United States Winning Wind War vs Carbon Emissions

The much respected and authoritative American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) will be giving some good news in a forthcoming report. A key finding will be that the growth of wind power in the United States is putting a significant dent in emissions. They say that wind generation avoided 95.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide being produced in 2013.  In order to get our heads around it, they say that this is the equivalent of taking nearly 17 million cars off of the US highways and roads!

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Another comparator is that it represents a 4.4 % cut to power sector emissions when compared to the level of emissions that would have been generated if that power had come solely from fossil fuels.

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Liz Salerno

Elizabeth Salerno, AWEA’s vice president for industry data and analysis said:

“Every time a megawatt of wind power is generated, something else is not generated.”  Something else being carbon-producing fuels.

Even those who are ambivalent (or worse) towards wind power admit that this is concrete evidence that the wind industry is playing a major role in meeting U.S. emissions goals.  Let’s look at the three categories of existing, coming on-stream and agreed (but no construction commenced) wind farms. There are 61,000 megawatts of wind power installed in the U.S., with turbines in 39 states. Another 12,000 megawatts of wind power are currently under construction and wind power projects for which contracts are signed but construction has yet to start should produce another 5,200 megawatts at some time in the near future. AWEA says the additional projects should cut another 1 % of power sector emissions, putting the country closer to the Obama administration’s goal of cutting total U.S. emissions 17 % by 2020.

While switching to natural gas for power generation when prices are low is often given credit for carbon emission reductions, plants burning gas could quite quickly and easily switch back to coal if prices rise again. Salerno said about gas power contributions to carbon emission reduction;

“those aren’t fixed, permanent reductions. With wind, those reductions are locked in.”

The AWEA report will also highlight other benefits from the use of wind power as compared other types of power generation: The expansion of wind energy has helped reduce water consumption by 36.5 billion gallons, or about 116 gallons of water per U.S. resident. How’s that? Because thermal power plants, which include coal, nuclear and some natural gas-fired units, use the fuel to boil water to produce the steam that turns the turbines that generate electricity. Plants also require water for constant water cooling… whereas wind turbines do not.

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However you look at it, the wind is a clear winner in the US!