economic opportunity for European
corporations to supply the technology, and own the US wind farms, that can
answer the US demand:

>From the article:

"In recent years, improved technology has made it possible to build bigger,
more efficient windmills. That, combined with surging political support for
renewable energy, has driven up demand. Now, makers can't keep up -- mostly
because they can't get the parts they need fast enough.

"Numerous wind-power projects from Virginia to California have been stalled
due to the shortage. But for some renewable-energy companies in Europe,
where wind power has been in vogue for almost two decades, the logjam is a
lucrative opportunity. These firms anticipated a shortage of turbines and
locked in orders with makers. They're now using their considerable buying
power to gobble up smaller utilities in the U.S. that couldn't otherwise get
their hands on turbines."

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So in brief, in the richest nation on Earth, the shining example of the
miracle of the marketplace to ensure the latest and best technology to
benefit the public will receive investment and implementation, "socialist"
Europe is ahead of the US in supplying wind power technology, with European
companies making long term investments in owning US wind energy, that could
instead be made by US domestic businesses. Why?

>From the article:

"In the U.S., there's another potential threat to growth -- erratic
government support for wind power. Even though wind power has made technical
strides recently, energy firms still rely on subsidies because it costs more
to generate electricity with wind turbines than other power plants such as
coal, natural gas or nuclear. Wind power requires intensive capital
investment in a short period of time, and has added costs like upgrading
transmission systems. According to the International Energy Agency in Paris,
wind farms cost between four and 14 cents to generate a kilowatt hour;
coal-fired plants cost between 2.5 and six cents."

"Some 20 states now have price supports for wind-generated electricity, and
there is a federal tax credit to encourage new wind-park development. But
there is no federal requirement for utilities to buy green energy, as there
is in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany. And the tax credit, started
in 1992, depends on a biannual congressional approval. An effort to
introduce federal support for wind power was shot down this month in the
Senate."

"The lack of a stable, long-term regulatory environment has created a
wind-power roller coaster. Developers were never sure their projects would
make economic sense a few years down the road if the regulatory climate
changed. Foreign turbine manufacturers were reluctant to build factories in
the U.S. Vestas scrapped plans for a U.S. factory three times because of
uncertainty. This spring, it announced it would build a turbine plant in
Windsor, Colo.

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This link appears to bypass the "subscription required" option for the whole
article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118394439319360560.html

If this fails, here is the subscription required link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118394439319360560.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one

Here is discussion of the article from "public radio:"

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/07/09/AM200707094.html

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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