It was standing room only in the Recreation Park on Tuesday night — with “BP Go Home” protesters occupying one side and green-shirted Voters for Wind filling the other.
Sandwiched between an audience of 300 people and local lawmakers from Cape Vincent and Lyme was Richard F. Chandler, representing BP Wind Energy, who was grilled by town officials for nearly two hours in a comment-heavy question-and-answer session following a brief presentation on the project.
Members of both town councils and planning boards spoke in unison, criticizing BP’s “back-door approach” to the $300 million project and the developer’s new 124-turbine layout that is in clear violation of local zoning laws.
There will be no wind turbines in the town of Lyme — only a transmission line — under BP’s new proposal. And although the configurations are preliminary, Mr. Chandler, director of business development for the project, said the turbines would not exceed 500 feet in height.
BP is pursuing a speedier approval process under Article X that would also allow a state siting board to overrule what it deems as unreasonable local laws. Article X of the 2011 Power NY Act imposes a 12-month deadline for the consideration of electric-generating facilities of 25 megawatts or higher.
Not only is the state seeking to expedite the siting of energy projects, it is also pushing for a $675 million investment in renewable energy.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in his recent “energy highway” plan, calls for $250 million in state renewable energy funding to leverage $475 million in private investment, with a goal to create an additional 270 megawatts of energy.
The Cape Vincent Wind Farm is mentioned in the plan as one such potential project, with a listed minimum and maximum capacity of 285 megawatts.
However, Mr. Chandler said the size of the project has not been finalized and reiterated his past statement to the state Public Service Commission that the wind farm could be as small as 200 megawatts.
Several Lyme and Cape Vincent officials also took offense Tuesday night that the developer had come up with its own wind turbine setbacks.
“Our zoning law is not up for sale and not negotiable,” said Cape Vincent Planning Board member Paul L. Docteur. “We will defend our zoning law to the end.”
Mr. Chandler said BP “factored in” several standards — including Cape Vincent’s wind laws and those from other wind projects in the country — to come up with its own “reasonable” guidelines that “address health and safety concerns” and “exceed industry standards.”
BP’s setbacks include: 1,500 feet from Route 12E, 1,000 feet from County Route 6 and nonparticipating property lines, 650 feet from roads and a quarter-mile from residences.
Both Cape Vincent and Lyme’s setbacks are considerably stricter.
Read the entire article
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Cape Vincent citizens stage an anti-wind "Agreement".
Last night, citizens who are opposed to any industrial wind development in the Golden Crescent and Thousand Island region, took it to the streets and staged a public agreement.
The peaceful mob of people, who agree with their local public officials, spent the afternoon marching around the Cape Vincent British Petroleum office, carrying signs that said things like "Bp Go Home" and "Home Rule Rules".
Then, after spending the time near the British Petroleum's downtown Cape Vincent office, the agreeing citizens went to Cape Vincent's Recreation Park where they assembled to greet British Petroleum's Richard Chandler, their community organizer and their local lease holders, all of whom are attempting to break the laws of the Towns of Lyme and Cape Vincent by shoving 124 wind turbines down our pie holes.
Chandler showed the public officials a map of his local law-breaking project and presented a power point presentation that was not big enough for anyone to see. During his presentation, Chandler claimed that he had overwhelming community support for what he and British Petroleum intended to do. Every man and every woman representing our community as public servants then told Mr. Chandler that he did not have overwhelming public support for his project. The last time I saw Chandler, he was telling the press the same prevarication.
Read the entire article
The peaceful mob of people, who agree with their local public officials, spent the afternoon marching around the Cape Vincent British Petroleum office, carrying signs that said things like "Bp Go Home" and "Home Rule Rules".
Then, after spending the time near the British Petroleum's downtown Cape Vincent office, the agreeing citizens went to Cape Vincent's Recreation Park where they assembled to greet British Petroleum's Richard Chandler, their community organizer and their local lease holders, all of whom are attempting to break the laws of the Towns of Lyme and Cape Vincent by shoving 124 wind turbines down our pie holes.
Chandler showed the public officials a map of his local law-breaking project and presented a power point presentation that was not big enough for anyone to see. During his presentation, Chandler claimed that he had overwhelming community support for what he and British Petroleum intended to do. Every man and every woman representing our community as public servants then told Mr. Chandler that he did not have overwhelming public support for his project. The last time I saw Chandler, he was telling the press the same prevarication.
Read the entire article
Thursday, October 18, 2012
AWEA meeting to probe details of possible PTC phaseout, long-term policy needs
Wind industry representatives will gather today to discuss the long-term economic implications of their key tax break, including how and whether it could be reduced or phased out and what policy mechanisms could replace it, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The two-day, closed-door meeting being convened by the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s primary trade association, is separate from the industry’s long-standing push for an immediate extension of the production tax credit, which expires at the end of this year for wind.
Several months ago, AWEA established three working groups to examine long-term policy issues, and those groups are nearly complete with their task, spurring this week’s meeting.
One group focused on analyzing the economic impacts of various PTC phaseout designs to determine what would be optimal for the industry, another group focused on the political realities of what could make it through Congress, and a third examined other policies that could supplement or replace a PTC if it expired, such as renewable portfolio standards or master limited partnership status for renewable energy companies.
The overarching goal is to determine “what does the industry need to stay alive, basically,” said one industry lobbyist familiar with the meeting who, like others who spoke to Greenwire for this article, requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The industry has been buffeted by thousands of layoffs in recent months, mostly among component manufacturers, as virtually no equipment orders have been placed for next year because of uncertainty surrounding the tax credit. AWEA says 37,000 jobs will be lost without an extension of the credit.
“We have meetings all the time analyzing PTC options as well as markets and technology,” said Ellen Carey, an AWEA spokeswoman. “That should come as no surprise given the policy uncertainty we continue to experience.”
Congress is expected to address the immediate fate of the PTC during a lame-duck session, although the future of the credit and myriad other issues largely hinge on the outcome of the elections, industry lobbyists and congressional aides say.
As AWEA has lobbied for an extension of the credit, its representatives have stressed that they are not asking for the credit to be continued indefinitely, and some industry backers have suggested phasing out the credit over a number of years (E&E Daily, June 12).
But the industry as a whole has struggled to come to a consensus on the details of a phaseout. That, among other factors, has limited the scope of discussions between the industry and Capitol Hill, creating some frustration among the lawmakers and congressional staffers who would write legislation to address the issue. At least two companies have met with staff on the House Ways and Means Committee in recent weeks to discuss phaseout proposals, according to sources familiar with the meetings, although it remains unclear how detailed those discussions have been.
“Ways and Means would like specifics so they can craft a deal,” a second industry lobbyist said, referring to the House tax-writing committee.
It remains to be seen whether Congress will take up an “extenders” bill before the end of the year, with the presidential election likely to determine how much lawmakers attempt to accomplish in November and December. If President Obama is re-elected, most observers expect a busy lame-duck session, but if Republican Mitt Romney wins the White House, Congress is expected to put off most of its work until after the new president is inaugurated.
A House aide said the industry would benefit from getting details to the Hill sooner rather than later.
“Wind is rapidly becoming the next ethanol, and it is tough to imagine how sitting on the sidelines to see which way the political winds blow on Election Day will be seen as anything other than just that — political,” said the aide, who requested anonymity. “Working in good faith and fulfilling commitments that have been made to members and staff are critical to determining next steps — and those steps will be determined sooner rather than later.”
Hopes for a PTC extension received a boost in August, when the Senate Finance Committee gave bipartisan backing to an extenders bill that would prolong and modify the tax credit (E&E Daily, Aug. 3). That bill could hit the Senate floor soon after Congress returns the week after the elections.
More detailed discussion of a phaseout could happen between staff and lobbyists and within the industry over the next few months, although specific proposals are not expected to be made public until and unless Congress approaches comprehensive tax reform.
If Congress embarks on an effort to overhaul the tax code for the first time since 1986, targeted tax breaks such as the PTC are seen as likely candidates for elimination to offset lower rates for individuals and businesses. It is not just renewable energy companies that are wary of what such reform could mean for their bottom lines, as tax credits and deductions enjoyed by oil and natural gas producers as well as various other energy sectors also could get the ax in a streamlined tax code.
Several variables are at play in determining whether the industry could survive without the PTC, including how long persistent low natural gas prices will continue, the pace at which turbine technology costs continue falling and what other policies would remain in place to drive wind development.
Low gas prices have been an especially key concern over the past few years because they make it more difficult for wind to compete with cheap, gas-fired electricity. And demand for new wind projects has fallen as state-level renewable energy mandates are being met. Because of these factors, analysts expect the industry to struggle next year, regardless of what happens with the PTC, although losing the tax credit would make the situation even worse (ClimateWire, Oct. 9).
A relatively novel idea has been gaining traction in Washington as a way to help the wind industry by allowing it to use a financing model that has long been enjoyed by oil, gas and mining companies. A bipartisan group of senators earlier this year offered legislation that would let renewable energy companies, such as wind developers, structure themselves as master limited partnerships, which would allow them to split income, taxes and tax credits among numerous investors to eliminate their corporate tax bills (Greenwire, June 7)
Today’s AWEA meeting is not expected to produce a consensus position on the longer-term phaseout question, a third industry lobbyist said, noting that it is not a formal meeting of AWEA’s board. But it should give participants a better idea of the economic and political implications of various approaches that could get more attention as part of a comprehensive tax reform debate next year.
“I think at the end of the day, industry has come to grips with the notion this benefit can’t be unfettered over time,” a fourth wind lobbyist said.
Source
The two-day, closed-door meeting being convened by the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s primary trade association, is separate from the industry’s long-standing push for an immediate extension of the production tax credit, which expires at the end of this year for wind.
Several months ago, AWEA established three working groups to examine long-term policy issues, and those groups are nearly complete with their task, spurring this week’s meeting.
One group focused on analyzing the economic impacts of various PTC phaseout designs to determine what would be optimal for the industry, another group focused on the political realities of what could make it through Congress, and a third examined other policies that could supplement or replace a PTC if it expired, such as renewable portfolio standards or master limited partnership status for renewable energy companies.
The overarching goal is to determine “what does the industry need to stay alive, basically,” said one industry lobbyist familiar with the meeting who, like others who spoke to Greenwire for this article, requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The industry has been buffeted by thousands of layoffs in recent months, mostly among component manufacturers, as virtually no equipment orders have been placed for next year because of uncertainty surrounding the tax credit. AWEA says 37,000 jobs will be lost without an extension of the credit.
“We have meetings all the time analyzing PTC options as well as markets and technology,” said Ellen Carey, an AWEA spokeswoman. “That should come as no surprise given the policy uncertainty we continue to experience.”
Congress is expected to address the immediate fate of the PTC during a lame-duck session, although the future of the credit and myriad other issues largely hinge on the outcome of the elections, industry lobbyists and congressional aides say.
As AWEA has lobbied for an extension of the credit, its representatives have stressed that they are not asking for the credit to be continued indefinitely, and some industry backers have suggested phasing out the credit over a number of years (E&E Daily, June 12).
But the industry as a whole has struggled to come to a consensus on the details of a phaseout. That, among other factors, has limited the scope of discussions between the industry and Capitol Hill, creating some frustration among the lawmakers and congressional staffers who would write legislation to address the issue. At least two companies have met with staff on the House Ways and Means Committee in recent weeks to discuss phaseout proposals, according to sources familiar with the meetings, although it remains unclear how detailed those discussions have been.
“Ways and Means would like specifics so they can craft a deal,” a second industry lobbyist said, referring to the House tax-writing committee.
It remains to be seen whether Congress will take up an “extenders” bill before the end of the year, with the presidential election likely to determine how much lawmakers attempt to accomplish in November and December. If President Obama is re-elected, most observers expect a busy lame-duck session, but if Republican Mitt Romney wins the White House, Congress is expected to put off most of its work until after the new president is inaugurated.
A House aide said the industry would benefit from getting details to the Hill sooner rather than later.
“Wind is rapidly becoming the next ethanol, and it is tough to imagine how sitting on the sidelines to see which way the political winds blow on Election Day will be seen as anything other than just that — political,” said the aide, who requested anonymity. “Working in good faith and fulfilling commitments that have been made to members and staff are critical to determining next steps — and those steps will be determined sooner rather than later.”
Hopes for a PTC extension received a boost in August, when the Senate Finance Committee gave bipartisan backing to an extenders bill that would prolong and modify the tax credit (E&E Daily, Aug. 3). That bill could hit the Senate floor soon after Congress returns the week after the elections.
More detailed discussion of a phaseout could happen between staff and lobbyists and within the industry over the next few months, although specific proposals are not expected to be made public until and unless Congress approaches comprehensive tax reform.
If Congress embarks on an effort to overhaul the tax code for the first time since 1986, targeted tax breaks such as the PTC are seen as likely candidates for elimination to offset lower rates for individuals and businesses. It is not just renewable energy companies that are wary of what such reform could mean for their bottom lines, as tax credits and deductions enjoyed by oil and natural gas producers as well as various other energy sectors also could get the ax in a streamlined tax code.
Several variables are at play in determining whether the industry could survive without the PTC, including how long persistent low natural gas prices will continue, the pace at which turbine technology costs continue falling and what other policies would remain in place to drive wind development.
Low gas prices have been an especially key concern over the past few years because they make it more difficult for wind to compete with cheap, gas-fired electricity. And demand for new wind projects has fallen as state-level renewable energy mandates are being met. Because of these factors, analysts expect the industry to struggle next year, regardless of what happens with the PTC, although losing the tax credit would make the situation even worse (ClimateWire, Oct. 9).
A relatively novel idea has been gaining traction in Washington as a way to help the wind industry by allowing it to use a financing model that has long been enjoyed by oil, gas and mining companies. A bipartisan group of senators earlier this year offered legislation that would let renewable energy companies, such as wind developers, structure themselves as master limited partnerships, which would allow them to split income, taxes and tax credits among numerous investors to eliminate their corporate tax bills (Greenwire, June 7)
Today’s AWEA meeting is not expected to produce a consensus position on the longer-term phaseout question, a third industry lobbyist said, noting that it is not a formal meeting of AWEA’s board. But it should give participants a better idea of the economic and political implications of various approaches that could get more attention as part of a comprehensive tax reform debate next year.
“I think at the end of the day, industry has come to grips with the notion this benefit can’t be unfettered over time,” a fourth wind lobbyist said.
Source
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Against the wind
Cuomo should demand health study
Gov. Cuomo last month ordered state officials to study the health effects of hydraulic fracturing — and so continued to prevent drillers from exploiting the Marcellus Shale. But if he’s truly interested in public health, the governor must also put a freeze on wind-energy projects in New York until their health impact can be gauged.
After all, residents across rural New York — indeed, country-dwellers around the world — are waging bitter fights against industrial-scale wind projects, and one of their main concerns is the health effects of the audible and inaudible noise created by large wind turbines.
They’re ugly, too: Turbines from the Maple Ridge Wind Farm tower over a Lowville, NY, farm.
They’re ugly, too: Turbines from the Maple Ridge Wind Farm tower over a Lowville, NY, farm.
To date, the state has assumed that oil and gas drilling is “guilty (dirty) until proven innocent” but wind-energy development is “clean.” Indeed, if New York is to meet its renewable-energy target — to obtain 30 percent of all electricity from renewables by 2015 — several thousand new wind turbines will be needed.
But about two dozen New York towns have already passed rules banning or restricting wind-energy development, and more will come if turbine construction takes off.
It’s not simply that wind projects can be ugly. Health officials from Canada to Australia and the UK to New Zealand are seriously examining the effect that wind-turbine noise has on humans.
In July, Health Canada announced a study, with the results due in 2014. That investigation was initiated after Ontario’s Environment Ministry logged hundreds of health complaints about the noise generated by the province’s growing fleet of wind turbines.
Last year, the Canadian province’s Environmental Review Tribunal concluded, “The debate should not be simplified to one about whether wind turbines can cause harm to humans. The evidence presented to the Tribunal demonstrates that they can, if facilities are placed too close to residents. The debate has now evolved to one of degree.”
Over the past two years, I’ve interviewed people from New York, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Zealand, Australia, Ontario and Nova Scotia who’ve had wind turbines built near their homes. All of them complain about the noise in nearly identical terms.
Dave Enz, a retired millwright, was forced to abandon his home after a spate of windmills went up nearby in Denmark, Wisc.; he and his wife Rose now live in an RV. He said that when he and Rose are at their home and the wind is blowing, “Some of the symptoms we experience are headaches, ear pain, nausea, blurred vision, anxiety, memory loss and an overall unsettledness.”
The April issue of Acoustics Today features an article by Peter Narins, a distinguished UCLA professor and expert on auditory physiology, and Annie Chen, a student. Their findings: “High levels of infrasound and low-frequency sounds generated by wind turbines pose a potentially serious threat to communities near wind farms.”
They conclude that “further studies are needed to examine the effects of wind farms on the quality of life in sensitive individuals.”
Rural New Yorkers are already responding to what they see as a threat. Meredith, NY, was the subject of Laura Israel’s recent documentary “Windfall,” which recounts a rancorous fight for control of the town board that concluded with a ban on wind turbines. Just two months ago, the Cape Vincent town council voted unanimously for strict restrictions on wind projects.
Of course, the wind-energy industry, and its many supporters, want to dismiss the noise issue — and the widespread rural opposition — because it contradicts their near-religious belief that wind energy is “green.”
But the backlash is real. The European Platform Against Windfarmsnow lists 555 signatory organizations and fights are raging against industrial wind projects throughout the UK.
The backlash can even be seen in Denmark, a country frequently lauded for its pro-wind policies. In 2010, The Copenhagen Post reported that state-owned Dong Energy had “given up building more wind turbines on Danish land, following protests from residents complaining about the noise the turbines make.”
The bottom line is as obvious as a 400-foot-high wind turbine: Unless Cuomo’s decision to study the impact of fracking is merely a political payoff designed to placate New York’s potent Green lobby, he should demand that the same public-health analysis be applied to wind energy.
Robert Bryce is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow; his latest book is “Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future.”
Friday, October 12, 2012
Hartsville board approves wind tower
The Hartsville Town Board Wednesday evening took what might have been the first step towards determining whether or not the town will be a suitable location for wind turbines.
The board approved a two-year permit that will allow for the construction of a meteorological (MET) tower, which measures wind speed and direction at a site, on Ells Road. The tower will stand for two years and will determine whether or not Hartsville is a viable area for harnessing wind energy.
Kevin Sheen, senior director of development for EverPower, which develops, owns and operates utility grade wind projects, said the tower will be erected at the beginning of November.
"Then we'll start monitoring the wind. We need to do that at least for a year and then during that time, we'll do a bunch of studies and that sort of stuff in addition," he said. "In order to determine what the wind is like in an area, you need to study it for at least one year."
Though the expense of the tower, equipment and installation is between $50,000 and $60,000, town supervisor Michael Muhleisen said that is not a cost associated with the town.
"That's an agreement with the contracting wind company and its contracting MET company, Aerial Erectors," he said.
This was not the first time Hartsville had been considered as the location for a wind project. E.On Climate and Renewables, one of the world's largest owners of renewable power projects, previously discussed a project with the town.
However, the project fell through after Hartsville adopted a new wind law in 2009 and the wind company had difficulty selling renewable-energy credits.
Previously, EverPower constructed 25 wind turbines in the Town of Howard.
Source
The board approved a two-year permit that will allow for the construction of a meteorological (MET) tower, which measures wind speed and direction at a site, on Ells Road. The tower will stand for two years and will determine whether or not Hartsville is a viable area for harnessing wind energy.
Kevin Sheen, senior director of development for EverPower, which develops, owns and operates utility grade wind projects, said the tower will be erected at the beginning of November.
"Then we'll start monitoring the wind. We need to do that at least for a year and then during that time, we'll do a bunch of studies and that sort of stuff in addition," he said. "In order to determine what the wind is like in an area, you need to study it for at least one year."
Though the expense of the tower, equipment and installation is between $50,000 and $60,000, town supervisor Michael Muhleisen said that is not a cost associated with the town.
"That's an agreement with the contracting wind company and its contracting MET company, Aerial Erectors," he said.
This was not the first time Hartsville had been considered as the location for a wind project. E.On Climate and Renewables, one of the world's largest owners of renewable power projects, previously discussed a project with the town.
However, the project fell through after Hartsville adopted a new wind law in 2009 and the wind company had difficulty selling renewable-energy credits.
Previously, EverPower constructed 25 wind turbines in the Town of Howard.
Source
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Everpower Is Testing The Wind In Hartsville and Wayland
The Hartsville Town Board has voted unanimously to allow Everpower Wind to put up a wind test tower in Hartsville. Kevin Sheen, Everpower Senior Director of Development, says the permit will last for a period of two years.
In other wind news, Everpower has gotten the approval for a permit to put up a test tower to see if there can be a wind project in Wayland. Source
In other wind news, Everpower has gotten the approval for a permit to put up a test tower to see if there can be a wind project in Wayland. Source
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Tax Credit in Doubt, Wind Power Industry Is Withering
Last month, Gamesa, a major maker of wind turbines, completed the first significant order of its latest innovation: a camper-size box that can capture the energy of slow winds, potentially opening new parts of the country to wind power.
But by the time the last of the devices, worth more than $1.25 million, was hitched to a rail car, Gamesa had furloughed 92 of the 115 workers who made them.
“We are all really sad,” said Miguel Orobiyi, 34, who worked as a mechanical assembler at the Gamesa plant for nearly five years. “I hope they call us back because they are really, really good jobs.”
Similar cuts are happening throughout the American wind sector, which includes hundreds of manufacturers, from multinationals that make giant windmills to smaller local manufacturers that supply specialty steel or bolts. In recent months, companies have announced almost 1,700 layoffs.
At its peak in 2008 and 2009, the industry employed about 85,000 people, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s principal trade group.
About 10,000 of those jobs have disappeared since, according to the association, as wind companies have been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper options from Asian competitors. Chinese manufacturers, who can often under-price goods because of generous state subsidies, have moved into the American market and have become an issue in the larger trade tensions between the countries. In July, the United States Commerce Department imposed tariffs on steel turbine towers from China after finding that manufacturers had been selling them for less than the cost of production.
And now, on top of the business challenges, the industry is facing a big political problem in Washington: the Dec. 31 expiration of a federal tax credit that makes wind power more competitive with other sources of electricity.
The tax break, which costs about $1 billion a year, has been periodically renewed by Congress with support from both parties. This year, however, it has become a wedge issue in the presidential contest. President Obama has traveled to wind-heavy swing states like Iowa to tout his support for the subsidy. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has said he opposes the wind credit, and that has galvanized Republicans in Congress against it, perhaps dooming any extension or at least delaying it until after the election despite a last-ditch lobbying effort from proponents this week.
Opponents argue that the industry has had long enough to wean itself from the subsidy and, with wind representing a small percentage of total electricity generation, the taxpayers’ investment has yielded an insufficient return.
“Big Wind has had extension after extension after extension,” said Benjamin Cole, a spokesman for the American Energy Alliance, a group partly financed by oil interests that has been lobbying against the credit in Washington. “The government shouldn’t be continuing to prop up industries that never seem to be able to get off their training wheels.”
But without the tax credit in place, the wind business “falls off a cliff,” said Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who studies the market potential of renewable electricity sources.
The industry’s precariousness was apparent a few weeks ago at the Gamesa factory, as a crew loaded the guts of the company’s newest model of the component, a device known as a nacelle, into its fiberglass shell. Only 50 completed nacelles awaited pickup in a yard once filled with three times as many, most of the production line stood idle, and shelves rated to hold 7,270 pounds of parts and equipment lay bare.
“We’ve done a lot to get really efficient here,” said Tom Bell, the manager of the plant, which was built on the grounds of a shuttered U.S. Steel factory that was once a bedrock of the local economy. “Now we just need a few more orders.”
Industry executives and analysts say that the looming end of the production tax credit, which subsidizes wind power by 2.2 cents a kilowatt-hour, has made project developers skittish about investing or going forward. That reluctance has rippled through the supply chain.
On Tuesday, Siemens, the German-based turbine-maker, announced it would lay off 945 workers in Kansas, Iowa and Florida, including part-timers. Last week Katana Summit, a tower manufacturer, said it would shut down operations in Nebraska and Washington if it could not find a buyer. Vestas, the world’s largest turbine manufacturer, with operations in Colorado and Texas, recently laid off 1,400 workers globally on top of 2,300 layoffs announced earlier this year. Clipper Wind-power, with manufacturing in Iowa, is reducing its staff by a third, to 376 from 550. DMI Industries, another tower producer, is planning to lay off 167 workers in Tulsa by November.
Wind industry jobs range in pay from about $30,000 a year for assemblers to almost $100,000 a year for engineers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The industry’s contraction follows several years of sustained growth — with a few hiccups during the downturn — that has helped wind power edge closer to the cost of electricity from conventional fuels. The number of turbine manufacturers grew to nine in 2010 from just one in 2005, according to the United States International Trade Commission, while the number of component makers increased tenfold in roughly the same period to almost 400, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Aside from Clipper Wind power and General Electric, most of the turbine manufacturers operating in the United States have headquarters overseas, especially in Europe, where wind power took off first, spurred by clean energy policies and generous subsidies.
As the United States put in place mandates and subsidies of its own, several large outfits, including the Spanish company Gamesa, set up shop stateside. Because the turbines, made of roughly 8,000 parts, are so large and heavy — blades half the length of a football field, towers rising hundreds of feet in the air, motors weighing in the tons — they are difficult and expensive to transport.
As a result, manufacturers invested billions to develop a supply chain in the United States. More than 100 companies contribute parts to Gamesa’s 75-ton devices, which are the most expensive and complex major components of high-tech windmills.
Some longtime Gamesa partners like Hine Hydraulics followed the company from Spain, investing millions in building plants in the United States and sending workers to Spain for expensive training.
Rich Miller, who works for Hine in Quakertown, Pa., said that when he went to Spain to learn how to build and test power units for its hydraulic systems, it was his first trip out of the country.
“That was quite an experience in itself,” said Mr. Miller, who is 58, adding that he probably learned more in four years at Hine than at previous jobs.
Now he worries about having to move on. “Hopefully it will go back to the way things were.” Losing his job at his age, he said, “would be devastating for me.”
Source
But by the time the last of the devices, worth more than $1.25 million, was hitched to a rail car, Gamesa had furloughed 92 of the 115 workers who made them.
“We are all really sad,” said Miguel Orobiyi, 34, who worked as a mechanical assembler at the Gamesa plant for nearly five years. “I hope they call us back because they are really, really good jobs.”
Similar cuts are happening throughout the American wind sector, which includes hundreds of manufacturers, from multinationals that make giant windmills to smaller local manufacturers that supply specialty steel or bolts. In recent months, companies have announced almost 1,700 layoffs.
At its peak in 2008 and 2009, the industry employed about 85,000 people, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s principal trade group.
About 10,000 of those jobs have disappeared since, according to the association, as wind companies have been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper options from Asian competitors. Chinese manufacturers, who can often under-price goods because of generous state subsidies, have moved into the American market and have become an issue in the larger trade tensions between the countries. In July, the United States Commerce Department imposed tariffs on steel turbine towers from China after finding that manufacturers had been selling them for less than the cost of production.
And now, on top of the business challenges, the industry is facing a big political problem in Washington: the Dec. 31 expiration of a federal tax credit that makes wind power more competitive with other sources of electricity.
The tax break, which costs about $1 billion a year, has been periodically renewed by Congress with support from both parties. This year, however, it has become a wedge issue in the presidential contest. President Obama has traveled to wind-heavy swing states like Iowa to tout his support for the subsidy. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has said he opposes the wind credit, and that has galvanized Republicans in Congress against it, perhaps dooming any extension or at least delaying it until after the election despite a last-ditch lobbying effort from proponents this week.
Opponents argue that the industry has had long enough to wean itself from the subsidy and, with wind representing a small percentage of total electricity generation, the taxpayers’ investment has yielded an insufficient return.
“Big Wind has had extension after extension after extension,” said Benjamin Cole, a spokesman for the American Energy Alliance, a group partly financed by oil interests that has been lobbying against the credit in Washington. “The government shouldn’t be continuing to prop up industries that never seem to be able to get off their training wheels.”
But without the tax credit in place, the wind business “falls off a cliff,” said Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who studies the market potential of renewable electricity sources.
The industry’s precariousness was apparent a few weeks ago at the Gamesa factory, as a crew loaded the guts of the company’s newest model of the component, a device known as a nacelle, into its fiberglass shell. Only 50 completed nacelles awaited pickup in a yard once filled with three times as many, most of the production line stood idle, and shelves rated to hold 7,270 pounds of parts and equipment lay bare.
“We’ve done a lot to get really efficient here,” said Tom Bell, the manager of the plant, which was built on the grounds of a shuttered U.S. Steel factory that was once a bedrock of the local economy. “Now we just need a few more orders.”
Industry executives and analysts say that the looming end of the production tax credit, which subsidizes wind power by 2.2 cents a kilowatt-hour, has made project developers skittish about investing or going forward. That reluctance has rippled through the supply chain.
On Tuesday, Siemens, the German-based turbine-maker, announced it would lay off 945 workers in Kansas, Iowa and Florida, including part-timers. Last week Katana Summit, a tower manufacturer, said it would shut down operations in Nebraska and Washington if it could not find a buyer. Vestas, the world’s largest turbine manufacturer, with operations in Colorado and Texas, recently laid off 1,400 workers globally on top of 2,300 layoffs announced earlier this year. Clipper Wind-power, with manufacturing in Iowa, is reducing its staff by a third, to 376 from 550. DMI Industries, another tower producer, is planning to lay off 167 workers in Tulsa by November.
Wind industry jobs range in pay from about $30,000 a year for assemblers to almost $100,000 a year for engineers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The industry’s contraction follows several years of sustained growth — with a few hiccups during the downturn — that has helped wind power edge closer to the cost of electricity from conventional fuels. The number of turbine manufacturers grew to nine in 2010 from just one in 2005, according to the United States International Trade Commission, while the number of component makers increased tenfold in roughly the same period to almost 400, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Aside from Clipper Wind power and General Electric, most of the turbine manufacturers operating in the United States have headquarters overseas, especially in Europe, where wind power took off first, spurred by clean energy policies and generous subsidies.
As the United States put in place mandates and subsidies of its own, several large outfits, including the Spanish company Gamesa, set up shop stateside. Because the turbines, made of roughly 8,000 parts, are so large and heavy — blades half the length of a football field, towers rising hundreds of feet in the air, motors weighing in the tons — they are difficult and expensive to transport.
As a result, manufacturers invested billions to develop a supply chain in the United States. More than 100 companies contribute parts to Gamesa’s 75-ton devices, which are the most expensive and complex major components of high-tech windmills.
Some longtime Gamesa partners like Hine Hydraulics followed the company from Spain, investing millions in building plants in the United States and sending workers to Spain for expensive training.
Rich Miller, who works for Hine in Quakertown, Pa., said that when he went to Spain to learn how to build and test power units for its hydraulic systems, it was his first trip out of the country.
“That was quite an experience in itself,” said Mr. Miller, who is 58, adding that he probably learned more in four years at Hine than at previous jobs.
Now he worries about having to move on. “Hopefully it will go back to the way things were.” Losing his job at his age, he said, “would be devastating for me.”
Source
Friday, September 21, 2012
Wind Turbine Co. May Dodge First Wind's $60M Attachment Bid
Private equity-owned Clipper Windpower LLC doesn't have to tie up $60 million over First Wind Energy LLC's concerns it will collapse before a contract arbitration wraps up — as long as the floundering turbine company hands over its financial statements, a New York state judge ruled Friday.
Judge O. Peter Sherwood denied First Wind's bid to attach $60 million of Clipper's assets only on the condition that Platinum Equity LLC's Clipper give First Wind its financial statements within three days, in a bid to allay First...
Source
Judge O. Peter Sherwood denied First Wind's bid to attach $60 million of Clipper's assets only on the condition that Platinum Equity LLC's Clipper give First Wind its financial statements within three days, in a bid to allay First...
Source
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wolfe Island property assessment reductions of over $3 million
Dear Huron East Council,
Further to my deputation(s) regarding property devaluation by wind projects – I wish to forward some information I finally received from MPAC (as promised) regarding what has happened on Wolfe Island with regard to property assessment reductions. It hosts the province’s second largest wind farm. I am including the list of property assessment reductions from MPAC since 2008. The list shows 78 significant assessment reductions since 2008 (the wind farm became operational in 2009) totaling $3 million in reductions. The 6 largest reductions are listed below and are situated very close to the turbines themselves and very clearly shows what can happen to property assessments when wind farms are erected around residential areas. I do not wish to waste council’s time with another deputation-but would like to know what progress has been made with regard to creating a by-law (as discussed) to protect this from happening to Huron East ratepayers (and the municipalities’ tax base)? It was indicated that proof needed to be provided before attempting to put in place such a bylaw. I think that I have upheld my end of the bargain. Many of my neighbours are eager to know if there will be some protection put in place from potentially losing their life savings in their property equity?
Here
are the addresses of residents (near the wind project) who were granted
assessment reductions of over $100,000 by MPAC in the Township of Wolfe Island
from 2008 until Jan. 2012.
Reduction
- 82 - Oak Point Rd.: -$118,000
- 23 - Nine Mile Point Rd. -$143,000
- 429- Nine Mile Point Rd. -$119,000
- 433 -Nine Mile Point Rd. -$117,000
- 496 -Nine Mile Point Rd. -$107,000
- 136 – Lucas Point Lane -$101,000
Some
of these properties are on Wolfe Island and the rest are on Simcoe
Island. Simcoe Island is located just off the west end of Wolfe Island
where the Wind Project is sited (see map attached). According to an
e-mail I received from Gail Kenney (the prominent resident appealing their
ARB decision on Wolfe Island) the Wind Project can be seen and heard
from most of the south shore of Simcoe Island. She indicated
that property sales have all but shut down on Simcoe Island. She
now has this list from MPAC as well (they did not have it at the time of their
ARB hearing) .Wolfe
Island Assessment Reductions
Is Wind Back for Hartsville?
Everpower Is Interested
HARTSVILLE, NY - EverPower Wind, which has a wind project in Howard, is looking to possibly come to Hartsville. Hartsville officials tell WLEA/WCKR News that the Hartsville Town Board has been contacted by representatives of Everpower.
The wind company wants to put up what’s called a “Met” tower, to test the wind in Hartsville.
Hartsville officials say they have to review the town’s wind law, and should have an answer for Everpower by next month.
"EverPower has had a great deal of success in Steuben County with the Howard Wind Project and we have received a lot of calls and emails asking us to develop projects in other surrounding areas," said Kevin Sheen Senior Director of Development. "After making preliminary inquiries into the Hartsville area we have decided to study the area in greater detail. The first step in the process would be a Met Tower to study the wind. We are encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive comments we have received from the community and are looking forward to beginning the process."
Sheen also notes that if the application for the tower is approved by the Hartsville Town Board, Everpower will proceed with the installation in late October.
Wind Power, Article X, and the Production Tax Credit
Future Of Wind Riding On Next Presidential Election
Article X is a part of the Power New York Act of 2011. Article X rules state that a 7 member board, five state agency officials and two community members from local towns, can vote on whether a wind project happens in certain towns, and where the turbines would be located.
Critics of Article X say it takes away a town’s right to vote against a wind project, supporters maintain that there are two community local votes involved. Both State Senator Tom O’Mara (R, Big Flats) and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R, Corning) voted for the new Article X.
However, experts on both sides of the wind issue maintain that the survival of wind depends more on the Federal Production Tax Credit. The tax credit is subsidy money that goes to wind and other alternative energy companies. The production tax credit is up for renewal after the November elections.
President Obama says he’s for extending it, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is against.
Tax Credit in Doubt, Wind Power Industry Is Withering
Last month, Gamesa, a major maker of wind turbines,
completed the first significant order of its latest innovation: a
camper-size box that can capture the energy of slow winds, potentially
opening up new parts of the country to wind power.
But by the time the last of the devices, worth more than $1.25 million,
was hitched to a rail car, Gamesa had furloughed 92 of the 115 workers
who made them.
“We are all really sad,” said Miguel Orobiyi, 34, who worked as a
mechanical assembler at the Gamesa plant for nearly five years. “I hope
they call us back because they are really, really good jobs.”
Similar cutbacks are happening throughout the American wind sector,
which includes hundreds of manufacturers, from multinationals that make
giant windmills to smaller local manufacturers that supply specialty
steel or bolts. In recent months, companies have announced almost 1,700
layoffs.
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