2. Union of Concerned Scientists, Powering the Midwest: Renewable Electricity for the Economy and the Environment (Washington, DC, 1993).
3. Assuming 13-mile-per-hour winds and typical utility financing arrangements.
4. Energy Policy Act of 1992, Public Law 102-485, Section 1212, 42 U.S.C. 13317, enacted October 24, 1992.
5. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 1994, DOE/EIA-0384(94) (Washington, DC, July 1995).
6. Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States, DE86004442 (Golden, CO: Solar Energy Research Institute, October 1986), p. 2.
7. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Wind Reserves Accessible to Transmission Lines, Draft DOE Task 94-001 (Golden, CO, September 1994), supported by the Energy Information Administration.
8. Information obtained from Pacific Gas & Electric Company by telephone, August 16, 1995.
9. Costs for 1993 are estimated for 100 225-kilowatt wind turbines with operating lives of 30 years, total capital costs of $23.6 million ($1,049 per kilowatthour), and operating and maintenance costs of 1 cent per kilowatthour. For more information, see U.S. Department of Energy, Wind Energy Program Overview Fiscal Year 1993, DOE/CH10093-279 (Washington, DC, May 1994), p. 3; and U.S. Department of Energy, "Wind Technology Characterization," internal review document (December 9, 1993).
10. International Energy Agency, CADDET Mini Review: Wind Energy (Oxford, United Kingdom, April 1995).
11. "Competitive Wind Energy," EPRI Journal, Vol. 18, No. 8 (December 1993), p. 2.
12. "Wind Systems for Electrical Power Production," Mechanical Engineering (August 1994), p. 75.
13. Assuming 13-mile-per-hour winds and typical utility financing arrangements.
14. Estimation for 2005 is given in 1993 dollars. Cost does not include substation and interconnection. See Electric Power Research Institute, Technical Assessment Guide, Electric Supply, 1993, EPRI-102276-V1R7 (June 1993), pp. 8-106 and 8-108.
15. The majority of circuit miles of overhead electric line of 115 kilovolts through 230 kilovolts in 1992 were 115-kilovolt lines. The cost assumptions for this analysis therefore considered 115- kilovolt transmission lines for construction and interconnection. See Edison Electric Institute, Statistical Yearbook of the Electric Utility Industry 1992 (Washington, DC, October 1993), p. 97.
16. Cost estimates are from Electric Power Research Institute, Technical Assessment Guide, Volume 1, Electric Supply, 1989, Revision 6 (Palo Alto, CA, November 1989), and are the most recent data available.
17. Cost assumptions are based on information from National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Wind Reserves Accessible to Transmission Lines, Draft DOE Task 94-001 (Golden, CO, September 1994), supported by the Energy Information Administration.
18. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, "Comparison of Financing Terms for Wind Turbine and Fossil Power Plants," (Berkeley, CA, September 1994), supported by the Energy Information Administration.
19. Spinning reserve refers to a generating unit (typically a combustion turbine) that is operating and synchronized with the transmission system but not supplying power to meet load. It is available to take on load on very short notice, for example, if a large generating unit goes off line unexpectedly. The greater the amount of capacity that can be lost, the greater the spinning reserve requirement.
20. J.P. Doherty, Energy Information Administration, "U.S. Wind Energy Potential: The Effect of the Proximity of Wind Resources to Transmission Lines," Monthly Energy Review (Washington, DC, February 1995), pp. vii-xiv.
21. For more information, see Pacific Northwest Laboratory, An Assessment of the Available Windy Land Area and Wind Energy Potential in the Contiguous United States, DE91018887 (Richland, WA, August 1991), p. 43.
22. Potential generating capability is presented in average megawatts per square kilometer. Capacity denoted in average megawatts should not be confused with nameplate capacity in megawatts. The nameplate capacity rating represents peak output at the rated wind speed, while average megawatts is the normalized actual power production (average megawatts multiplied by 8,760 hours per year results in the annual energy production in kilowatthours per year).
23. J.P. Doherty, Energy Information Administration, "U.S. Wind Energy Potential: The Effect of the Proximity of Wind Resources to Transmission Lines," Monthly Energy Review (Washington, DC, February 1995), pp. vii-xiv.
24. American Wind Energy Association in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Removing Barriers to Wind Energy: Directions for State Regulatory Action (Washington, DC, 1993), pp. 5-6.
25. Pacific Northwest Laboratories, An Assessment of the Available Windy Land Area and Wind Energy Potential in the Contiguous United States, DE91018887 (Richland, WA, August 1991), p. 43.
26. The Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), Section 210, requires utility companies to buy power from qualifying facilities, including renewable plants. There is a proposal to repeal this section of PURPA. The legislation has pitted some of the Nation's major utilities against independent producers. The utilities argue they are forced to subsidize sometimes uneconomical private producers at high cost to consumers, while the independent producers argue that the utilities are seeking to shore up a monopoly. The price for QF power, known as the "avoided cost," is based on how much money the utility would have spent to generate the same amount of energy that is supplied by the independent producer.
27. B. Engelking, "Minnesota's Policy and Incentives for Renewable Energy," paper presented at NARUC-DOE Conference on Renewable and Sustainable Energy Strategies in a Competitive Market (Madison, WI, May 1995).
28. 1993 Renewable Energy and Integrated Resource Planning Act (Minnesota Laws 1993, Chapter 356).
29. The cost of 3 cents per kilowatthour includes a tax credit of 1.5 cents per kilowatthour.
30. NARUC Subcommittee on Renewable Energy, State Renewable Energy News, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Winter 1995).
31. NARUC Subcommittee on Renewable Energy, State Renewable Energy News, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Winter 1995).
32. "Kenetech Announces Sale of West Texas Windplant," Solar Letter (January 25, 1995), pp. 24-25.