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Electric Power Research Institute

Putting Wind on the Grid

Over the last twenty years, technological advances and manufacturing experience have driven down the cost of electricity from wind by more than 80%-contributing to the 20-30% annual growth of wind capacity worldwide and making wind the fastest-growing large-scale power generation technology in the world. So far, most of the progress is the result of making wind turbine-generators larger, more efficient, and more reliable. Now, as the industry pursues development of even larger wind turbines for offshore applications and further improvements in cost and performance, it is also addressing a second technological thrust: to facilitate the integration of large concentrations of wind generation into electric power grids. If these efforts are successful, utility networks will be able to accept higher levels of wind-based generating capacity, potentially enabling wind power to increase its contribution to U.S. electricity from 0.4%, the future for 2004, to as much as 5% by 2020.

Electric Power Research Institute notes that the MISO (Midwest grid system operator) has taken several interesting actions in support of renewable percentage of power in its system and prepared reports which analyze the capitalization of these alternative electricity generation efforts.

Click Here to view the EPRI Site

Click Here for information on Indiana's Wind Working Group

Click Here for the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Energy Guide for County Commissioners