From: howard.smith@spacebbs.com (Howard Smith) 
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: Wind Energy Weekly #5 1/2
Date: 10 Jan 93 14:08:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines + 4gB - 415-323-4193
Reply-To: howard.smith@spacebbs.com (Howard Smith) 

[The following is the electronic edition of _Wind Energy Weekly_,
Vol. 11, #527, 12.21/92, published by the American Wind Energy
Association.  For more information on the Association, contact
AWEA, 777 North Capitol Street, Suite 805, Washington, DC 20002,
USA, phone (202) 408-8988, FAX (202) 408-8536, email
3304640@mcimail.com]


BOOST EFFICIENCY, PUNISH
POLLUTION, ANALYSTS URGE

     U.S. industrial policy, previously oriented toward the Cold
War, should turn now to renewable energy and energy efficiency,
policy analysts Amory Lovins and Joseph Romm of the Rocky Mountain
Institute (RMI) said in a Foreign Affairs magazine article.

     If America could boost efficiency levels to those currently
attained in Germany and Japan, Lovins and Romm said, it could save
$200 billion a year in energy costs, making possible enormous
investments in new economic activity.

     Germany and Japan also have some of the world's toughest
environmental laws and highest energy prices, Lovins and Romm said,
which have "helped drive industrial innovation on a broad front,
yielding world-class resource efficiency, low waste, strong
economies and trade surpluses."

     Public Power Weekly, which summarized the Lovins/Romm article,
noted in an accompanying chart that projections of U.S. energy
demand by Lovins in a 1976 Foreign Affairs article have been
largely borne out.

     At that time, Lovins warned that the U.S. could not afford the
steady, massive increases in conventional energy production
projected and advocated by other experts.  Those experts foresaw
U.S. energy demand rising to nearly 120 quadrillion BTUs (quads),
the equivalent of 60 million barrels of oil a day, by 1990.
Instead, demand remained even lower, at just over 80 quads, than
even Lovins had projected.

     Lovins argued in 1976 that the U.S. would be forced by
economic realities to pursue greater efficiency and renewable
energy technologies, and urged that the federal government devote
more resources to those options.  While the Reagan and Bush
Administrations generally pursued energy policies designed to
strengthen conventional industries such as coal and oil, the growth
of those industries has been modest.

     Although some argued in 1976 that economic growth could not be
divorced from increasing energy supply, Lovins and Romm note, the
U.S. economy grew at an average rate of 2.5 percent between 1973
and 1986 with no increase in energy consumption, thanks to greater
efficiency.

MORE ON 'BLUEPRINT' FOR
CLINTON ENERGY POLICY

     In addition to its key goal of dedicating 25 percent of all
new or replacement U.S. generating capacity to wind and other
renewable energy technologies, the Sustainable Energy Blueprint
released recently by AWEA and several other groups (see
"Environmental Community Sends 'Blueprint' to Clinton/Gore," Wind
Energy Weekly #524, November 30, 1992, p. 3) contains a series of
other recommendations to spur the transition to a sustainable
energy supply system.

     The plan would also

-    Sharply reduce funding for conventional energy research and
     the superconducting super collider (SSC) atom-smasher, moving
     $1 billion to renewable energy, energy efficiency, and natural
     gas programs.  Between 1948 and 1990, it noted, nuclear energy
     absorbed 65 percent of all U.S. energy research funding,
     compared to 11 percent for conservation and six percent for
     renewables.

-    Aim to cut U.S. oil consumption in half within 20 years and
     reduce emissions of the leading greenhouse gas, carbon
     dioxide, by 40 percent over the same time frame.

-    Dedicate 25 percent of new or replacement transportation fuel
     production to renewables.

-    Emphasize pollution taxes as a means of raising revenue to
     reduce the federal deficit.  According to the groups, a
     $80/ton carbon tax on fossil energy would bring in $95 billion
     a year (see "EEI Open to Negotiating Carbon Tax with
     President-Elect Clinton," Wind Energy Weekly #525, December 7,
     1992, p. 1).

Investing in renewable energy technologies, the groups said, is
"needed to stimulate economic recovery in the near term . . . while
laying the foundation for sound economic growth."

They called the recently-passed National Energy Policy Act of 1992
only  "a first step," rather than the national energy strategy it
was purported to be, and said the U.S. must take further extensive
steps to achieve the long-term goal of meeting the public's needs
for energy services at the least cost to society and the
environment.

Groups endorsing the Blueprint include AWEA, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, and the
Alliance to Save Energy.


WIND ENERGY GROUP DEDICATES
7.2-MW WINDFARM IN WALES
     On November 25, Britain's Wind Energy Group (WEG) dedicated
the first wind power plant to use its two-bladed 33-meter MS3
turbine (see "WEG Completing Windfarm Construction in Wales," Wind
Energy Weekly #519, October 19, 1992, p. 5).

     The controversial 7.2-MW Cammaes project represents a
milestone not only for WEG, but also for wind energy in the United
Kingdom. The project is WEG's first commercial venture in Europe
and the first to go before a public inquiry to receive planning
approval.

     Cammaes is a long ridge in central Wales not far from
Snowdonia National Park.  The Countryside Commission and the
Commission for the Protection of Rural Wales objected to the 24-
turbine project on aesthetic grounds.  Local authorities and
eventually the Secretary of State for Wales endorsed the project,
in part because the turbines would be barely visible from Mount
Snowdonia.

     The Cammaes project was developed by National Wind Power, a
venture of National Power, British Aerospace, and Taylor Woodrow.
British Aerospace and Taylor Woodrow are also partners in WEG.
National Wind Power bought the turbines from WEG and contracted
Taylor Woodrow to develop the mountaintop site.  WEG will provide
operations and maintenance on all three National Wind Power
projects under development.

     Cammaes was almost an all-Welsh project. Gearboxes were
supplied by Compact Orbital Gears of Rhayader in industrial south
Wales, and the turbines were assembled by the firm Alfred Cook in
Cardiff.  The composite wood blades were built by WEG in
Southampton, in England proper.
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