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Lack of turbines could put drag on wind energy Wednesday, March 1, 2006
ST. PAUL (AP) -- Demand for turbines used to turn wind into electricity is blowing by supply, which is hampering efforts to cultivate the alternative energy source in the state.
The shortage of the giant turbines is making them more expensive. Turbine manufacturer General Electric said it is booked for the next two years as are European manufacturers.
Ken Valley, president of Midwest Energy Finance, said the shortage is making the task tougher for developers of smaller community-based wind projects.
"One Midwestern wind developer is planning a project with seven turbines, but he can't get them," Valley said. "Midwest would have had more than $100 million worth of projects this year, but the shortage of turbines is getting in the way."
GE Energy spokesman Dennis Murphy said the shortage is real.
"The renewal of production tax credits has spurred a significant re-energizing of wind as a power option," Murphy said. "Around the world, and certainly in the U.S., a number of our customers have had a great deal of interest in wind."
Last year, a record-breaking 2,431 megawatts of wind power were installed nationwide, according to the American Wind Energy Association. GE-produced turbines accounted for about two-thirds of the total, with 1,005 turbines delivered around the United States.
Valley estimated that in the past 18 months wind turbine prices have gone up 50 percent per megawatt, partly because of demand outstripping supply.
David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said the wind industry isn't alone in its growing pains.
"There's been an enormous increase in demand for turbines in the world, and there's a comparable situation with solar cells," Morris said. "The growth of the solar electricity industry has outpaced the production capacity of solar-grade silicon, so the price of solar cells has gone up in the last year and a half." |
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