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Wind Turbine Market Estimated To Reach $60.9 Billion by 2013

by: Ron Haruni August 29, 2008    

Ron Haruni

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High oil prices, together with the rapid economic development in the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and (particularly) China, are driving and intensifying the search for alternative energies. Diversification of our energy resources should create the necessary conditions to alleviate supply pressures on a national and global level.

Interesting market research conducted by bccresearch on wind turbine systems provides data for the US markets for such products, forecasting trends and sales in these markets through 2013.

The top ten spenders, nationally, on wind turbine technology, notes EETimes - are Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New York, Kansas and Illinois. The study finds Texas with the largest statewide expenditure, exceeding $2.4 billion in 2007 and a projected $3.0 billion in 2008. Colorado came in second. It spent over $1.2 billion on wind turbines during 2007 and plans to install approximately $3.7 billion worth of wind turbines in 2013.

California also has anticipated spending over $676.0 million on wind turbines in 2008 and is expected to spend as much as $17.1 billion in 2013. The U.S. market for wind turbine components and systems will be worth $60.9 billion by 2013, up from $7.9 billion in 2007 for a CAGR of 91.0%.

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Wind Power

Wind power for utility-scale applications is considered to be commercially available under most conditions. The technology is considered to be mature, and there are several system suppliers. In U.S there are approximately 58 companies that manufacture, or plan to manufacture, small wind turbines. Of the few manufacturers that have entered the U.S. market, most are based in the U.K., Canada or Germany.

Texas-oil-baron T. Boone Pickens in May placed an order with General Electric (GE) to purchase 667 wind turbines capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 300,000 average U.S. homes. The Department of Energy through a report has optimistically predicted America’s ability to satisfy 20% of its electricity needs with wind power by 2030.

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This article has 6 comments:

  •  
    Aug 29 08:34 AM
    Its my understanding that Denmark(that little country of 4.5 million people) is one of the leading manufacturers exporting to the USA. See VESTA.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 29 09:30 AM
    A detail in the Wind story is that transmission capacity must be available, which means constructing new transmission lines and upgrades to existing ones: ABB and PWR are well positioned for this work. Oh and since wind is intermittent, which presents a reliabilty challenge for grid operators, utilities will need baseload plants as backup, and those plants are likely to be fueled by natural gas (hello, GE dual cycle combustion turbines).
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 29 12:34 PM
    I Understand that Denmark has concluded that getting 20% of your electricity from wind is the maximum a grid can handle due to the variability of wind energy. So wind becomes an important supplement but not the complete answer. Another problem to overcome is the resistance long distance electricity lines have moving the juice from origin to the consumer. I am long natural gas and GE.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 29 01:03 PM
    Clearhead and Jimbo - get real!

    The installation T&D lines for over 100 1000mw nuclear power plants during the past 30-40 years didn't make the likes of ABB and PWR go crazy; nor did all the NG peaking power installations make GE go crazy (upward, that is).

    As for big long distance T&D losses: they don't exist. Go get the facts.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 29 01:05 PM
    And if you really want to know what costly punishing tranmission and distribution is look at pipeline NG and oil; and don't forget coal.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 30 06:06 AM
    Newcomer OPTC has both transmission and turbines.
    Reply
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