Jarrod Macullar
EK 132
Professor Grace
26 November 2012
The population of the United States and of the entire world is growing quite rapidly, and there is no disputing the fact that in the near future there is going to be a greater demand for energy than there is now. To meet this energy demand more fossil fuels can be used, however the use of more fossil fuels will increase the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With the use of wind energy along with other renewable energy resources, this increased demand can be met without the unnecessary addition of pollutants to the atmosphere.
The United States does not currently have any sort of federal standard for the buyback of excess wind energy produced by a home owner or small business owner, and this needs to change. In Massachusetts anyone who sells excess energy produced with the use of a wind turbine back into the grid can receive up to $5.20 per watt. (Massachusetts) However, in many states it is not even possible for someone to sell excess energy back to a local power company. Every state should be required to have some policy regarding excess energy buyback. The idea of being able to make a profit while simultaneously powering your home for free is alluring to many people, and if all states were to have a way for individuals to sell back excess energy there would without a doubt be more interest in renewable energy. A man named Carl Baldino, who is a plant manager in Philadelphia, is able to make a profit of $3,000 per year by simply selling excess energy back to his local power company (Gangemi). Not only does Baldino make a sizeable profit, he also powers his home for free, if every state had a way for people to sell back excess energy that they produced through renewable means there would be many more people like Carl Baldino.
Along with a standard for the buyback of excess energy produced through renewable sources, the United States also needs to develop a power grid that is connected to all of the land based states (CleanTechnica). A power grid that connected all of the states would not only ensure that all states always have access to energy that has been produced by wind, it would ensure that every person who wishes to sell excess energy back into the grid would be able to.
Currently about 1% of electricity needs in the United States are met through the use of wind energy. (Logan) However, wind energy is slowly becoming more prevalent in the United States, and by 2020 the U.S Department of Energy hopes to have 6% of all electricity come from wind energy. (Leithead) With goals such as this it is obvious that it is imperative for the United States to improve policy regarding energy buy-back, and it is also imperative for a better interstate grid system to be put into place.
Along with trying to persuade individuals to invest in small scale wind turbines, the government of the United States should also focus on creating more large scale wind farms nation-wide. There are still ten states that do not have any major wind farms, and this is ridiculous. (AWEA) Wind is available in large quantities without any sort of limitation; it makes no sense that 20% of this country is not taking advantage of a free resource. Currently the United States is producing around 52,000 MW of wind energy, and 8,000 MW are currently under construction. (Installed Wind Capacity) Yes this is an impressive number; however there is certainly room for more wind energy to be produced.
In summary, in order to produce large amounts of energy to meet demands in the future, the Federal Government of the United States needs to implement a nation-wide excess-energy buyback program to persuade people to produce renewable energy, needs to work on establishing a nation-wide grid system, and needs to focus on erecting more large scale wind farms.
Works Cited
“AWEA – American Wind Energy Association.” Industry Statistics. N.p., 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.awea.org/learnabout/industry_stats/index.cfm>.
“CleanTechnica.” CleanTechnica. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/12/us-must-socialize-grid-to-add-renewable-energy-study-finds/>.
Gangemi, Jeffrey. “Selling Power Back to the Grid.” Bloomberg Business Week. Http://www.businessweek.com, 05 July 2006. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.
“Installed Wind Capacity.” Wind Powering America: U.S. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_installed_capacity.asp>.
Leithead, W.E. “Wind Energy.” Wind Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1853/957.full>.
Liu, Wenyi, Zhenfeng Wang, Jiguang Han, and Guangfeng Wang. “Wind Turbine Fault Diagnosis Method Based on Diagonal Specturm and Clustering Binary Tree SVM.” Sciencedirect.com. Sciencedirect.com, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148112003631>.
Logan, Jeffrey, and Stan Mark Kaplan. “Wind Power in the United States: Technology, Economic, and Policy Issues.” Http://www.fas.org. Congressional Research Service, 20 June 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34546.pdf>.
“Massachusetts.” DSIRE USA. DSIRE USA, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=MA22F>.