Wind Power installed capacity increased 50% in 2008

[JohnWxy]

http://www.awea.org/publications/reports/AWEA-Annual-Wind-Report-2009.pdf#page=4&zoom=150%


In 2008, the U.S. wind energy industry brought online
over 8,500 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity,
increasing the nation’s cumulative total by 50% to over
25,300 MW and pushing the U.S. above Germany as the
country with the largest amount of wind power capacity
installed.

[LostinVA]

1. We wanted to get a small wind turbine from Pac Wind for our house

And, get this: even though the State of NJ is really pushing alternative energy for homes and businesses like turbines, many, many, MANY townships have outlawed them. Because they aren't pretty. We have a one-story ranch house, 20-feet above our roofline would STILL be well within our town's permitted height. But noooooo. If we had a second story on the house, that would be fine. If we had a big-ass dish on the roof, that too would be finr. But, no turbine.

And, the PacWind Seahawk (which Ed Begeley, the Eco Hero of our personal eco blog, has), is very small and attractive.

We can't have solar, because we have too many trees, and I feel it's counterproductive to cut down very old growth tress just to put them on the roof.

[NNadir]

2. There are ZERO "renewables will save us" who can do anything BUT "percent talk."

And soothsaying...

Don't forget soothsaying.

You can't be an anti-nuke if you understand the first (or last) thing about mathematics but all the same...sigh...it's easy to increase "next to nothing" by 100% and harder to double something significant.

If I have 50 cents, I can easily increase my holding by 1000%.

On the other hand, if I have 1 billion dollars, the case is more difficult.

The reason that we've had this "percent talk" year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year here is that renewable energy is STILL a huge failure.

All of it combined can't even keep up with the increase in dangerous fossil fuel use, not there is ONE airhead anti-nuke "renewables will save us" bourgoise car CULTure apologist who gives a rat's ass about dangerous fossil fuels.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/alternate/page/renew_energy_consump/table1.html

[NickB79]

3. Why did US renewable energy drop from 2006 to 2007?

That just struck me as really odd.

Also, when does the EIA update their figures? I'd be curious to see what happened in 2008, considering the oil price spike we saw.

[JohnWxy]

4. I checked this site Nick, and they say renewable energy usage went up 17.6% in 2008

However, total electrical power generation (from all sourrces) went down 2.5%, due to the collapse of the economy. The share from renewables went went UP from 2.5% to 3%.

"Overall electricity generation was down 1 percent in 2008, most likely due to the collapse of the economy. Electricity generation from coal and natural gas declined by 1.1 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

Wind, solar, geothermal and biomass, accounted for about 3 percent of total generation, up from 2.5 percent in 2007."


http://www.solarfeeds.com/alt-dot-energy/6547-renewable-energy-usage-increased-176-in-2008.html

[bananas]

5. 1) Hydro; 2) EIA Monthly Energy Review

The drop in renewables is almost all hydro.
Probably due to drought.

EIA has monthly updates, but they lag by a few months.
The December 2008 figures are in the latest report (March 2009).
Click on "What's New", download the full report, or browse each section: http://www.eia.doe.gov/mer/

These are probably the tables you're most interested in:
1.2 Primary Energy Production by Source
1.3 Primary Energy Consumption by Source
7.2a Electricity Net Generation: Total (All Sectors)
10.1 Renewable Energy Production and Consumption by Source

Make sure to click on the MER tables, not the AER tables.
MER = Monthly Energy Review, which has the latest figures
AER = Annual Energy Review, which isn't updated very often

Also notice the differences between 7.2a and the other tables:
In 7.2a, solar electricity continued to increase exponentially in 2008,
but in the other tables, solar electricity+heating only increased slightly.

[NickB79]

6. Thanks. I was thinking drought since the drop was all hydro

But wanted to make sure there weren't any major dam removal projects hadn't heard of.