Chicago Charter Chapter
www.EnergyEngineers.org
Professional Development Program

Wind

As of the end of 2003, 6.37 GW of wind was installed nationwide. States with the greatest wind resources include North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska. Minnesota and Iowa are ranked 9^th and 10^th respectively. Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri are ranked 14^th, 16^th, 18^th, and 20^th respectively. The cost to generate power from wind has fallen ten-fold since 1980 from 40 cents/kW-hr to between 4 and 6 cents/kW-hr. The falling cost of wind power means that wind is now nearing competitiveness with central station power (2.5 to 3.5 cents/kW-hr) in some areas of the country. Wind turbines have evolved from small, high speed units (75 kW) in the early 80’s to larger and larger slow speed (10 to 20 revolutions per minute) designs. In 2000, the average size unit was 750 kW and today the typical unit size is 1.5 MW. The forecast is for wind turbines to continue to increase in size based on improved economies leading to lower generating costs. As an example, GE Wind Energy has installed a 3.6 MW wind turbine demonstration unit in Spain. Wind power is directly related to the swept area of the turbine blades and the cube of the wind velocity. Therefore, the goal has been to design systems with larger turbine diameters located on taller towers where the wind velocity is the greatest. Hub heights today can be in the 200 to 250 feet range. General Electric (formerly Enron Wind) is the only domestic producer of turbines. Vestas recently purchased another Danish Company, NEG Micon, to become the largest wind turbine company in the world and a significant player in the U.S. The current focus of U.S. DOE’s wind program is on low wind speed turbine development and small wind turbine development. The development of low wind speed turbines will require the design and production of longer, thinner, stronger blades and use of improved composite materials. It will also require the use of taller towers through innovative “telescoping” designs and hybrid concrete/steel towers. The U.S. DOE funds the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) National Wind Technology Center located in Colorado. Wind Powering America is the outreach segment of the U.S. DOE’s Wind program. Goals include providing 5% of the nation’s electricity by 2020 as well as rural economic development. Improved wind mapping has been a key ingredient to identifying areas for utility-scale wind developers to begin their prospecting work. The mapping software is far more precise today than it was 10 years ago, thus allowing wind developers to identify the top wind resource areas. Wind farm developers such as FPL will then erect anemometers to monitor wind resources for a year before making a decision to invest millions of dollars in a wind farm at a specific site. The installation cost of utility-scale wind turbines is in the $800,000 to $1,000,000 per MW range. States with the greatest installed wind capacity in rank order are California, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington and Oregon. While North Dakota is known as the Saudia Arabia of wind, they do not have a means of transmitting the power to more populated markets.

Biomass:

Biomass is a very diverse area covering wood/wood waste, landfill gas, biogas, ethanol fuel from starch and , biodiesel fuel from soybeans, products from agricultural crops, etc. Ethanol production is the perfect example of how a biomass renewable fuel source can provide economic, environmental and energy security benefits. 80% of all ethanol produced is from the “corn belt’ region. Seven percent of all corn grown is used to produce ethanol, but ethanol only represents 1% of transportation fuel (mainly as a gasoline oxygenate), hence there is tremendous opportunity for ethanol. Ethanol production is a value-added process which takes a commodity (corn) and produces multiple, higher value products (ethanol and distillers dried grain, a feedstock for animals). Numerous economic studies have been done to prove the positive economic impact of an ethanol production facility on the local economy. The results include increased capital spending, the purchase of goods and services, the creation of new jobs, increased household income, increased tax revenue and a boost to local corn pricing. Another popular biomass resource is the harnessing of methane from manure through anaerobic digestion. Besides the value of the biogas, other benefits include odor control, reduced disposal costs, ammonia (fertilizer) as a byproduct and a reduction in methane released into the atmosphere. Operations with more than 450 dairy cows are able to benefit from economies of scale with installation costs around $400 to $500 per cow. The focus of U.S. DOE’s Biomass program includes biorefineries, ethanol production from agricultural residues (as opposed to corn starch), and biomass gasification. The biomass outreach effort in the Midwest, Regional Biomass Energy Program, is managed by the Council of Great Lakes Governors. The biorefinery concept involves the input of biomass feedstocks (dedicated crops, agricultural residues, production byproducts) to a biorefinery which converts the biomass through a variety of processes (fermentation, gasification, combustion, co-firing) to produce multiple, high value-added products such as fuels, electricity, heat, food stuffs and chemicals. There are more than 600 products listed by the National Corn Growers Association produced from corn. DuPont is in the early stages of developing corn plastics (funded by U.S. DOE) from stocks, stems, and leaves. Corn plastics are currently being produced by Cargill Dow, a joint venture between Dow Chemical and Cargill. These plastics are being used to produce plastic plates, foam, dinnerware, and clothing.

Solar:

Solar energy often gets a bad rap because of the high capital cost ($/kW) and the high cost to produce electricity. However, like wind, the cost to generate power from the sun has decreased exponentially from $1.00/kW-hr in 1980 to between 20 and 30 cents/kW-hr today. The long term goal of U.S. DOE’s Solar program is to generate power for 6 cents/kW-hr by 2020 and reduce the cost to generate hot water from 8 cents/kW-hr to 4 cents/kW-hr by 2005. The Solar program focuses on fundamental research, materials and devices, technology development and solar water and space heating. Thin film or amorphous photovoltaic products use less semiconductor material and can be produced at a lower cost than the more well known crystalline Silicone products. Today, crystalline silicone products make up 90+% of the market for photovoltaics and have a higher sunlight to electricity conversion efficiency(10 to 12% vs. 8 to 10% for thin films). Photovoltaics are cost effectively utilized today in off-grid applications. A few examples of these applications include portable highway signs, emergency traffic signals and off-grid lighting. One novel thin film product is manufactured in Michigan by United Solar Ovonic under the brand name, Unisolar. It is a roofing shingle which doubles as a means of producing electricity. Many of BP’s gasoline stations have canopies which are coated in a thin film photovoltaic which produces 40 to 50 kW. The glass spandrels at 4 Times Square in New York City are coated with a thin film semiconductor material and produce electricity. The Million Solar Roof Initiative is the outreach part of the Solar program. Midwest partners include the State of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, City of Chicago, Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (Michigan), Foundation for Environmental Education (Ohio). The Midwest partners have pledged the installation of 25,000 systems and have surpassed 1 MW of installed capacity this year.

Renewable Energy Drivers:

Drivers for renewable energy include the declining cost to generate electricity from renewables, state and local economic development, an expanding number of green power offerings by utilities, increased energy security based on less reliance of imported fuels and the dispersed nature of renewable energy installations, fuel price uncertainty of traditional fossil fuels, federal and state policies and continued advances in research and development. There are many federal and state policies which have contributed to growing the renewable energy market. Included in the mix are

n Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are now offered by 12 states. This a state requirement for utilities to include a percentage of renewable power in their mix of electricity sold to customers.

n System Benefit Charges represent a surcharge on consumer energy purchases to support an energy program within a state. The funds are used to support low cost financing, technology demonstrations, etc.

n Production Tax Credits (PTCs) – the single most visible PTC is the federal Wind PTC. In this case, a production tax credit of 1.8 cents/kW-hr was offered to wind farm developers. The 1.8 cents/kW-hr applies to every kW-hr produced over a ten year period. The wind PTC expired at the end of 2003 and is included in the Energy Bill which has not been passed.

n Property tax exemptions

n Sales Tax Exemptions

n Equipment Rebates

The U.S. DOE has been a consistent funding source of renewable energy research and development over more than two decades and several Administrations. Such long term investments have been needed to achieve long term results. All of these efforts including those of private industry, state and local government and academia are starting to pay dividends which benefit the economy, environment and energy security of our country.