California Center for Sustainable Energy

“Wind energy produces electricity without emitting any pollutants or greenhouse gases at all, requires no mining or drilling, helps preserve habitat and open space, and poses no national security threats. Wind energy could easily and cost-effectively contribute 20% of California's electricity supply by 2020.”

- California Wind Energy Association

The Nation

According to the Energy Information Administration, “In 2008, wind in the United States generated a total of 52 billion kWh, about 1.3% of total U.S. electricity generation.” It was enough electricity to serve 4.6 million households equivalent to powering the entire State of Colorado.

The graphic below details the wind power capacity, per state, in megawatts, at the end of 2009. The top 5 producing states were: TX, IA, CA, WA, and MN

California

The California Energy Commission estimates that over 13000 of California’s wind turbines are centered in three primary regions: Altamont Pass, Tehachapi and San Gorgonio. In 2004 they produced enough electricity to power all of San Francisco; fortunately since that time the number of turbines and therefore wind capacity has increased by over 30%.

Aside from the obvious environmental benefits of wind power the cost to produce a Kilowatt-hour is estimated to drop to around 3.5 cents in the near future, according the Energy Commission. Indeed it has already dropped four-fold since the 1980 and in 1993 the levelized cost of energy from wind turbines was 7.5 cents/ kWh.

In 2006 California committed to reducing its GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. According to some estimates wind energy alone could help achieve this goal if it produced 20% of California’s energy output by 2020. In order to meet this challenge, wind energy would need to be ramped up to about 20000MW by 2020. The chart below shows the history of installed wind capacity between 1999 and 2009. If we hope to meet our goal there would need to be over 700% increase of currently installed capacity.

Another way of looking at this issue is by analyzing the rate of growth of installed wind capacity. If California continued to install more wind capacity at the historical average rate of growth (5.7%/ YR) it would only reach about 5000MW by the end of 2020 (blue area in chart below). In order to reach the goal of 20000MW by 2020 the yearly rate of growth would need to increase over three-fold (20%/ YR; red area in chart below).

While the initial outlook may look bleak it is important to note that the California Independent Service Operator (CAISO) is anticipating another 4100MW to be added to the grid by 2012 (CAISO’s Plan for Integration of Renewable Resources - 2008). Another 13000MW have been submitted to CAISO bringing the total up to about 17000MW. If California continues to focus its efforts on the development and streamlining of these types of large scale wind development it isn’t hard to imagine meeting and beating the 2020 GHG emission reduction goals.

San Diego Region

In our San Diego region, we have limited wind resources. Sea breezes prevalent in coastal areas are not strong enough for efficient wind power production. However, some potential exists in the East County region. During Santa Ana conditions - when high pressure builds over the Great Basin, east of the Sierra Mountains and west of the Rocky mountains - East County winds can exceed 25 miles per hour, ideal operating conditions for a wind turbine.

Wind energy resources are characterized by wind power density classes, ranging from Class 1 to Class 7 (low to high). Good wind resources -Class 3 and above - have an average annual wind speed of at least 13 miles per hour. The National Renewable Energy Lab has developed a Wind Resource Map:: Southern California annual average wind power for Southern California, which shows several East County regions at Class 3 and above.

Large scale wind power systems need a lot of unobstructed property area for the turbine tower and capture of wind. Ideally, the location chosen will be near existing electricity transmission lines. With these inherent limitations, there are very few viable large scale applications for wind power in San Diego County. However, East County business and homeowners in Class 3 and above areas may wish to investigate small scale wind power to offset part or all their energy needs.

Part of the unobstructed property area requirements for large scale wind power arises from the San Diego County Zoning Regulations for wind turbines. These regulations should be thoroughly reviewed as part of a project feasibility study

Three 225 kilowatt Micon Wind Turbines at San Clemente Island

Cash Incentives available now!

Under the Self-Generation Incentive Program, wind turbines of combined output between 30 kilowatts and 3 megawatt, and sized at or below 200% of the customer's annual peak demand are eligible for an incentive of $1500 per kilowatt installed.

To learn more about rebates for wind turbines that generate less than 30 kW of energy, visit the California Energy Commission's Emerging Renewables Program.