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More of America’s wind farms using US-made components

America's wind energy development outlook is for a slow 2010, followed by a resurgent 2011 and 2012. After 2012 is anyone's guess

America’s wind farms are increasingly making use of US-made components, according to the latest annual report on the wind industry from the US Department of Energy.

Last year saw about 60% of wind turbine equipment sourced from US manufacturers, compared to 50% in 2008.

The report suggested the increase came as wind farm equipment suppliers seek to minimize transportation costs and currency risks by establishing local manufacturing facilities.

Seven of the 10 wind turbine manufacturers with the largest share of the US market now have manufacturing facilities here, with two of the remaining three planning to open plants in the US in the future.

GE continued as the biggest supplier of wind turbines in the US during 2009, although it is losing market share to its rivals. It now accounts for about 40% of the market with 3,995MW installations during the year.

Number two supplier was Vestas (1,490MW), Siemens (1,162MW) was number three in 2009, followed by Mitsubishi (814MW) and Suzlon (702MW).

The report, entitled 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report, was produced by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Capacity

Elsewhere in the report, industry figures were confirmed showing a record amount of wind energy generating capacity – about 10 gigawatts (10,000MW) – was installed in the US last year. This was up by more than 40% compared to 2008, and saw America’s total installed capacity reaching above 35GW.

The installations represented a $21 billion investment, with a 1.74MW average turbine size, and enough new wind farms to provide electricity for 2.4 million homes.

“At this pace, wind power is on a path to becoming a significant contributor to the U.S. power mix,” said co-author Ryan Wiser, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD).

“Wind power projects accounted for 39 percent of all new electric generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2009, and wind energy is now able to deliver 2.5 percent of the nation’s electricity supply.”

Roughly 300GW of wind power capacity is now waiting in the transmission interconnection queues. Although not all of this is likely to be built, it is nearly three times as much capacity as the next-largest energy type, natural gas.

The report pointed to rising wind energy prices and lower wholesale electricity prices making life “more challenging” for wind developers in 2010. Wind operators struggled in 2009, with fragmented and volatile markets for renewable energy certificates providing little help.

It suggested that 2011 and 2012 would be a “resurgent” time for the wind market as wind projects funded by the Recovery Act come to fruition, but current policies run out at the end of 2012, leaving uncertainty for the future.

States

Among the states, Texas is a long way ahead of the rest, both in terms of its 9,410MW total installations up to the end of 2009, and the 2,292MW installed during the year.

However, Iowa is the state with the highest proportion of its in-state power generation coming from the wind, achieving a 19.7% of its in-state power generation from wind farms.

14 states now have more than 1,000MW of wind capacity, with four states seeing more than 10% of their own generating activities through wind farms.

Utilities

Nine utilities now source more than 10% of their electricity supplies from wind farms, led by Minnkota Power Cooperative (38%).

Xcel Energy, which sourced 11.1% of its electricity from wind power, had the highest wind capacity among the utilities with 3,176MW. MidAmerican Energy was not far behind on 2,923MW.

Wind power is on a path to becoming a significant contributor to the US power mix” - Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Offshore

No offshore wind farms have been built yet in the US, but the report identifies 13 projects that are at a more advanced development or permitting stage as of 2009.

Three projects have signed or proposed power purchase agreements, while one (Cape Wind in Massachusetts) was approved by the Department of the Interior in April 2010.

Small turbines

While much of the DOE report is focused on wind turbines above 100kW in size, the report does note the 15% growth in revenues for small turbine suppliers.

A total of 9,800 turbines below 100kW in size were sold in the US in 2009, representing 20.3MW capacity and $82 million in sales.

This was a smaller number of turbines sold than in 2008, when 10,386 machines were sold, but a larger capacity than the 17.4MW seen in 2008 as well as a higher total revenue ($73 million in 2008).