Page 309 - Alternative Energy Systems in Building Design

WIND TURBINE ENERGY ECONOMICS 283

security by making the electric transmission system more reliable and by reducing
shortages and the price volatility of natural gas. Transmission will be a key issue for the
wind industry’s future development over the next two decades.

WORLD WIND POWER PRODUCTION CAPACITY
As of the end of 2003, there were over 39,000 MW of generating capacity operating
worldwide, producing some 90 billion kWh each year—as much as 9 million average
American households use or as much as a dozen large nuclear power plants could
generate. However, this is but a tiny fraction of the potential of wind.

NEW TRANSMISSION LINES
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the world’s winds theoretically
could supply the equivalent of 5800 quadrillion Btus (quads) of energy each year, more
than 15 times the current world energy demand. (A quad is equal to about 172 million
barrels of oil or 45 million tons of coal.) The potential of wind to improve the quality
of life in the world’s developing countries, where more than 2 billion people live with
no electricity or prospect of utility service in the foreseeable future, is vast.
“Wind Force 12,” a study performed by Denmark’s BTM Consult for the European
Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace, found that by the year 2020, wind could
provide 12 percent of the world’s electricity supplies, meeting the needs of 600 million
average European households.
Denmark is revisiting and currently rewriting its wind policy. The degree to which
this means that the United States should reexamine its own policy revolves around the
degree to which our situation is similar to Denmark’s. In fact, a brief analysis of some
major differences suggests that there are strong reasons for continuing to support wind
development in the United States rather than back away from it.
Wind supplies 20 percent of national electricity demand in Denmark. Although the
United States has nearly twice as much installed wind equipment as Denmark, wind
generates only 0.4 percent of our electricity, far below the 10 percent threshold iden-
tified by most analysts as the point at which wind’s variability becomes a significant issue
for utility system operators.
Denmark is also so small geographically (half the size of Indiana) that high winds
can cause many of its wind plants to shut down almost at once. In the United States,
wind plants are much more geographically dispersed (from California to New York to
Texas) and do not all experience the same wind conditions at the same time.
Rapid development of wind and new small-scale power plants within the past
5 years has brought Denmark to the point where power produced by so-called nondis-
patchable resources in the country’s west exceeds 100 percent of demand in the
region. At many times, this excess generation leaves the country scrambling to increase
electricity export capabilities to handle the surplus. This situation is essentially
unimaginable in the United States.
Denmark’s approach encourages community involvement but places particular stress
on low-capacity distribution networks (at the “end of the line” on transmission systems).