By the Numbers: In the quest for renewable energy, one answer is blowin' in the wind

4,000 megawatts

Amount of new wind-power generating capacity installed in the United Stated in the first six months of 2009, according to the American Wind Energy Association. That's enough to power the equivalent of up to 1.2 million homes, and an increase of 38 percent over the first two quarters of 2008.

The AWEA reports that wind power offsets an average of 54 million tons of greenhouse-gas emissions annually. What's more, this developing industry might spin off new jobs: The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that generating renewable energy could also create nearly 300,000 new jobs.

Essential information: Check out the October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands in September, for reports on pellet stoves and solar water heaters, expert advice on saving energy at home, and ratings of compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

Comments

[Uncle B]

As long as we continue to build McMansions, we will have to go to nuclear fission fires through-out the country, and fight world wide in bloody wars for our share of its oil! If we can learn to recognize the cyclic nature of our economy, and build "Eco-Ark" survivalist oriented homes of reasonable size and luxury, and include accommodations for Solar LED lighting,dry toilet composting systems, super-insulation, passive solar heating/cooling, Spend time developing geo thermal heat storage, and waste water involvement where water is a concern, look at composting and even bio-gassing of neighborhood sewage into heating and cooking gasses and top-soil improving fertilizers, Build structures to hold aquaculture, gardens, green housing and anything but green lawns out front, we will be better prepared for the next "Great Repuglican Recession", and it will come, "cyclic", remember? We will in the mean time use less power than before, and have decent Einstein refrigeration for example! SEE: http://gtalumni.org/Publications/magazine/sum98/einsrefr.html
and use more microwave cooking, and bio-gas bar-b-que-ing, and less high ampere electric power! Before long, we will have modified our lifestyle through modern technologies to need less and less power! A good thing, and a few Wind Turbines will serve more people! A new concept for Americans, More for less! Bigger is not better when you can't afford it and the system can't provide it any longer, and the environment and the world resources are taxed to a max by the current "American Dream" as it is! We must change, and for the better. Wind is one way, Solar another Bio-diesel with algae another, currently being suppressed by you know who, but still as respectable as ever! Geo-thermal needs expansion, and a new Power Corridor is nonsense! Industry and people will migrate to the source of cheap energy and water riches, they always have! That's why we are here, and not in Europe! More localized power sources are needed, both solar and wind, or even tidal, hydro, wave or geo-thermal! to support more local enterprise, across the nation, in pods, interconnected by very cheap socialized, government owned, break-even rail services for all, where there is Wind, Sun and water, new cities will grow, and the "Detroits" of the past must fade into history and antiquated rubble as they were designed to do! This is a natural evolution! Long live WindPower and the new cities it fathers!

[J G]

Sounds good but....not so much. The 4000 MW is the "nameplate" rating of the turbines. Since the wind doesn't blow all the time and when it blows really hard the turbines have to shut down to protect themselves. Also, the output varies with the cube of the wind speed. If the wind drops to 1/2 of the maximum rated speed the power output drops to 1/8 of the nameplate rating. Designers use 1/4 of the nameplate rating as the usable capacity of a wind farm; I.E. 1000 MW and 300,000 homes in this case. This is the capacity of a large coal fired plant. China is building 1 to 2 of these a week. Wind will never be more than a niche power market. It's too variable to be baseline power; it's located too far from the markets that need it and the cost of the transmission lines needed to supply those markets are never considered in the cost calculation.

[mark raulston]

A very, very important note to all those who are commendable interested in installing solar and wind renewable energy systems: make your homes as energy efficient as possible BEFORE pursuing renewables. The energy, cost, and environmental payback is far better (on the order of 5-10 times better), especially if you do (hopefully) go on to install renewables.

If you do, you'll save a huge amount by being able to install a much smaller system. For instance, a PV system to offset a majority of a medium sized home's electricity consumption can range anywhere from $15,000 to $40,000+ depending on size of home and how much electricity the home uses. With tax incentives and rebates, that can often be cut by 30-60%, which helps a great deal. But making your home more efficient can enable you to cut the size by 10-50%, resulting in huge savings.

Good luck and thanks for your interest in energy, cost, and environmental savings!

Mark Raulston

ps-one of the best resources for those interested in renewables, especially in the nuts and bolts and details of how to install systems, their costs, and the owners' stories, is at www.homepower.com.