The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to release its first-ever proposed rule limiting carbon dioxide pollution from existing power plants on June 2. The good news is wind energy is already helping nearly every state make progress toward whatever reductions the EPA will require and is an affordable and reliable compliance option for further reductions.
A just published AWEA white paper, “ The Clean Air Benefits of Wind Energy ,” finds that wind energy is a widely-available, affordable, reliable, and rapidly scalable source of carbon emissions reductions. The paper, for the first time using the publicly available EPA AVERT modeling tool, quantifies on a state-by-state basis the emissions reductions attributable to the current fleet of wind turbines in the U.S.
“Wind energy is one of the biggest, fastest, cheapest ways states can comply with the forthcoming EPA rule limiting carbon pollution from existing power plants,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA . “And the best part is that many of these states and their utilities are already familiar with the affordable, reliable product that wind energy provides. While the details are still to come, we’re confident that wind energy can play an even bigger role in helping states generate carbon-free energy and drive local economic development in the process.”
Among the key findings in the new report are:
These important reductions in emissions from wind energy have come while the industry has improved technology and reduced costs by 43 percent in four years. The average hub height for a wind turbine is now just over 80 meters allowing access to better, steadier wind speeds. With this advancement both the EIA and Lazard find that wind energy is one of the lowest cost options for new electric generation. And utilities agree, in 2013 utilities signed 60 power purchase agreements for 8,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. Between 2011 and 2013, wind energy was the primary choice for new power in the wind-rich regions of the Pacific Northwest, Plains states, and Midwest, providing over 60 percent of all new capacity.
“Wind energy is a proven generating resource that is available to help all states affordably and reliably achieve the carbon emission reductions to be proposed by the EPA soon,” said Kiernan .