Wind Energy Demand Booming

[JohnWxy]

Cost Dropping Below Conventional Sources Marks Key Milestone in U.S. Shift to Renewable Energy

Facing a Texas-style stampede of consumers wanting to sign up for the current remaining supply of green electricity, Austin Energy has resorted to a GreenChoice raffle that will be held on March 23. All its customers-both residential and business-were invited to participate in the drawing.

Austin Energy buys wind-generated electricity under 10-year, fixed-price contracts and passes this stable price on to its GreenChoice subscribers. This fixed-price energy product is quite attractive to Austin's 388 corporate GreenChoice customers, including Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, IBM, Samsung, and 3M. Advanced Micro Devices expects to save $4 million over the next decade through this arrangement. School districts are also signing up. Round Rock School District, for example, projects 10-year savings to local taxpayers at $2 million.

{NOTE: With gas and coal you could never get a 10 year fixed price deal. This is possible because the wind doesn't increase prices every year!__JW}

A similar situation has unfolded in Colorado with Xcel Energy, which is the state's largest electricity supplier. Xcel's 33,000 Windsource customers, who until late 2005 were paying $6 more each month for their electricity, are now paying slightly less than those using conventional electricity, which comes mostly from natural gas and coal. To meet fast-growing demand, Xcel is currently soliciting proposals from wind developers for up to 775 megawatts of new wind power generation, enough to supply 232,000 Colorado homes with electricity.

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Interest in wind energy is rising as production costs fall. Although media attention focuses on communities with a not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) response to wind turbines, such as the large, off-shore wind farm planned off Cape Cod, ......
        ......in most of the country wind farms are enthusiastically welcomed. Here, it's the PIIMBY syndrome-put-it-in-my-backyard.

[robbibaba]

1. Just imagine if we could spend even half the money wasted in Iraq

on wind farms! I suspect we could have built enough capacity to power most of the homes in the US.
Instead we've got all that money rotting in Swiss bank accounts I reckon.

[JohnWxy]

2. Imagine 1% of what we spend on nuclear!

The 38% growth in Wind Power in 2005 would have been even greater except for the fact that the wind turbine manufacturers didn't have the capacity to keep up with demand.

[phantom power]

3. You don't have to imagine it: try calculating it, and show us.

[JohnWxy]

4. I dont' have numbers offf the top of my headd. CAn I get back to you?

[phantom power]

5. Sure, do it at your convenience.

[JohnWxy]

6. accounts of Halliburton and Cheney.