Message-ID: <199504211755.KAA01845@cdp.igc.apc.org> Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 10:55:42 -0700 From: Tom Gray <mailto:tgray@IGC.APC.ORG> Subject: Gipe's New Wind Book [long] To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
For release March 27, 1995 For more information contact: Dan Sayre, John Wiley & Sons; phone: +1 212 850 6024; fax: +1 212 850 6103; internet: mailto:dsayre@support.jwiley.comWIND ENERGY HAS "COME OF AGE," SAYS NEW BOOK
Never again will wind energy be seen as the domain of a disheveled miller with corn flour in his hair, furling the cloth sails on his wooden windmill. This archaic image has given way to one of trained professionals tending their sleek aero-electric generators by computer, according to a new book.
"Wind Energy Comes of Age" by Paul Gipe chronicles wind energy's progress from its rebirth during the oil crises of the 1970s through a troubling adolescence in California's mountain passes in the 1980s to its maturation on the plains of northern Europe in the 1990s. Gipe argues in a readable and engaging style that wind energy is no longer an alternative source of energy. He cites improvements in the performance, reliability, and cost effectiveness of modern wind turbines to support his contention that wind energy has come of age as a commercial technology for generating electricity.
Wind energy has indeed come of age, say analysts who note that worldwide sales of wind turbines and wind-generated electricity topped $1 billion in 1994 and are expected to exceed $1.5 billion in 1995. At the current pace of growth, the world's wind industry will reach $2 billion in sales by 1996 or 1997. This is a staggering accomplishment for a business that energy planners had written off in the mid-1980s. Germany alone installed nearly as much wind-generating capacity in 1994 as was installed in California during the height of the great "wind rush" of the early 1980s. Altogether, northern European countries installed nearly a half billion dollars' worth of wind turbines in 1994.
Not since Putnam's "Power from the Wind" in 1948 or Golding's "The Generation of Electricity by Wind Power" in 1955 has there been a book on wind energy of this breadth and scope by a single author. The new book debunks the myths that wind energy is land-intensive, that wind turbines are inherently ugly, that wind energy will never make a difference, and that wind energy is unreliable. "Wind Energy Comes of Age" also documents wind energy's value in reducing air pollution, its positive energy balance, its contribution to meeting residential energy needs, and its effect on employment and tourism.
The 560-page book, Gipe's third on the subject of wind energy, is part of John Wiley & Sons prestigious series on sustainable design. The series includes the award winning "Gray World Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape" by Robert Thayer and the ground-breaking "Design with Nature" by renowned landscape architect Ian McHarg, and "Audubon House," an architectural model for energy efficiency by the National Audubon Society. Illustrated with more than 170 original line drawings, photographs, and charts and more than 70 tables, "Wind Energy Comes of Age" includes an extensive appendix and a forward by Chris Flavin of WorldWatch Institute. Flavin, a senior researcher at the Washington, DC environmental think tank and author of the recent book "Power Surge," describes "Wind Energy Comes of Age" as "an ambitious, compelling, and at times critical description" of the wind industry.
Unlike other books of its genre which simply describe the technology, "Wind Energy Comes of Age" examines a host of issues that will determine the ultimate extent of wind energy's contribution to the world's energy supply.
For example, Gipe questions the value of centrally-directed research programs, a sacred cow of both the environmental and renewable energy communities, pointing to the failure of government research programs in the United States, Sweden, and Germany. But only the United States was wealthy enough, says Gipe, to spend half a billion dollars and produce only one working wind turbine after nearly two decades of effort. Wind energy technology came of age, says Gipe, not through a miraculous "breakthrough" in a government laboratory but by the sweat and toil of thousands of men and women in the private sector on both sides of the Atlantic who struggled to breathe life into a dormant--though never dead--technology.
"Wind Energy Comes of Age" also critiques cost of energy calculations, cutting through the hype surrounding the 5 cent per kilowatt-hour windmill. Wind energy is cost-effective today, can compete with coal, and costs far less than nuclear power, says Gipe. But he warns wind energy's proponents against overselling the technology to a wary public who may remember when nuclear power was "too cheap to meter."
Gipe, who has answered countless questions from a public fascinated by these kinematic devices, calls on the wind industry to seriously address aesthetics and community acceptance. He warns that wind energy will never reach its full potential without greater care in the design of wind turbines and their installation on the landscape. In "Wind Energy Comes of Age," Gipe urges the wind industry to design their wind turbines and their wind power plants as if the people who live near them matter. While engineering economy is important in making wind energy increasingly cost-effective, he says, it must take a back seat to human design criteria such as aesthetics, noise dampening, and safety.
"Wind Energy Comes of Age" is the first book on the subject to look at these questions in depth and thoroughly analyze the public's response to the visual impact of wind turbines on the landscape. The book reviews the results of public opinion polls of those who live near wind turbines in California, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. These surveys provide the keys to understanding what makes one wind turbine more visually attractive than another, or what makes wind plants most acceptable to neighboring communities.
Despite the best efforts of designers, and regardless of how quiet or aesthetically pleasing wind turbines are, "Wind Energy Comes of Age" warns that there will always be a percentage of the population opposed to seeing wind turbines. This is normal, Gipe says, and should be welcomed by the wind industry as an opportunity to explain why wind energy makes economic and environmental sense. He cites the fierce opposition to Gustave Eiffel's plan to build a tower in the heart of Paris as an example of how once-polarized communities can learn to accept and even cherish such artifacts.
Gipe points to the rapid assimilation of modern wind turbines into the lives of those living near them in California and northern Europe to illustrate how wind energy could quickly become a widely accepted land use. For this to happen, however, the wind industry must place importance on aesthetics and community acceptance. He suggests that the wind industry in North America could learn valuable lessons from their European colleagues on how to build aesthetically pleasing wind plants with minimal impact on the land and the people who live nearby. For example, he charges that the U.S. wind industry disturbed more soil than needed to install their wind turbines during California's wind rush in the early 1980s. In "Wind Energy Comes of Age" Gipe says this practice has caused unnecessary erosion in California's desert passes, needlessly accentuating wind energy's aesthetic impact.
Acknowledging that wind turbines in California's Altamont Pass have killed a number of birds, including golden eagles, Gipe contends that the problem appears localized. Studies elsewhere, he says, conclude that wind turbines, like other human artifacts, kill some birds, some of the time, but do not pose a serious threat. While suggesting that every effort should be made to minimize the number of birds killed by wind turbines, he warns that there is no way to eliminate all collisions and it is foolish to think otherwise.
"Wind Energy Comes of Age" is also the first book on the subject to examine the safety of wind turbines, and concludes that the industry has an enviable record of public safety--it has never injured a member of the public. But Gipe advises the wind industry that it simply must do a better job of preventing occupational accidents among those who work on wind turbines, especially in North America.
The book notes that some self-styled environmental activists, including those with ties to coal and nuclear power, have opposed the use of wind energy on spurious grounds. In contrast, Gipe says, other environmental groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and Britain's Friends of the Earth have organized grass roots campaigns to encourage expanded wind development. Friends of the Earth has gone further than most and issued guidelines to wind companies on how to build environmentally acceptable projects. "Wind Energy Comes of Age" challenges others in the environmental community to step from behind the barricades and help direct the industry toward building a safe and environmentally sound technology suited to a sustainable energy supply.
Gipe is a contributing editor to "Independent Energy" magazine and "WindStats" and is on the board of directors of the American Wind Energy Association. For eight years he represented AWEA on the west coast and was the executive director of the Kern Wind Energy Association. He has written "Wind Energy: How To Use It" (1983), and "Wind Power for Home & Business" (June, 1993), and co-authored a chapter in "Wind Turbine Technology" (May, 1994) for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, under contract to NASA. His photography has appeared in magazines, books, commercial slide sets, and posters. He has lectured widely on wind energy, both in the United States and abroad.
Gipe's interest in wind energy grew out of his wish to limit the environmental effects of conventional energy sources, particularly those of coal and nuclear power. He contributed to the seven-year struggle for passage of the National Surface Mining Act, which regulates the strip mining of coal.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT "WIND ENERGY COMES OF AGE"
"A fascinating story, not only of technology but of the heart and soul behind it. A must for anyone that really wants to understand how wind power developed and what it takes to move sustainable technology toward the marketplace." --Carl Weinberg, former manager of R&D at Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
"A remarkable book . . . the most thorough treatment of the wind industry so far. . . For insiders and newcomers as well, the book will be a valuable tool for understanding the development of the wind power industry. . . A decade from now it will be almost impossible to survey the growth of this industry without the platform created by "Wind Energy Comes of Age." Every chapter discloses Gipe's in-depth knowledge of this emerging industry. . . His sharp analysis of how competing groups have sought to harness the power in the wind makes exciting reading . . . the comprehensive treatment of wind's environmental and aesthetic impact on the landscape offers a guide to overcoming obstacles to wind energy's widespread acceptance. Gipe's analysis of this sensitive subject will surely blaze a path toward integration of wind energy into electricity supply systems worldwide." --Birger Madsen, Danish wind energy pioneer.
A "lucid and readable treatment" of wind turbine noise . . . an "excellent treatment of where the technology stands today for planners, wind farm operators, manufacturers and homeowners. . ." The explanation of "sound power levels is one of the clearest I have ever read . . . this book will make a major contribution to the "development of wind energy in a responsible manner." --Neil Kelley, authority on wind turbine noise with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind Technology Division.
"The wind energy field has waited a long time for a well-written, informative reference book like Paul Gipe's "Wind Energy Comes of Age." This book is a must-have for developers in need of technical or economic information, politicians who want to know both sides of the wind energy story, technicians who want a reliable reference and others interested in a well-rounded introduction to wind energy." --Torgny Moeller, founder of "Windpower Monthly and Naturlig Energi."
"Both a comprehensive and engaging examination . . . this book presents a compelling case that by harnessing the secure and inexhaustible force of wind power, we can begin to move toward a more sustainable future.--Fiona Weightman, Friends of the Earth U.K.
"Although he is an ardent advocate, Gipe has written an account as balanced as it is thorough. He understands the danger in overselling the obvious environmental and social benefits of wind power, and is brutally honest about the industry's continuing struggle to make wind an acceptable energy source to environmentalists and utilities alike. "Wind Energy Comes of Age" is the most comprehensive and stimulating account I have read of wind power's promise in the diversified, competitive, and environmentally sustainable energy future on which our collective future depends."--William Grant, Izaak Walton League of America.
"A pragmatism born of meticulous research and wide field experience has made Paul Gipe one of wind power's most astute critics and most credible friends. He backs his exuberant chronicle with an insider's knowledge of the difficult "process" by which wind power has finally become practical. An explanation of the basic physics, politics and notorious failures of the business make the story a good lesson in design methods as well. This is one of the best accounts of the rise of a technology I've ever seen."--J. Baldwin, "Whole Earth Review."
"Wind Energy Comes of Age is an essential 'soup to nuts' encyclopedia on wind technology. Mr. Gipe's long history with the wind industry in California shows in the breadth of his presentation--he offers both a basic introduction to wind energy, and detailed data on the engineering, economic, and environmental issues associated with wind energy. I have no doubt that wind energy will play an important part in our energy future, and this book will be a key handbook for future planners and developers."--Charles (Chuck) Imbrecht, chairman, California Energy Commission.
"Each new industry needs a bard--to sing its praises, describe its potential, and warn of problems before they become debilitating. In Paul Gipe, the wind industry has found that figure. His two decades working in and with the wind industry have given him a unique perspective, and his frank "tell-it-like-it-is" style, allow Paul to provide the comprehensive and cool-headed assessment that wind power needs as it makes the transition to global prominence. In "Wind Energy Comes of Age", Paul Gipe has done this and more . . ." --Chris Flavin, senior researcher at WorldWatch Institute and the author of "Power Surge." ------------------------- "Wind Energy Comes of Age" is available from John Wiley & Sons by calling +1 800 225 5945 in the United States, +1 800 263 1590 in Canada, and +44 02 43 77 97 77 in Europe, +61 7 369 9755 in Australia, +65 258 11 47 in Asia, and from the American Wind Energy Association by calling +1 202 383 2500. -------------------------
Paul Gipe Paul Gipe & Assoc.; 208 S. Green St., #5; Tehachapi, CA 93561; ph: +805 822 9150; fax: +805 822 8452; mailto:pgipe@igc.apc.org/pgipe@mcimail.com