Originally published November 15 2005
Shortage of turbines slows U.S. wind power market
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the American Wind Energy Association, there will most likely be a shortage of wind power engines until 2007.
The tight market, caused in large part by the on-off cycle of the federal production tax credit (PTC) incentive for wind, occupied much of the discussion at the Symposium's Large Wind Turbine Vendor Forum.
The session, moderated by Adam Umanoff of the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, featured panelists from five wind turbine manufacturers: Rashid Abdul of Mitsubishi Power Systems, Leif Anderson of Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., Bob Gates of GE Energy, Scott Kringen of Vestas Americas and Peter Stricker of Clipper Windpower, Inc.
Suzlon's Andersen summed up the feelings of the panel when he commented, in response to a question about the "biggest challenge facing the industry," that "The biggest hurdle is the stop-go policy situation in the U.S. -- you can't build a sustainable industry based on that type of policy.
How are we going to share that with five or six manufacturers?"
In the current boom time, every turbine that is made can be sold, but only so many can be made.
Noted Gates, "Turbine suppliers have pushed to the physical limits, but demand has surged past them.
Manufacturers are looking at a variety of strategies to deal with what Gates called the "consistent inconsistency" of the U.S. market, the panelists said.
Among them: modifying turbine designs to reduce the scale of large parts such as castings that are current choke points in the manufacturing supply chain; finding customers with the capability to place advance orders for large numbers of turbines, thereby reducing the manufacturer's inventory risk; and simply declining to "flood the market" during boom times and aiming instead for slow, steady increases in production.
Approximately 400 people attended the first-ever Fall Symposium, designed as an educational and networking event and held at the La Quinta Resort & Club.
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