Wind on the Wires1 - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 137

Throughout the 1980's the first wind farms were installed, with roughly 4,000
grid-connected 100 kW wind turbines installed at Altamont Pass, 60km east of San
Francisco. Other wind farms were created in San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs and
the Tehachapi Mountains near Bakersfield. From 1981 to 1985, more than 12,000 wind
turbines were built in California, with a total installed capacity of over 1,000 MW. These
early wind farms did not follow a standard design: while most were horizontal axis
machines, there were more than thirty different turbine configurations, and 500 vertical
axis machines were also installed. Unfortunately, like the U.S. wind turbine development
program, the new wind fleet was plagued with performance issues. While California and
federal policies supported the installation of wind capacity, the policies did not offer direct
support for electricity production. While some of the machines proved reliable, many of
the turbines installed by smaller companies were untested, lightweight “proof of concept”
machines that could not stand the rigors of real-world operation. Failures were common
and the nascent wind sector lost ground and public confidence suffered. To recover, Danish
turbines were imported, selling for three to six times more in California than in Denmark.
When the U.S. federal tax incentives expired in 1985, Danish turbines dominated the
California wind market. By 1990, the first United States wind boom was over, and of
the 1,820 MW of wind power that had been installed, only 1,500 MW was operational.
Although poor performance as well as public concern about wind farm impacts on birds
and viewsheds damaged the reputation of the wind industry, large-scale grid-connected
wind was now a reality.
During the California boom in the 1980s, turbine technology evolved considerably.
Refinements in turbine design allowed for bigger rotor diameters, higher hub heights, and
more power output per turbine. Advanced electric power converters allowed for variable
rotor speed to increase power output. However, after the boom, the lack of new supporting
policies meant that innovation in wind turbines shifted from the United States and back to
Europe for the next decade.
With the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-486), the federal government passed the
Production Tax Credit (PTC), which provided $0.015 for every kilowatt hour of electricity
generated from wind power. Unlike the earlier California law which paid for installed
capacity, this corporate tax credit was structured to compensate electricity generation from
wind. The tax credit was too low to incentivize installation, so throughout the 1990s wind
plant installations were minimal. In the 2000's the widespread adoption of state-level
Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) spurred the next phase of growth in wind power. The
most rapid growth in wind occurred in 2008, 2009, and 2012 ( Figures 6.1 and 6.2 ) .