USA - Energy policy today will shape next decade of industry: WINDPOWER Panel

As the wind energy industry continues to ramp up and prove its supply chain is well capable of rapidly scaling up to provide at least 20% of the nation’s electricity, the need for a long-term and stable energy policy is now more urgent than ever, said panelists participating in Wednesday’s general session at the WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition.

The theme coming from the wind-industry executive panelists, as well as from T. Boone Pickens in the second part of the session, was that the U.S. has reached a moment of truth in its policymaking.

“The U.S. does not have a long-term energy strategy,” said Vic Abate, vice president of renewables for GE Energy, underscoring an often-repeated fact. But with energy legislation a top priority for the Obama Administration and now receiving Congress’s attention, “The next 10-12 months will [set the tone] for the next 10-12 years,” in the industry, he said.

Pickens, the billionaire Texas oil man who has embraced wind power, expressed virtual certainty that the time has come for an overarching energy policy to be instituted by the federal government—an opinion coming from a man who said he has been cynically awaiting such a strategy since at least the 1970s.

“We’re going to have an energy plan for America, I can promise you that,” he told an applauding audience in his trademark slow drawl.

The remarks come less than a year after last year’s WINDPOWER event, when much of the discussion concerned supply-chain constraints and what the wind industry needed to do to meet the challenge of having 20% of the nation’s electricity come from wind. Abate and others pointed out how that question has largely been answered; thus, much of what remains to be done is on the policy side. Abate noted that GE has ramped up its wind turbine production from about 10 turbines a week as recently as 2005 to 13 a day currently.

Such expansion has meant job creation, and further expansion will mean greater job creation, panelists said. Ditlev Engel, president and CEO of turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S, said that for years the company has held back on planting manufacturing roots in the U.S. because of the unstable policy environment. But because Vestas now believes the U.S. policy climate is changing, the company is establishing manufacturing facilities here.

All panelists urged Congress to pass a renewable electricity standard in order to send the industry and investment community a signal of stability. “Our company is ready to go in the United States,” said Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander who is now North American chairman of turbine manufacturer Emergya Wind Technologies, B.V. “We have 800 jobs we’re bringing to Arkansas. All we need is the policy to do it.”

Michael Polsky, CEO of wind developer Invenergy, LLC, was concise and eloquent in his policy points, stating the urgent need for a renewable electricity standard. He noted that all facets of the economy are affected by policy, without which there would not even be an interstate highway system.

“Energy is a policy-driven industry,” said Declan Flanagan, CEO of E.On Climate & Renewables N.A. Inc. “It always was, and it always will be.”

In his segment of the session, Pickens, who was interviewed by veteran journalist Bill Kurtis, said that the nation has reached a critical moment in that the citizens understand the importance of energy and the issues surrounding it.

“When the American people want something, it’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s a tipping point, is what it is, for the American people.”

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net