wind power

A detailed cost comparison of nuclear versus wind energy shows that nuclear energy will soon no longer be cost competitive with wind energy if present trends continue.

While nuclear energy is regarded as one of the cheapest sources of power available -- given the enormous amount of energy released from the splitting of atoms -- and wind is considered relatively expensive, analysis of a number of current projects using publicly available data indicates that wind energy has closed the gap in price per kilowatt.

Furthermore, price trends are much less favorable for nuclear projects -- cost estimates of new nuclear plants have doubled and tripled in some instances in just one or two years. Prices for wind power are also rising, but at more pedestrian rates closer to 10% annually.

This is something well worth considering before welcoming a nuclear renaissance -- as ratepayers may be saddled with unaffordable bills and the nation may also end up with a large, unanticipated bill for the hidden cost of nuclear waste disposal.

I've reached this conclusion by crunching the numbers on one recent contract to build a nuclear plant in South Carolina, two proposed nuclear plants in Florida and new vendor estimates of the cost of nuclear construction going forward. I compared that data with a wind farm that would produce a comparable output of energy, relying on cost data from a Department of Energy report published this year.

The prevailing mantra on America's energy future is "let's keep all options on the table." I put two of them on the table and here's what I found. Put your wonk hat on as I take you through the numbers.

In my last post, I covered the good news and the great news about US windpower: how growth is surpassing the most optimistic projections, and, based on an extrapolation of Department of Energy figures, wind power is poised to replace 37% of the electricity from our coal plants.

But alongside the good news and the great news, there's

THE BAD NEWS

It does our heart good to see an oil tycoon spend his money to tell the truth. There’s too little of that today. But T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil billionaire, is investing $58 million on a television ad campaign (Youtube) to explain that we can’t drill our way out of the current energy crisis.

Instead, he says, we should build wind farms from Texas to North Dakota, and install the transmission lines necessary to move the power to where we need it. That will liberate natural gas from its most common current use – generating electricity – and allow us to use it to power our vehicles, Pickens says.

He’s right about the wind part and wrong about the best use of natural gas.

Most folks by now know about China’s wind power boom. At the end of 2007, the nation's installed base of wind energy was just over six gigawatts. By the end of 2008, it will climb to ten gigawatts. By 2010, experts predict 20 gigawatts. And by 2020, 100 gigawatts.

That’s more than all of the world's wind power today, which stands at 94 gigawatts.

But here’s the thing that’s really striking: China is gaining speed as the global leader in the manufacture of wind power parts, too. Indeed, its equipment may feed the whole planet's appetite for wind energy one day.

Think toys, but healthier.

As rumored, New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is pouring $1.5 billion into an offshore wind farm in Germany that will power half a million homes and avert 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions.

It’s being billed as one of the largest wind projects in the North Sea and should spawn a heap of German "green collar" jobs. Says the Blackstone Group:

It is planned to source all technical expertise and substantially all materials from within Germany.

Why would Blackstone choose Germany for its mammoth project? In the company's own words:

Eighty-year-old Dallas oil man T. Boone Pickens has just delivered an ambitious, Texas-sized energy plan to the whole of America, in which he claims that wind could supply 20 percent of the nation's power within 10 years.

The proposal went live today at www.pickensplan.com.

You may recall that the nation's own Department of Energy proposed that same target -- in double the time.

So what's the Pickens secret? First, generate enough wind power so that America no longer needs natural gas for its power needs. And then use that natural gas to power a full one-third of the US vehicle fleet.

Sierra Club’s Carl Pope has discussed the plan with T. Boone himself. Pope's take?

To put it plainly, T. Boone Pickens is out to save America.

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Finally some news of an offshore wind power deal in the US that doesn’t end in a project-stomping NIMBY victory.

Bluewater Wind has secured a buyer, Delmarva Power, for part of the electricity that it's planning to generate from its long-awaited offshore wind park, 13 miles off the coast of Delaware.

The two companies signed a 25-year contract for the sale of up to 200 megawatts this week. (The $1.6 billion project could eventually produce as much as 600 megawatts -- enough electricity to power 110,000 Delaware households.)

The turbines are expected to go online in 2012. When that happens, Delaware, the "First State," will become home to America's very first offshore wind farm.

About time.

The US Senate Republicans are trashing hopes for a booming home-grown solar energy sector. Oh, but that’s not news.

And neither is the fact that nearly all Americans – across all parties – believe that a solar energy industry is vital to the United States. Ninety-eight percent of Independents. Ninety-seven percent of Democrats. And ninety-one percent of Republicans.

The survey findings were released by the SCHOTT Solar BarometerTM yesterday and were conducted by the independent polling firm, Kelton Research.

When asked which energy source they would support if they were president, 41 percent picked solar. Three percent chose coal. Together, solar and wind together were favored nearly 20 times more than America’s dirtiest fuel.

Best nugget of all?

Dallas-based BroadStar Wind Systems is about to turn a giant corner --- into $1 per watt wind, into urban windmills and into the global energy big league.

If, that is, its new wind turbine -- the "flexi-location" AeroCam -- can live up to all of it of its enormous claims.

No small task.

The company busted out of stealth at WINDPOWER 2008 with the announcement of its long-awaited AeroCam -- and this shocker of a double promise:

A massive energy storage system that can guarantee uninterrupted power delivery.

Meaning: clean electricity all the time, even when the winds aren’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

And now there’s a battery unit being produced in Japan that claims it can provide just that.

They’re called sodium-sulfur systems. And they offer a way to store power from the sun and wind, and then dispatch it to the grid when demand is greatest.