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Wind Power - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

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Information about wind energy's development as an important component of New York's clean renewable energy initiative and the state's ability to achieve the RPS described above

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Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy

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Wind energy advantages explain why wind power is one of the fast-growing renewable energy sources in all the world.

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Wind energy association responds to NUM’s protest march (Sam)

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Wind energy association responds to NUM’s protest march (Sam)

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The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa marched on November 17th in protest of the country's transition away from coal.  The South African Wind Energy Association responded that the renewable energy sector was actually creating many more jobs, over 30,000 in the past year, with a third of those jobs coming from wind energy. However, many of these jobs are coming from construction as South Africa rapidly expands its renewable energy sector.  The SAWEA responds to this by stating that most South African coal plants are scheduled to retire by 2050 and many are already cutting jobs in preparation for their closing.  The SAWEA also argues that the coal industry should be taking responsibility for making sure that the transition runs smoothly without harmful economic impacts.

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Speaking on behalf of the wind energy sector, the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has noted the National Union of Mineworker's peaceful march, planned for 17 November 2018.
This is not the first time that organised labour has protested South Africa's transition away from coal, or suggests that renewable independent power producers (IPPs) will cause the loss of coal-sector jobs.

Prior action has also included NUMSA attempting to bring about an interdict application to halt the conclusion of 27 Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements, which was rejected by the courts.

The Department of Energy recently confirmed that the renewable energy sector is currently four times more employment-intensive than the country's coal and nuclear sector.

"During construction thus far, employment for 30,405 job years has been created by the country's renewable energy sector as a whole, with the Wind Industry contributing approximately one third of these jobs," explained Brenda Martin, CEO of SAWEA.

Employment opportunities

The industry is transparent about the fact that the lion's share of employment opportunities are located within the construction phase, with a timeframe of typically two years per project, but points out that whilst the power plant operations phase offers fewer employment opportunities, they do add up.

"The full portfolio of 36 preferred bidder wind projects, procured to-date, are expected to generate 32,138 job years, over their 20-year operational period," Martin added.

Wind turbines require steel, concrete, copper, fibreglass, adhesive, core, and other input materials to produce. Steel accounts for almost 90% of the total materials used in production of wind turbines. This steel is mainly used to manufacture towers. Towers account for 14% of wind project value, nacelles and hubs 30.5%, and blades approximately 9.1%.

Given this, where wind power is concerned, the countries that boast consistent utility-scale wind energy installed capacities are also the countries that can boast large jobs-intensive wind turbine manufacturing industry market share. Two further areas of significant job-creation potential within the wind power value chain are transport and construction.

"In national policy and planning, most of South Africa's existing coal power plants are scheduled to retire by 2050, when they reach end of life. Aligned with this, and as numerous Eskom annual reports will confirm, the utility has been planning coal-fired power station retirements for many years, so to pin job losses on the renewable energy sector, is inaccurate" explained Martin.

The energy transition in South Africa needs to be managed with much more care by all social partners.

"As owners and operators of coal-fired power stations, Eskom and its coal suppliers should take primary responsibility for ensuring social plans are in place to address the consequences of plant and mine closures. SAWEA has recently adopted an Industry commitment statement which sets out the Industry's commitment within the energy transition. A managed transition is essential to ensure that negative effects particularly on people, are minimised" she concluded.

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Wind energy association responds to NUM's protest march

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Speaking on behalf of the wind energy sector, the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has noted the National Union of Mineworker's peaceful march, planned for 17 November 2018. This is not the first time that organised labour has protested South Africa's transition away from coal, or suggests that renewable independent power producers (IPPs) will cause the loss of coal-sector jobs.

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Wind energy supporters brace for a fight in the Texas Capitol (Ariel)

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Wind energy supporters brace for a fight in the Texas Capitol (Ariel)

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The issue for renewable energy in Texas currently is how many people are fighting the wind energy companies and movement. Especially, a conservative think tank and members of a policy analysis team for the Texas Public Policy Foundation; they are making many claims saying wind companies don't need funding and take away jobs. The resolution is still under way, the wind industry fighting back with data showing they have created 33,000 new jobs. They also stand by their assertion that renewable energy is necessary and the way of the future. Jeff Clark, President of the wind coalition went on to firmly state that billions of tax revenue dollars have been created due to investments, and that if oil and gas companies receive funding from the state, so should renewables.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) - Renewable energy supporters are bracing for a fight in the next legislative session. Help state lawmakers give to solar and wind companies must be renewed when lawmakers return to Austin in January.

The state allows local cities and counties to make agreements with energy companies; governments will collect less in property taxes in exchange for business investments and jobs in a certain community. They're known as Chapter 312 and Chapter 313 agreements and representatives from many renewable energy companies say they chose Texas because of them.

However, ahead of the session, a well-known conservative think tank has set its sights on stripping the state of tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy companies.

Cutter Gonzalez, a policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, says the state should not help an industry that already receives incentives from the Federal Government. The group launched a year-long effort to wear down lawmaker's taste for offering help; create digital videos highlighting neighbor complaints of the sound, the view, and underperforming economic activity.

"What we've seen with renewables is they just don't bring the jobs. You see a big wind farm or a big solar farm, there aren't a lot of people working on those things," said Gonzalez.

Oil and gas companies also receive generous state benefits. Critics of TPPF's efforts say the think-tank is doing the bidding of the oil and gas industry leaders - and their politically connected donors - who are trying to eliminate up-start competition. When asked, Gonzalez says that's not the case.

"It's oversimplifying certainly because we would like to end subsidies for everyone. If we found a viable way to end subsidies for everyone, we would do it. We are free market people," said Gonzalez.

To combat the effort, the Wind-Solar Alliance launched a campaign to show the economic results of the incentives. They invited legislative staff and lawmakers to E.ON in downtown Austin, a German-based company employing 160 Texans.

Jeff Clark, President of the Wind Coalition, says the wind industry supports 33,000 jobs in Texas - well worth the state tax abatements. The benefits, he says, has helped Texas become the national leader in wind energy.

"We are the model and we're taking this model not only to the country but to the rest of the world. The future of energy is renewables, storage, and natural gas," said Clark.

Clark also points out more than $1 billion in 2017 investment in local communities and more than $200 million in local tax revenue - would not exist if companies weren't lured to Texas with incentives.

In short, he wants a level playing field: if oil and gas companies get help from the state, renewables should too.

"Like it has in any other industry, economics and technology are playing a role in energy," said Clark.

This will be a larger battle of a raging war; a smaller battle was fought and won by wind energy critics last session. In 2017, state lawmakers rolled back tax exemptions for wind-power near military bases. Central Texas Republican Senator Donna Campbell authored SB 277 and it passed into law. It prevents wind farm owners from receiving a property tax abatement if their wind turbines are located within 25 nautical miles of a military aviation facility.

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts keeps track of 313 agreements. The latest figures from 2016 show that of more than 300 projects that benefit over half are renewable energy. However, the dollar amounts skew a different way. Those renewable energy projects only reaped a quarter of the $7.1 billion dollars worth of company savings.

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Wind energy supporters brace for a fight in the Texas capitol

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AUSTIN (KXAN) - Renewable energy supporters are bracing for a fight in the next legislative session. Help state lawmakers give to solar and wind companies must be renewed when lawmakers return to Austin in January.

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Assignment: Incorporating Global Perspectives into Your Project

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Assignment: Incorporating Global Perspectives into Your Project

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10 pts. Due Mon. Dec. 3, 2018

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Incorporating Global Perspectives into Your Project