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

Tue Jul 10 17:32:46 PDT 2007

Windmills really ruin Kite Day. We need nuclear energy. 

  Donovan

Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:

  Paul et. al.

  Thanks for your response.

  If coal plants in the USA were paying for the future costs of their CO2 emissions, how would wind power stand in the marketplace now?  This "particular incarnation of government" I trust will be thrown out next year, replaced by a government more oriented towards promoting green technology 

  The article indicated that European companies are not just supplying parts and turbines for wind power to US wind farms, they are buying US wind farms!  US alternative energy owned by European companies.  I have nothing against this necessarily, but in the long run, every European owned wind farm means less market share for this energy market for US corporations.  And more expansion for the European technology and manufacturing base for wind power. 

  Given this trend, European wind farm technology companies can build factories in the USA to manufacture the parts and turbines, just as Toyota now has US factories to make and sell their cars in the USA.  This could eliminate lower shipping costs for US competing wind technology companies.  

  Toyota may soon become the world's largest auto maker, if it has not already, and this given the former gigantic lead held by the vaunted US auto industry.  Wind power will likely become a very big global business, and with US companies already apparently unable to supply the US current demand, I see no guarantee they necessarily will stop European expansion into our market, though I have not researched this subject in depth. 

  There is a potential boom economy in the Green Revolution.  The businesses that get a foothold first have an advantage that may leave out US corporations.  Our government's lack of recognition (or lack of will, or more likely, politicians bought by millions in lobbying dollars by energy corporations) of the critical need to aggressively develop and support the roll out of green technology in the marketplace, to provide a regulatory structure that offers stability for long term investment in alternative energy, has been coupled with a lack of regulation of CO2 emissions, which offers a better chance for non-CO2 emitting energy technologies to compete.  

  http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/business/worldbusiness/20cnd-toyota.html?ex=1292734800&en=52ce2c484a4bcbaf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 

  Ted Moffett

  On 7/9/07, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:     This is exactly what's been missing: demand.  Sure, some European companies will make a mint as the suppliers race to beef up their factories and whatnot.  In the end, some entrepreneur will arrive who will provide what's needed here in the US at the appropriate rate and will have the advantage of a smaller distance to ship components, and lower shipping costs. 

You'll never get this particular incarnation of government to mandate green power.  The nice thing is that wind power is becoming economical on it's own.  That should mean a great surge in wind power plants in the coming years.  Wind power may be more costly right now on a penny per kilowatt basis, but you're not going to run out of wind and be left high and dry like you will someday with coal, even if that's a couple of hundred years away.  Everybody complains about having a wind turbine in their back yard, but is it so much worse than a polluting coal plant?  As the technology progresses wind power plants will get quieter, safer, and more efficient.  I just read a few days ago about a proposal to make off-shore wind power generators that float in the ocean and are tethered to the sea floor.  If the equations are working out well enough to make that kind of thing feasible, then we are well on our way. 

Paul

Ted Moffett wrote:       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."
  ------

  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.
  -----------

  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 

  ---------
  Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

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