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For more on wind energy and environmental, economic, and grid integration issues, see The Big Picture.
07/09/08 – Wind and Solar Developers Say CAISO Queue Reform Proposal Makes Progress, But Needs Improvement for Timely and Efficient Renewables Growth – The California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA) and the Large-scale
Solar Association (LSA) today gave a mixed grade to the proposed Generation Interconnection
Process Reform (GIPR) of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which is
expected to be approved today by the CAISO Board of Governors and filed at the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) later this month.
01/10/08 – CalWEA, Solar Developers, Propose Comprehensive CAISO Queue Reform – The California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA) and three solar thermal development companies -- Ausra, Inc., Abengoa Solar, Inc. and BrightSource Energy -- today filed at FERC a comprehensive proposal to address the dysfunctional large generator interconnection process at the California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO).
06/15/07 – Bottom Lines – With Focus on Wires, Wind Could Offer 20 Percent of State’s Energy by 2020
06/08/07 – More Wind, More Flexibility – A CalWEA opinion piece on wind reliability. While not intended as a "capacity" resource to meet system peak load, California's existing wind projects do provide "capacity value" to the system in an amount equivalent to about 25% of their nameplate electrical rating. Wind's variable output (very similar to changing consumer demand for power) can be readily managed by grid operators
06/06/07 - In a speech given at Wind Power 2007, CalWEA Executive Director Nancy Rader talks about how California can achieve 20% wind energy by 2020.
04/01/07 - A Mighty Wind - By Ryan Schuster - Tehachapi area may see nation’s largest wind energy project
02/16/07 - CalWEA Responds to CPUC 2006 Resource Adequacy Report
Because staff chose a misleading evaluation method, the report perpetuates the myth that wind generators do not contribute to system reliability.
02/15/07 - Wind vs. Coal: False Choices in the Battle to Resolve Our Energy Crisis
By Tara Lohan, from Alternet, February 15, 2007. When you cross the border into West Virginia along I-64 the welcome sign that used to say, "West Virginia: Wild and Wonderful," now says, "West Virginia: Open for Business." It is a sign of the times. According to a few area residents, the sign change coincidently occurred this fall around the same time that the state decided to approve an application for development of the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi. Read more >>>
01/24/07 - CalWEA Statement on CAISO’s Approval of Tehachapi Transmission Project
01/07 - The Birds and The Breeze - Making Wind Power Safe for Wildlife
By Frances Cerra Whittelsey, from Sierra Magazine, published by the Sierra Club, January/February 2007 Efforts to make turbines safer for birds seem to be working. According to a 2003 study of 4,700 turbines located outside California, each killed 2.3 birds per year. That's a tiny number compared with the hundreds of millions of birds that fall prey to cats every year, or the 4 million, at minimum, that collide with communication towers. And it pales in comparison to the number of birds and other creatures that would be killed by catastrophic global warming. Read more >>>
12/24/06 - CalWEA's Independent Review of 2004 California Energy Commission Report on Avian Issues
CalWEA commissioned three independent scientific reviews of the consultant report, "Developing Methods to Reduce Bird Mortality in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area," and numerous significant statistical and methodological errors were found. CalWEA and others in the wind industry have been highly critical of the quality of this report, whose estimates of avian fatalities in the Altamont are significantly higher than those found in previous studies, fueling anti-wind efforts around the globe. Read more >>>
12/06 - California Energy Commission Releases Its Own Peer Review Study of Altamont Pass Avian Report
On behalf of the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission), the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) conducted three peer reviews - with a primary focus on statistics - of "Developing Methods to Reduce Bird Mortality in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area." These peer reviews show that the report did not provide a credible statistical evaluation of the data and is not suitable as a basis for policymaking or law enforcement. Read more >>>
10/24/06 - CalWEA Independent Review of 2004 CEC Report on Altamont Avian Issues
09/08/06 - Editorial: CalWEA Executive Director Answers the Question: Is the RPS Working?
01/12/06 - Nature Writer Bill McKibben Puts Wind's Environmental Impacts in Perspective
"No More Mr. Nice Guy --Climate change is pushing this easygoing enviro over the edge" - from Grist, January 12, 2006. “[W]hat we need to say is: every bird, and everything else that we know, is fundamentally at risk in the next few decades [due to global warming]. In the name of birds, I want that windmill on my ridge. In the name of wild beauty, I want that windmill out my window...” Read more >>>
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An Editorial: CalWEA Executive Director Answers the Question: Is the RPS Working? Read more >>>
Nature Writer Bill McKibben -- “[W]hat we need to say is: every bird, and everything else that we know, is fundamentally at risk in the next few decades [due to global warming]. In the name of birds, I want that windmill on my ridge. In the name of wild beauty, I want that windmill out my window...” Read more >>>
The Birds and The Breeze - from Sierra Magazine, “According to a 2003 study of 4,700 turbines located outside California, each killed 2.3 birds per year. That's a tiny number compared with the hundreds of millions of birds that fall prey to cats every year……and it pales in comparison to the number of birds and other creatures that would be killed by catastrophic global warming.” Read more >>>
CalWEA addresses wind energy’s reliability in this Energy Circuit Editorial – “The initial results from a California Energy Commission study show that the California grid has the technical capability to include 20 percent intermittent generation under a 33 percent renewable goal without the need for significant new resources to accommodate the variability of these intermittent renewables.” Read more >>>
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