Wind Energy Technology Acceptance
To support the Advanced Energy Initiative objective to expand the use of wind energy, the Wind Energy Program is increasing its efforts to overcome near-term deployment barriers to wind by enhancing public acceptance, promoting supportive public policies, engaging key stakeholders, and addressing siting and environmental issues.
Goal
In 1999, only four states boasted more than 100 MW of installed wind capacity. By the end of 2006, 16 states had more than 100 MW and six more states are expected to reach that capacity by the end of 2007. The goal of this project is for 30 states to have 100 MW of wind installed by 2010.
Wind Energy: Generating Momentum Across the United States
The strategy of the Technology Acceptance effort is to build momentum for wind power's use across the United States. Using a state-focused strategy for its efforts acknowledges the critical role in policymaking and incentive adoption that states have played in wind development to date. The primary program mechanisms for pursuing this activity are the Wind Powering America (WPA) program and the National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC)
WPA was established to identify wind power barriers and options for overcoming them, primarily at the state level. A package of technical assistance and outreach activities is aimed at key user communities — farmers and ranchers, Native Americans, federal facility managers, rural electric cooperatives, and consumer-owned utilities. WPA works with these stakeholders and state and local officials to form state coalitions, or Wind Working Groups, in conjunction with DOE's regional offices, to build the local presence required to accelerate wind power's widespread adoption.
The strategy of the NWCC, a U.S. consensus-based collaborative, is to establish dialogue among key stakeholders, and to support the development of environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable commercial markets for wind power. NWCC members include representatives from electric utilities and support organizations, state legislatures, state utility commissions, consumer advocacy offices, wind equipment suppliers and developers, green power marketers, environmental organizations, agriculture and economic development organizations, and state and federal agencies.
Many institutional and informational barriers have slowed, and continue to slow, the pace of adoption of wind power. The challenge for Technology Acceptance is to develop, disseminate, and support an appropriate mix of technical information and general outreach to states where there are strong wind resources yet little public or private momentum on wind energy as an option for development. Another challenge is to bring the wind energy message to potential users of distributed wind technology. By reaching out to farmers, ranchers, Native Americans, and other state and local stakeholders, WPA can help build a state-level coalition. By building bridges to environmental and regulatory communities, the NWCC help reduce barriers of interest at the national level.
The program's Technology Acceptance efforts complement the efforts being pursued under other elements of the program. This includes the Systems Integration activity, as both are aimed at reducing undue barriers to wind energy's use. The Systems Integration work targets some of the more technical barriers, while the Technology Acceptance efforts tend to address issues associated with state, local, and consumer-owned utility unfamiliarity with the technology and with the need for assistance in overcoming that unfamiliarity. The program is pursuing six specific themes under the Technology Acceptance activity:
- Outreach to State-based Organizations
- Support for Rural Wind Development
- Small Wind Energy Outreach
- Institution Building Through Utility Partnerships
- Support for Native American Interest in Wind Power
- Use of Wind Power to Meet Federal Loads
Outreach to State-based Organizations
The program has worked for the past several years to foster the formation of state wind coalitions to serve as focal points for outreach to local communities and stakeholders. Understanding the local wind resource is the first step of many toward increasing wind capacity. WPA found early on that many state, county, and local stakeholders were unaware of their wind resources or were using information developed almost 20 years ago. WPA launched an anemometer loan program with states to begin to increase familiarity with wind energy, in general, and to create the infrastructure necessary to move forward. Similarly, WPA began to cost-share development of updated state wind resource maps, which could show public and private officials, as well as landowners and other stakeholders, the extent of the defined wind resource and the likely benefits from potential development.
WPA also works with state-based agricultural organizations as natural partners for rural wind development, to leverage their contacts with the farming and ranching communities, and to gain local support for wind use. WPA has provided legislative briefings on all technical aspects of wind energy systems, in conjunction with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Over the coming years, WPA is expecting to support the development of additional state wind working groups as well as regional coalitions to remove barriers to the deployment of existing large and distributed wind technologies, and to realize the potential benefits from wind for clean water and wind-hydropower and wind-hydrogen efforts.
Support for Rural Wind Development
Farm-based renewable energy generation could become one of America's major "cash" crops, improving the livelihoods of farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners, according to the 2002 Federal Farm Bill. Farmers and other landowners can benefit from wind power by allowing wind developers to install large wind turbines on their land, in exchange for annual payments of about $2000 to $4000 per MW of installed capacity.
Because strong winds are often found in rural areas, the development of the rural wind resource is a substantial economic development opportunity. In addition to payments to landowners, wind farm development in rural areas provides added state and local tax revenues, significant added local revenues during construction, and some quality long-term jobs.
WPA has established partnerships with national, state, and local rural organizations, with a focus on agriculture interests. In 2003, the program, on behalf of DOE and EERE, began a cooperative effort to support USDA's implementation of the Farm Bill's five-year program to support the greater use of renewable energy in rural communities. The NWCC has focused on developing techniques for estimating the economic benefit to local communities that are derived from rural wind development. The NWCC has played an important role in developing a better understanding of the transmission and distribution system infrastructure required to support rural wind development.
Small Wind Energy Outreach
The Technology Acceptance effort helps remove barriers to the increased use of distributed and/or small wind technology, in direct support of the overall program's Technology Viability efforts on distributed wind technology. Technology Acceptance activities include focused small wind energy workshops and meetings, development of a small wind calculator and modified wind resources maps, and development of state-specific small wind guides containing resource, policy, technical information, and state contacts. As the program's distributed wind energy technology efforts lead to more cost-effective small wind turbines, the small wind outreach efforts will grow in importance.
Institution Building Through Utility Partnerships
The program has established partnerships with public power organizations such as the American Public Power Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Plans include an effort to provide cooperatives with the opportunity to gain operating experience with wind turbines through a field test program. The Technology Acceptance efforts coordinate closely with, and take advantage of, Utility Wind Interest Group activities under the Systems Integration activity.
Support for Native American Interest in Wind Power
More than 700 Native American tribes and Native Alaskan villages and corporations are located on 96 million acres in the United States. Many of these tribes and villages have excellent wind resources that could be commercially developed to produce electricity for local needs or to export.
Currently, there are no large-scale wind developments on Native American lands, despite the wide availability of excellent wind resources on those lands. A milestone was achieved, however, in early 2003 when the first Native American 750-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine was installed on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. Efforts are underway to educate Native American tribes that have wind resources on how to develop them. WPA helped establish a Native American Wind Interest Group (NAWIG), which serves as a means of facilitating a Native American anemometer loan program and awards to tribes for wind exploration. WPA also provides a means for Native Americans to attend wind energy training programs. A tribal wind resources program is helping Native American groups better understand the potential for wind energy use on tribal lands.
Use of Wind Power to Meet Federal Loads
As the largest energy user in the world, with an annual consumption of 55 million megawatt-hours, the U.S. government is a huge market for renewable energy. DOE has demonstrated leadership by announcing a "green" goal of 7.5% by 2010.
Federal facilities managers are beginning to look to wind energy as a source of clean power. In general, the federal facilities are not the actual owners of the wind power plants, but have agreed to purchase power from those plants. An effort in the Denver area, which was sponsored by early WPA efforts, led to the aggregation of 10 MW of federal load, allowing the construction of a new wind facility especially dedicated to meeting that requirement. Load aggregation is one mechanism that will be pursued further. The Technology Acceptance activity will continue to work with the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) to foster wine energy use by federal agencies. An important success was achieved in 2003 when the Bureau of Land Management adopted new procedures that should greatly facilitate the use of wind on federal lands.
The Technology Acceptance team has developed a prioritized list of states that will be the focus of efforts over the coming several years. These states have been selected based on a number of factors including wind resource, status of local economy, political and institutional receptiveness, energy supply situation, and demonstrated local interest.