Nuance Omnipage Professional 16 Adobe Captivate Pricing Cheap Flash CS4 Download Corel Painter X MAC zonealarm antivirus 8 Buy Premiere CS4 Web Page Maker 3 Download Buy Windows 7 Download Buy Illustrator For MAC Windows Vista 64 Bit Cheap Buy Archicad 13 Download Autodesk Autocad 2009 windows 2003 enterprise licensing acdsee pro 2 Buy Production Premium CS4 Buy Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Buy Autoroute Download Frontpage Express where can i buy autodesk maya windows 2008 server Microsoft Office 2003 Full Download Buy Access 2003 Software Photoshop Elements 8 Price cubase 5 download Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate 5.1 Download Norton Ghost 12 Download Full Buy Windows Vista Ultimate License Corel Draw Sale Buy Microsoft Onenote purchase powerpoint only adobe dreamweaver cs4 Autocad Inventor Lt Price Download Quicken 2008 Ms Works Download Download Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 Buy Photoshop MAC Purchase Photoshop Elements Grahl Pdf Annotator 2 Buy Download Avid Media Composer 4 Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Download quarkxpress 8 Powerpoint Price windows datacenter price Deskshare Videoeditmagic 4.3 Price Efreesky Magic Utilities 2008 Download Cheap I.R.I.S. Readiris Pro 11 Microsoft Mappoint 2009 Cost Coreldraw For MAC Download Avanquest Powerdesk Pro 7 Price Download Sony Acid Pro 6 Buy Autosketch 10 3Ds Max Pricing Presenter 7 Adobe buy cubase sx3 Buy Ms Sql Server 2008 Download Microsoft Word 2007 Buy Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Purchase Windows Xp License Buy Windows Vista Business Edition Buy Norton 360 3.0 Buy Adobe Flash For MAC Windows 7 Cost Oem windows 7 Acdsee Photo Editor 2008 License Code Download Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 Cheap Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate Download Guitar Pro 5 MAC Download Conceptdraw Office Pro Download Autocad Electrical 2008 Buy Acronis True Image Home 2010 Buy After Effects CS4 Download Autodesk 3Ds Max 2009 Cheap Quarkxpress 8 MAC Buy Visual Studio 2005 Pro Buy Windows Vista Home Premium Buy Guitar Pro 6 Buy Windows 7 Cheap Buy Microsoft Office 2003 Product Key Autocad Inventor Professional Suite 2010 Download Windows Vista Home Basic Iso Imsi Turbofloorplan Home And Landscape Pro 12 Download Corel Photoimpact 12 Buy Autodesk Inventor Should I Buy Final Cut Express Buy Microsoft Project 2003 windows vista business Adobe CS4 Fireworks Download Buy Windows Xp Sp3 Professional parallels desktop 4.0 download Mudbox Pricing Buy Symantec Ghost Zonealarm Internet Security Suite 8 Price Cheap Norton Partitionmagic 8.0 Cheap Illustrator CS3 Download Adobe After Effects CS3 Roxio Copy & Convert 3 windows xp sp2 Cheap Photoshop Elements 8 Microsoft Excel 2003 Product Key Microsoft Visio 2003 Professional Download windows 2003 datacenter pricing cheap dragon naturally speaking Buy Microsoft Office Canada Money 2007 Download pinnacle studio 12 ultimate Buy Mcafee Total Protection 2010 Propellerhead Reason 4 MAC Buy Adobe CS4 Web Premium Norton 360 Buy Download Buy Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Quarkxpress 7.3 MAC Download Uniblue Registrybooster 2009 Download Buy Sonar 8 wavelab download full version Adobe CS4 Design Premium MAC Full Version Download Vmware Workstation 6.5 Cheap Quickbooks Premier mathworks matlab maya pricing 2009 Buy Adobe Indesign CS2 microsoft office 2010 Download Encarta 2009 Adobe Contribute CS4 Download Buy Autocad Architecture 2010 Download Sony Sound Forge 9 adobe soundbooth cs4 Buy Windows Xp Cheap Adobe Photoshop CS3 Sale Vmware Workstation 6.5 Ace 3Ds Max Design 2010 Adobe CS3 For MAC Norton 360 Sale CS3 Production Premium MAC quickbooks enterprise 9.0 price windows xp Symantec Winfax Pro 10.4 Buy Purchase Vista Product Key Cheap Photoshop CS3 Sony Vegas Pro 8 Buy Microsoft Excel 2007 Buy access pricing Buy Windows Vista Home Premium Product Key Download Cyberlink Powerdvd 8 Ultra Cheap Nuance Pdf Converter Professional 5 windows 2008 enterprise buy Autocad Electrical 2010 Pricing Adobe Indesign CS4 Buy Native Instruments Traktor Dj Studio 3.4 microsoft office enterprise 2007 Buy Adobe Illustrator CS4 Xilisoft Dvd Ripper Ultimate 5 Price Buy CS3 Design Premium Illustrator CS2 Download solidworks premium price Download Corel Dvd Moviefactory 6 Dvd Ripper Platinum 5 Download Cyberlink Power Dvd 8 Download buy cubase le 4 Buy Microsoft Office Project 2007 Dreamweaver MAC CS4 Burnaware Professional nuance paperport professional 11.1 Smith Micro Poser 7 Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Purchase Windows Vista Download where to buy dragon naturally speaking Autocad Mechanical Best Price Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Buy Autodesk Architecture Suite Cheap Windows 7 Ultimate Streets And Trips 2009 Download Buy CS4 Master Collection Pixologic Zbrush 3 MAC Price Download Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Cyberlink Powerdirector Prices Buy Outlook 2007 Cheap Microsoft Office 2003 Best Price Download Corel Video Studio Pro X2 Download Fl Studio 8 Xxl Cheap Adobe Auditio Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 Adobe Acrobat Cheap Cheap Nero 8 Ultra Edition Cheap Nero 9 Buy Adobe Premiere Pro MAC Microsoft Word 2003 Product Key Abbyy Finereader 5.0 Sprint pctools spyware doctor 5.5 After Effects CS3 For MAC Buy Visio 2007 Professional Purchase Windows 7 Business Master Collection CS3 Download Buy Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit Buy 3D Home Architect solidworks software price Quicken Rental Property Manager 2010 Download Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Quicken Home & Business 2010 Download propellerhead reason 4 corel draw x4 Download Wordperfect Download Nero 9 powerpoint 2007 Purchase Windows 7 License Key Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Download Buy Microsoft Office For MAC Online Mappoint 2009 European Steinberg Nuendo 3.2 Buy windows 2008 standard price Download Adobe Indesign For MAC Windows Vista Home Basic 32 Bit Oem where can i buy dragon naturally speaking Autocad 2010 Buy windows datacenter license cost Download Microsoft Expression Web 3 Buy Microsoft Money 2009

Posts Tagged ‘Gamesa’


Rob Gramlich, Policy Director for AWEA

by The Green A-Team

The scale at which the wind power industry seeks to dominate the energy market is gargantuan.  Turbines twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, offshore wind farms slated for imminent construction along both US shorelines, manufacturing plants to replace defunct auto factories, and the potential for a massive surge of new jobs puts this renewable energy onslaught head and shoulders above anything else in the category.

Wind is labor and capital intensive and the Federal Government has taken a keen interest in pushing policy through that fast-tracks construction on big complexes.  A warm fuzzy from the Fed gives venture capitalists the security necessary to finance this uncharted American windmill wonderland.  The result, however, is new facilities popping up like weeds that remain frozen due to transmission issues.  The old grid simply cannot handle the new load.

gramlichRob Gramlich is Policy Director for the American Wind Energy Association and is primarily responsible for regulatory policy, AWEA’s strategic plan, electric industry issues, and transmission issues.  Prior to his work with AWEA, Rob has held positions in electric industry analysis and transmission policy for 15 years.

GA: One commonly known example of a public regulatory policy would be something like a speed limit, an instance where good and bad behavior can be clearly defined.  Can you give an example of regulatory policy in the realm of renewable energy?

RG: Transmission policy is a big part of it, basically the rules of the road for who gets on the transmission grid and I think it’s pretty widely understood and recognized now that the transmission grid is constrained and we’re the newcomers.  The wind generators are far and away the largest set of generators trying to get on the grid so these rules make a big difference for us.  Another general area, for example, in state regulatory policy the state regulators have a responsibility for reducing the risks for electric consumers and wind energy is a stably priced generation option for many consumers and so the regulatory policies that take that into account are very important as opposed to fossil fuel generators where the prices may be known today but nobody knows what the prices are gonna be next year, 10 years, 20, 30 years out.  How you balance stably priced generation versus risky generation is a regulatory policy that every state has to grapple with.

GA: Some of the heavyweight turbine manufacturers out like GE, Vestas, and Siemens are more in demand than ever.  How do they stack up this year in turbine sales and market share?

geRG: GE, the American wind turbine manufacturer, is still pretty far in the lead for wind energy deployment and then behind them there’s a large group of companies.  Vestas is a clear second place, they’re I think the largest global supplier but they’re second in the US. And then there’s a long list that includes Siemens, Mitsubishi, Gamesa, Suzlon, Clipper, Atheona, and a couple others.  So there’s an increasingly competitive business for the very attractive American market.  I think all of these companies, all of which started and grew in Europe are looking at the US as the best global wind energy market globally. Right now it has been and recently an aggregate, we took over the lead from Germany for the most megawatts installed. So there are a lot of companies looking to come here and our building manufacturing facilities here, there are 70 new manufacturing facilities over the last two years.  Some of the companies like GE are American-owned, GE and Clipper for example, but a lot of them are really starting, even if they’re European or Japanese, they’re bringing their manufacturing to this country.  There’s over 8,000 parts that go into a turbine and over 50% are now coming from domestic content.

GA: In light of those manufacturing facilities, are there any areas of the country that we can expect to see some of these places cropping up?

factoryRG: The states of course are very interested in this and so a lot of governors are actively recruiting these companies to come and bring manufacturing jobs to their states.  There’s a couple general dynamics that are driving where the facilities are winding up: One is that there’s a very close overlap between the auto industry supply chain and the wind turbine supply chain.  A lot of the bolts and gears and bearings, etc. that are useful in auto manufacturing are turning out to be very useful in wind turbine manufacturing.  Ohio, Michigan, the states like that, Missouri, where they produce a lot of automobiles are getting a lot of supply chain development.  And the second general dynamic is these are big facilities and expensive to transport so it makes sense to put the facilities close to where the market is.  There’s a big market in Texas which is still the lead in terms of wind energy development and then right up through that part of the country, through the middle of the country through the Dakotas there’s a lot of wind energy development.  Oklahoma, Kansas, the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, there’s a lot of development there and then a few spots on the coasts, New York and California are doing well…Illinois.  So a lot of these states that are developing a lot of wind energy are also getting the manufacturing facilities.

GA: I was just wondering, is an offshore wind farm better than say a land-based production facility?

offshoreRG: There are definitely pros and cons to offshore verses onshore and of course almost all of what we have globally is onshore in Europe and the US.  Europe has started going offshore and we’re starting to go that way here in the US.  Actually, two key Federal agencies just sort of opened the door for the permits for offshore development, that’s the Department of Interior, Secretary Salazar, and the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with new chairman, Jon Wellinghoff.  They just reached a critical agreement to allow for the permitting of these facilities.  The pros and cons are as follows: On the offshore, first of all the winds are strong and steady so the wind is almost always blowing and so that’s very helpful; you get a lot of kilowatt hours from a given facility.  Number two, the electricity demand is very high so you think of the Northeast from Washington DC up through Boston, that entire Eastern Seaboard has a very high electricity demand and therefore very high electricity prices.  It’s hard to get too much power from the Midwest given transmission limitations so offshore has the opportunity of selling directly into that high-priced market.  Those are the key advantages.  The key disadvantage is really the cost.  It is quite a bit more costly to erect a stable, large facility offshore and anchor it to the sea floor.  Certainly you can do it and we’re learning a lot from Europe and it’s been very successful and I’m sure that over the next 10 years we will see a lot of development, especially along the Eastern Seaboard but it is a little bit more costly.  In places like the Midwest where there is the Great Lakes opportunity but there’s also a lot of available land there.  There’s gonna be a balancing where the utilities will weigh those pros and cons and choose onshore versus offshore.

GA: Jumping back a little to the transmission issues.  I mean, we all want this, all the consumers want this and power companies have a stance, “Well, we’re energy companies and we don’t care where the energy’s coming from,” they just distribute it and that’s it.  Can you just enlighten us a little bit about specifically the problems with the current grid?  Why can’t consumers catch a break?

protestRG: Well, there’s a number of problems and part if it is that it’s complicated so nobody questions the authority of the utilities in this area and I really think it’s time they should.  We’ve been hearing for so long that our grid is antiquated and hasn’t been developed over the last few decades.  And if you look closely, one reason is the utilities, look where they make their money – they make their money on the generation.  If you build transmission to access low-cost renewable resources say in the Midwest, the utilities lose money on their generation, they’re getting competition from these low-cost resources.  So we do need to challenge them and look at what’s better for consumers here.  So that’s one issue, another issue is who pays?  Everybody benefits from a reliable grid.  We saw a few years ago that a tree in Ohio can cause a blackout sending people in to the subway in New York City and all across the Northeast from a blackout.  It’s an interconnected, interstate grid and we regulate it at a state level and I think we need to look at it much more in terms of a national interest and energy security benefits and have a robust regional grid, have all the beneficiaries across the whole region pay a share of the investment to upgrade the grid.

Photos courtesy of Rockenbauer K., World-Generation, Worker101, tuey, PEBondestad, and Gary Austin/Radical Images.