New Technology and Economics are Blowing New Opportunities for Global Wind Industry
The global push is on to develop renewable energy sources as the realization there is a finite quantity of traditional fuel sources, like oil and coal, finally sinks in. A rapidly growing world population and increasing development in underdeveloped nations has accelerated the need for alternative energy sources. Wind energy is one of those sources, and the growing industry offers countless opportunities for minority business enterprises (MBEs) to expand and establish a reputation in a major energy industry of the future.
The energy systems producing power with wind are composed of increasingly sophisticated technology-based units that provide sustainable energy and reliability. Briefly, a nacelle with three blades and rotor attached sits on top of a pole tower rising 100 feet or more in the air. When the wind blows, the blades catch the air and turn around the rotor to create mechanical energy. The rotor is connected to a main shaft that rotates inside a generator housing and produces electrical energy. The electricity flows down a large cable inside the tower to a transformer, which converts it to usable power that is then directed to a power substation and then to the power grid. To create bulk utility-scale wind power plants, multiple turbines are grouped together on a wind farm, with each having a cable that transfers electricity to a substation. The set-ups can vary as technology advances and more companies enter the market, but that is the basic system.
There are now a number of examples of electricity providers meeting a portion of their market’s power needs with wind generated energy. As the energy industry continues to push for a smart grid that manages energy production across a range of energy producing systems, the wind industry will grow. Wind turbines are manufactured in different sizes, and there are smaller ones made that are designed to provide power off the grid as stand alone units. The larger turbines produce power for high-energy use businesses, like manufacturers, as an integrated supplement to the power grid; for utility companies selling electricity; and for cities and rural areas that want to produce their own reliable electricity.
Wind farms are located on land and offshore and are growing rapidly in number. According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), in 2012, Europe installed 369 new offshore wind turbines and 293 are fully grid connected, with work progressing on the others. Europe had a total of 1,662 offshore installed and grid connected turbines on 55 wind farms in 10 countries. At the end of 2012, the U.S. wind industry was represented in 39 states and Puerto Rico with more than 45,100 wind turbines producing over 60,000 megawatts or 60 gigawatts. To size the energy production, 60 GW can power 14.7 million homes and is equivalent to power generated by 14 nuclear power plants. The same scenarios are found in 75 other countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and Canada.
The growth of the global wind industry to date is impressive. Yet, it can still be called a “nascent” industry because of there is so much room to grow. Currently the U.S. produces approximately 2.3 percent of its electric power by wind but has set a goal of 20 percent of the nation’s electric generation to come from wind turbines by the year 2030. One of the industry drivers is the declining kilowatt-per-hour cost for wind energy, making it more competitive with natural gas. However, some industry analysts predict the current cost of natural gas is unnaturally low and bound to rise. Eventually wind energy costs could be lower than coal or natural gas in the U.S., which is already true in Australia.
Innovators and Suppliers Needed
The wind industry is in need of innovators and suppliers. Innovators have opportunities to develop new state-of-the-art on-shore and off-shore turbines capable of meeting different power production needs. One of the expectations is that future engineered turbines will experience further technology based cost reductions as kilowatt production rises per turbine. Manufacturing plants need suppliers for wind turbine components, including towers, blades and nacelles. There are over 400 U.S. manufacturers supplying more than 8,000 turbine components. Wind turbine assemblers, and substructure and inter-array cable suppliers are also in demand. In addition, opportunities exist to develop new materials and to manage wind turbine maintenance contracts. It is estimated that a 100 turbine wind farm will create almost eleven-hundred jobs over the project lifetime.
MBEs also have opportunities to compete for contracts for wind farm development. Maryland recently passed a bill that provides $10 million in assistance to small and minority owned businesses interested in competing for contacts related to the installation of a large off-shore wind farm. The contracts will cover engineering, manufacturing components, transportation, and a host of other professional services. To find projects, MBEs can start by contacting the American Wind Energy Association for U.S. opportunities and the EWEA for European projects. There are wind energy associations like the Global Wind Energy Council and the World Wind Energy Council that can also provide up-to-date information on the status of the industry around the globe.
The U.S. Department of Energy has an online map showing the locations of wind energy manufacturing plants, and indicates if the plants are producing blades, nacelle components, towers, turbines, or other supplies. One of the quickest ways to locate U.S. financial incentives for wind power technology development is through the federal Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE).
The global wind industry has not gotten as much attention as the solar power industry, but that is quickly changing. Advancing technology, declining per-kilowatt costs, and sustainability initiatives at the government and business levels are making wind energy a major force in the energy production industry.