What many regarded as unthinkable just a few years ago, is happening today: U.S. utilities are almost effortlessly handling ever increasing levels of intermittent wind power, writes Washington DC-based energy author Dennis Wamsted. What is more, Democratic and Republican politicians are lauding the unprecedented way in which wind and solar resources are transforming low-income rural areas. Wind power is here to stay, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, concludes Wamsted. Courtesy Wamsted on Energy.
The Southwest Power Pool said last week that it met 52.1 percent of the electricity demand in the sprawling transmission organization’s service territory with wind power during a portion of the overnight period on Feb. 13, marking the first time SPP had topped the 50 percent mark. What’s even bigger news is that hardly anyone noticed—these records have been falling consistently for the past several years with the steady increase in wind farm construction across the Midwest; SPP set its prior record of 49.2 percent just last year.
The real news, however, wasn’t the percentage itself, but what Bruce Rew, SPP’s vice president of operations, said later in the same press release concerning the changes that have occurred in the past 10 years. Then, the SPP release noted, a goal of 25 percent would have been deemed unrealistic.
Clearly, not anymore.
“Since then,” Rew said, “we’ve gained experience and implemented new policies and procedures. Now we have the ability to reliably manage greater than 50 percent wind penetration. It’s not even our ceiling. We continue to study even higher levels of renewable, variable generation as part of our plans to maintain a reliable and economic grid of the future.”
In journalism, that’s called burying the lede, but it is indicative of the changes that have swept across the utility industry in the past decade. As I noted in a January post (which you can read here), the concerns in the utility industry about wind power’s impact on the grid’s reliability were palpable. From the outside, the degree of unease often seemed over the top, but for those charged with operating the system, the concerns were indeed real.
It would be a mistake to assume that the new president’s antipathy for renewable energy is widely shared in these red states
Experience has changed those attitudes. SPP’s latest wind integration analysis, completed in 2015 and released early last year (you can find it here) looks at what system changes or hardware additions would be required to run the system reliably at wind penetration levels of 30 percent, 45 percent and 60 percent. (As of year-end 2016 there was slightly more than 16,000 megawatts of installed wind generating capacity in SPP’s territory; in 2015, the latest full year of data, wind accounted for just under 14 percent of the system’s electric output.) The report’s findings are technical in nature and cover a range of needed upgrades and operational changes, but the upshot is straightforward: If the changes are made, they “would enable the SPP transmission system to reliably handle up to the 60 percent wind penetration levels studied.”
Changing attitudes
That type of matter-of-fact finding 10 years ago would have been almost unthinkable, but today it is common across the utility industry.
In Texas, the transmission system operators at ERCOT have successfully integrated a surge of new wind power capacity in the last five years: Wind accounted for 15.1 percent of the state’s generation in 2016, up from 8.5 percent in 2011. And the growth is slated to continue. According to data from the American Wind Energy Association (which can be found here), there is an additional 5,401 MW of wind power capacity under construction in the state, which is already far and away the largest wind generator in the U.S., with 20,321 MW of installed capacity.
As with the SPP approach, what’s important to note is the matter-of-fact way this capacity is being integrated. In its 2016 annual report (which is available here), ERCOT notes: “In 2016, wind and solar projects accounted for the majority of new generation built in the ERCOT region. As renewable energy and other new technologies continue to grow in Texas, ERCOT is adapting to ensure the reliability and efficiency of the electric system.” There are issues, as ERCOT points out, citing in particular the need to cope with sudden shifts in generation output and reduced inertia on the system, but they are just that, issues, not insurmountable problems.
The nation’s wind and solar energy resources are transforming low-income rural areas in ways not seen since the passage of the Homestead Act over 150 years ago
These changing attitudes toward wind are reflected in the political arena as well. ERCOT and SPP span all or parts of 14 states (covering the Plains and beyond), 12 of which voted solidly for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But it would be a mistake to assume that the new president’s antipathy for renewable energy is widely shared in these red states. The chart below illustrates this dichotomy: Start with Texas in the south and move due north to North Dakota, all six of those states voted for Trump, and yet they have been prime beneficiaries of the wind power industry’s development in the past 10 years.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is perhaps the best-known GOP wind power backer, proudly noting that he wrote the original production tax credit legislation that helped the industry get off the ground in 1992. He was also quoted last year warning candidate Trump that any changes to the PTC would only make it through Congress “over my dead body.”
Unlimited energy
Less well known, the industry also enjoys the backing of Kansas’ conservative governor, Sam Brownback. The staunch anti-tax Brownback has pushed through a series of supply side economic policies in Kansas that has thrown the state economy into a tailspin. At the same time, he is vice chair of the Governors’ Wind and Solar Energy Coalition, and is lobbying on behalf of continued federal support for the investment and production tax credits that have done so much to spur development of both the wind and solar industries.
In a recent letter to President Trump, Brownback and Gina Raimondo, the Democratic governor from Rhode Island who currently chairs the coalition, wrote: “The nation’s wind and solar energy resources are transforming low-income rural areas in ways not seen since the passage of the Homestead Act over 150 years ago. For example, U.S. wind facilities pay rural landowners $222 million a year, with more than $156 million going to landowners in areas with below-average incomes. In addition, $100 billion has been invested by companies in low-income counties, where some 70 percent of the nation’s wind farms are located.”
Today’s wind and solar resources offer consumers nearly unlimited electric energy with no fuel costs, no national security impacts, and a number of environmental benefits
More broadly, the two continued: “Members of the coalition have seen the benefits of renewable energy firsthand, and agree that expanding renewable energy production is one of the best ways to meet the country’s growing demand for energy. Today’s wind and solar resources offer consumers nearly unlimited electric energy with no fuel costs, no national security impacts, and a number of environmental benefits. The boons of renewable energy can be virtually endless with your administration’s and Congress’ support of the key initiatives detailed here. Your support of these initiatives will allow our nation to capitalize on renewable resources, meet the needs of Americans and bolster the economy.” (The complete letter can be found here.)
Broad support can also be found for wind power in Texas—just don’t call it an environmental thing. For starters, while there is debate about former Gov. Rick Perry’s overall role in pushing wind’s development in the state, he did sign the 2005 legislation establishing the renewable energy transmission zones that has made the Texas “wind rush” a possibility. And Perry is certainly not the technology’s only backer across the state as this story from The Guardian makes abundantly clear.
Call it what you want—experience, economics, environmental protection—it all means the same thing: wind power is here to stay, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office
Editor’s Note
This article was first published on Dennis Wamsted’s blog Wamsted on Energy and is republished here with permission. Dennis Wamsted is a free-lance journalist, consultant, speaker and moderator, and former executive editor ofThe Energy Daily in Washington, D.C., and a specialist on U.S. energy policy.
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Jan VeselĂ˝ says
Wind industry in the USA seems to be finally a mature industry with its own politicians in the pocket. The probably got beyond the times when they can be crippled by some governmental actions as happened to them several times in history.
R. L. Hails Sr. P. E. (ret.) says
The problem of all green energies is “all-in” costs, the total costs required to get juice to the house meter. This includes taxes and profit.
The costs, historically, fell on the light bill. Today, part of it falls on the taxpayer. In the Obama years, our debt increased from $30,000 to over $60,000, per American. A family of four now owes about $250,000. Part of that is due to green energy via the heavy thumb of government on the scales of commerce. It goes by many fancy names, the production tax credits is one. The biggie are the profits which flow to the chosen few, and their politicians who control the flow.
Germany is in the lead; their cost for juice is four times ours, and climbing. Texas is America’s guinea pig it has its own grid (as well as gas, oil, coal, and solar electric. All have promoters). It gets hot in Texas in the summer; that uses a lot of juice for AC.
Watch the All-In costs.
Karel Beckman says
Sir, if you think that the public debt in the US has anything to do with renewables subsidies, it just means you are very very badly informed. Please just look up what the US government spends its money on before you make charges like this.
Mike Parr says
“Germany is in the lead; their cost for juice is four times ours, and climbing.”…. maybe, but what is also true is that US households spend as much on energy as a percentage of their household budget as………Germany (both spend around 4% of their income). Hmmm,…. I don’t notice many reports of frozen German corpses in winter in their houses, neither do I notice that the German love affair with the ICE-powered motor vehicle has noticeably diminished. Both of which beg the question…. & you point is?… let me help you on this one….. (I’m feeling charitable) …. VaasaET look are househod energy bills in Europe, they compare cities, & use various measures to compare PPP – purchasing ower parity is interesting since it shows that London & Berlin are not very far apart for elec costs (+/- a few percentage points). I’ll finish here, sorry if I have bored you – but the devil is often in the detail – sorry if it spoils your…. er… simple story
Bob Wallace says
That’s some interesting economic analysis you engage in, R.L.
Yes, US debt did rise while PBO was in office. You can thank George W. for that. He started two unfunded wars and sat back while our economy crashed. What we’ve paid out in wind and solar subsidies had little impact.
Between 1994 and 2009 wind and solar received average annual subsidies of $0.37 billion. (15 x $0.37 = $5.6 billion)
Based on EIA production numbers from the beginning of 2010 through 2015 solar produced 73,560 million kWh of electricity and wind produced 895,301 million kWh.
Ignoring the fact that some wind/solar farms chose the 30% ITC rather than the $0.023/kWh PTC and doing the math as if all wind and solar chose the PTC, wind and solar subsidies would have received subsidies (had their taxes lowered) by $22.3 billion.
Under $30 billion total for 1994 through 2015.
Between 1918 and 2009 oil and gas received average annual subsidies of $4.86 billion. (92 x $4.86 billion = $447 billion)
Between 1947 and 1999 nuclear received average annual subsidies of $3.50 billion. (53 x $3.50 billion = $185.6 billion)
Do you realize that wind and solar are now employing over 350,000 Americans. Good paying jobs, not burger flipper/Walmart pay. And those 350k+ workers are paying federal and state tax. They aren’t pulling unemployment.
Bob Wallace says
Now those high, high German electricity cost, R.L. Let’s think about them for a minute.
The important cost, I think you realize, is generation cost. Wholesale cost. We don’t have that data but we do have the industrial cost of electricity sans taxes and fees. That’s going to be a pretty clean way of comparing costs.
Do you realize that Germany industry pays a bit less per MWh than does French industry? As Germany has added renewables their wholesale cost of electricity has fallen bringing it down to less than the EU average.
German retail customers do pay a high price. That’s due to taxes and fees piled on top of the cost of electricity.
In 2013 the average household electricity rate was about 29 € cents / kWh according to the BDEW (Energy industry association).
The composition:
8.0 cent – Power Generation & Sales (euro cents)
6.5 cent – Grid Service Surcharge
5.3 cent – Renewable Energy Surcharge
0.7 cent – Other Surcharges (CHP-Promotion, Offshore liability,…)
In addition there are some taxes & fees that go straight into the government’s bank account:
2.1 cent – EcoTax (federal government)
1.8 cent – Concession fees (local governments)
4.6 cent – Value added tax (19% on all of the above) – (federal, state & local governments)
So 8 + 6.5 or 14.5 euro cents go to electricity purchase and delivery. About 19 US cents. That’s higher than the US 12.5 cent average, but less than a penny higher than New York and Connecticut.
Now I don’t have a recent tax/fee breakdown but I do have the price of generation and service for the last half of 2016. It’s dropped from the 14.5 cent rate in 2013 to 12.5 euro cents over the three years.