Wind Energy in the United States: Market and Research Update

U.S. market activity has increased over the last two years. In 1998, new capacity totaled about 150 MW and projected 1999 capacity additions are over 600 MW. As the electricity market continues to evolve under restructuring, the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) Wind Energy Program has positioned itself to work with industry to meet current challenges and opportunities, and prepare for themarket of tomorrow. Some opportunities include green power markets and distributed applications, although a primary challenge involves the fact that avoided cost payments to renewable generators are not high enough to economically support projects. A recently incorporated power exchange in California, APX, Inc., has demonstrated that green power does attract a premium over prices on theconventional power exchange. The key elements of the U.S. DOE Wind Program are (1) Applied Research, which is critical for achieving advanced turbine designs capable of competing in a restructured market that emphasizes low cost generation; (2) Turbine Research, which supports the U.S. industry in developing competitive, high performance, reliable wind turbine technology for global energymarkets; and (3) Cooperative Research and Testing, under which standards development and certification testing are the key activities for the current year.