Resource Documents: U.S. (117 items)
Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. These resource documents are provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
U.S. wind capacity factors – 2012 (preliminary)
Author: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Source: Form EIA-923, all wind energy facilities that submitted monthly reports for ALL of 2012.
|
0.201 TN
0.202 AZ 0.231 VT 0.236 NY 0.239 WV 0.242 OH 0.243 ME 0.248 UT 0.249 CA 0.249 PA 0.259 OR 0.269 IN 0.271 WA 0.280 WI 0.294 IL 0.298 MD 0.311 MO 0.324 MI 0.330 HI 0.333 NM 0.337 CO 0.337 MN 0.337 TX 0.338 MT 0.341 ID 0.343 IA 0.352 WY 0.358 KS 0.389 ND 0.414 OK 0.428 NE 0.429 SD 0.318 US TOTAL |
Northeast
New England
ME 0.243
VT 0.231 Middle Atlantic NY 0.236
PA 0.249 South South Atlantic
MD 0.298
WV 0.239 East South Central TN 0.201
West South Central OK 0.414
TX 0.337 Midwest East North Central
IL 0.294
IN 0.269 MI 0.324 OH 0.242 WI 0.280 West North Central IA 0.343
KS 0.358 MN 0.337 MO 0.311 ND 0.389 NE 0.428 SD 0.429 West Mountain
AZ 0.202
CO 0.337 ID 0.341 MT 0.338 NM 0.333 UT 0.248 WY 0.352 Pacific CA 0.249
HI 0.330 OR 0.259 WA 0.271 |
Estimated U.S. Energy Use in 2011
Author: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Energy flow charts show the relative size of primary energy resources and end uses in the United States, with fuels compared on a common energy unit basis. Click here for a guide to units (1 quadrillion Btu = 293 million MWh). (Click picture to enlarge.)
Comparing bird and bat fatality-rate estimates among North American wind-energy projects
Author: Smallwood, K. Shawn
Abstract: Estimates of bird and bat fatalities are often made at wind-energy projects to assess impacts by comparing them with other fatality estimates. Many fatality estimates have been made across North America, but they have varied greatly in field and analytical methods, monitoring duration, and in the size and height of the wind turbines monitored for fatalities, and few benefited from scientific peer review. To improve comparability among estimates, I reviewed available reports of fatality monitoring at wind-energy projects throughout North America, and I applied a common estimator and 3 adjustment factors to data collected from these reports. To adjust fatality estimates for proportions of carcasses not found during routine monitoring, I used national averages from hundreds of carcass placement trials intended to characterize scavenger removal and searcher detection rates, and I relied on patterns of carcass distance from wind turbines to develop an adjustment for variation in maximum search radius around wind turbines mounted on various tower heights. Adjusted fatality rates correlated inversely with wind-turbine size for all raptors as a group across the United States, and for all birds as a group within the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, California. I estimated 888,000 bat and 573,000 bird fatalities/year (including 83,000 raptor fatalities) at 51,630 megawatt (MW) of installed wind-energy capacity in the United States in 2012. As wind energy continues to expand, there is urgent need to improve fatality monitoring methods, especially in the implementation of detection trials, which should be more realistically incorporated into routine monitoring.
Wildlife Society Bulletin, Volume 37, Issue 1, pages 19–33, March 2013
DOI:10.1002/wsb.260
Shepherd’s Flat wind farm
Author: Francis, Jamie
Caithness Energy marked the opening of its Shepherd’s Flat wind farm near Arlington in September. Billed as one of the world’s largest wind farms, the project attracted national attention for stacking federal and state subsidies. Developers subdivided the project to qualify for three $10 million tax credits from Oregon, where regulators approved the final tax credit last month. Photos by Jamie Francis, The Oregonian. Click photos for larger versions.
