2015 Wind Technologies Market Report

Annual wind energy capability additions in the US surged in 2015 and are projected to proceed at a speedy clip within the coming 5 years. Latest and projected near-term development is supported by the trade’s major federal incentive—the manufacturing tax credit score (PTC)—having been prolonged for a number of years (although with a phase-down schedule, described additional on pages 68-69), in addition to a myriad of state-level insurance policies. Wind additions are additionally being pushed by enhancements in the price and efficiency of wind energy applied sciences, yielding low energy gross sales costs for utility, company, and different purchasers.

On the similar time, the prospects for development past the present PTC cycle stay unsure: development may very well be blunted by declining federal tax help, expectations for low pure fuel costs, and modest electrical energy demand development. This annual report—now in its tenth yr—offers an in depth overview of developments and tendencies within the U.S. wind energy market, with a specific deal with 2015. The report begins with an summary of key installation-related tendencies: tendencies in U.S. wind energy capability development; how that development compares to different nations and technology sources; the quantity and share of wind vitality in particular person states; the standing of offshore wind energy growth; and the amount of proposed wind energy capability in varied interconnection queues in the US. Subsequent, the report covers an array of wind energy trade tendencies:

In so doing, it describes tendencies in mission efficiency, wind turbine transaction costs, put in mission prices, and operations and upkeep (O&M) bills. It additionally critiques the costs paid for wind energy in the US and the way these costs examine to short-term wholesale electrical energy costs and forecasts of future pure fuel costs. Subsequent, the report examines coverage and market components impacting the home wind energy market, together with federal and state coverage drivers in addition to transmission and grid integration points. The report concludes with a preview of potential near-term market developments.developments in turbine producer market share; manufacturing and supply-chain developments; wind turbine and part imports into and exports from the US; mission financing developments; and tendencies amongst wind energy mission house owners and energy purchasers. The report then turns to a abstract of wind turbine expertise tendencies: turbine dimension, hub peak, rotor diameter, particular energy, and IEC Class. After that, the report discusses wind energy efficiency, price, and pricing tendencies.

This version of the annual report updates knowledge introduced in earlier editions whereas highlighting key tendencies and vital new developments from 2015. The report concentrates on bigger, utility-scale wind generators, outlined right here as particular person generators that exceed 100 kW in dimension.1 The U.S. wind energy sector is multifaceted, nonetheless, and in addition contains smaller, customer-sited wind generators used to energy residences, farms, and companies. Additional data on distributed wind energy, which incorporates smaller wind generators in addition to using bigger generators in distributed purposes, is obtainable by a separate annual report funded by the U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE).2

The Appendix offers a abstract of the numerous knowledge sources used within the report, and an inventory of particular references follows the Appendix. Information on wind energy capability additions in the US (in addition to wind energy initiatives) are based mostly largely on data offered by AWEA, though minor methodological variations might yield barely totally different numbers from AWEA (2016a) in some circumstances. In different circumstances, the information proven right here symbolize solely a pattern of precise wind energy initiatives put in in the US; moreover, the information fluctuate in high quality.Moreover, as a result of this report has an historic focus, and all U.S. wind energy initiatives have been land-based, its remedy of tendencies within the offshore wind energy sector is proscribed to a quick abstract of latest developments. A lot of the information included on this report have been compiled by Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) from quite a lot of sources, together with the American Wind Vitality Affiliation (AWEA), the U.S. Vitality Info Administration (EIA), and the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC).

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