UTILITIES ADDING WIND TO THEIR POWER SUPPLY MIX
A total of 8,558 megawatts of new wind projects were brought on-
line in 2008. The top utilities in terms of wind power include:
• Xcel Energy with 2906 megawatts on its system overall (both
wind energy PPAs and utility-owned projects)
• MidAmerican Energy has 2363 megawatts overall, including
the largest amount of utility-owned wind projects (1940 MW)
• CPS Energy of San Antonio, TX has the largest amount of wind
power serving its customers for a municipal utility (502 MW)
• Great River Energy has the largest amount of wind power for
their customers for a rural electric co-operative utility (319
MW)
Ownership of wind projects by utilities themselves continued to
represent about 15% of all wind projects installed in the U.S. in
2008, for the third year in a row.
The Multiple Benefits of Wind Power for Utilities
As the nation’s attention focuses more on global warming, the
importance of wind energy as a readily-available solution becomes
clearer. Wind energy can help the U.S. reduce and stabilize carbon
dioxide emissions due to electricity production. Some of the many
ways wind power can directly benefit electric utilities include:
Environmental
Wind power produces no carbon dioxide or air pollutant
emissions, does not require water, mining, drilling, or
transportation of fuel, and does not generate radioactive or
other hazardous or polluting waste.
Price Hedge
Wind power lowers the portfolio volatility of electric utility
power supplies, yielding benefits for future price risk and
mitigating the impacts of fossil fuel price volatility.
Price Trends
Although wind turbine prices have increased in the short-term,
long-term downward price trends are expected to continue
which will make wind power very cost competitive with other
generating options as domestic manufacturing catches up with
demand.
Utility Financial Considerations
Wind projects have very short construction periods and can be
de