Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Another new business trend began when large power companies started investing in
the building of wind power stations. Examples of these companies are
Florida Power and
Light
and
American Electric Power
in the United States,
Iberdrola
in Spain,
ENEL
in Italy,
Vattenfall
in Sweden, and
DONG
in Denmark. All these utility companies have projects in
several countries.
The majority of the power sales from wind plants continue in 2007 to be through long-
term
power purchase agreement (PPA)
sales contracts. Typically PPA contracts range from
5 to 25 years, with 20 years most common length. Most of the wind-generated power is
sold through investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and publicly owned utilities (POUs), as illus-
trated in Figure 4-28. Some power companies and other investors are creating power mar-
keting companies that buy and sell power and in addition can sell renewable energy credits
and participate in the
green house gas cap-and-trade
business [Capoor and Ambrosi 2008].
Merchant plants
are another category that sells power directly into the wholesale spot market
when prices are high during peak demand periods.
Figure 4-28. Relative amounts of wind-generated electricity sold by investor-owned
utilities (IOUs), publicly owned utilities (POUs) and others in 2007.
[DOE Berkeley
Laboratory estimates based on the American Wind Energy Association database]
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