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The West May Be Solar-Powered, but Wind & Biofuel Rule the Midwest
Date£º2013/11/5
Though coal is still king in the midwestern United States, wind and biofuels reigned in 2012 as the region's top homegrown sources of renewable energy. The area possesses over a third of U.S. wind capacity and 80 percent of the country's biofuel capacity.
But while renewables' adoption has been facilitated by Midwest states' renewable portfolio standards and financial incentives, its continued growth is in question due to uncertainties surrounding federal policies such as the wind production tax credit and ongoing efforts to repeal the renewable fuels standard. Physical infrastructure challenges such as building transmission lines from sources to the grid could also put the deployment of renewables at risk as well.
That's one of the findings of a recent report released by the nonprofit organization American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) on renewables policy and activity in 12 Midwestern states (Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana).
"The Midwest has developed [its renewable energy] because it has the abundance of strong wind and biomass for biofuels," said Lesley Hunter, research and program manager at Washington, D.C-based ACORE and the author of the "Renewable Energy in the 50 States: Midwestern Region" report [PDF].
In 2012, the region increased its wind capacity production by close to 30 percent, and five of the nine U.S. states generating more than 10 percent of their energy from wind were based in the Midwest, according to the report.
Despite the year's growth, the temporary expiration of the wind production tax credit at the end of 2012 reduced the number of Midwestern facilities built to date in 2013, the report added.
Commercial and academic research was at the center of the region's biofuel activity, with facilities producing cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel from woodchips and excess agricultural material.
But with current efforts to repeal the federal renewable fuels standard in play, Hunter said, growth of the biofuel industry is up in the air -- and future government funding is uncertain as well.
"There's been pushback on the Navy in the past year regarding using renewable jet fuel -- whether it will be included in the budget," she said.
But while renewables' adoption has been facilitated by Midwest states' renewable portfolio standards and financial incentives, its continued growth is in question due to uncertainties surrounding federal policies such as the wind production tax credit and ongoing efforts to repeal the renewable fuels standard. Physical infrastructure challenges such as building transmission lines from sources to the grid could also put the deployment of renewables at risk as well.
That's one of the findings of a recent report released by the nonprofit organization American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) on renewables policy and activity in 12 Midwestern states (Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana).
"The Midwest has developed [its renewable energy] because it has the abundance of strong wind and biomass for biofuels," said Lesley Hunter, research and program manager at Washington, D.C-based ACORE and the author of the "Renewable Energy in the 50 States: Midwestern Region" report [PDF].
In 2012, the region increased its wind capacity production by close to 30 percent, and five of the nine U.S. states generating more than 10 percent of their energy from wind were based in the Midwest, according to the report.
Despite the year's growth, the temporary expiration of the wind production tax credit at the end of 2012 reduced the number of Midwestern facilities built to date in 2013, the report added.
Commercial and academic research was at the center of the region's biofuel activity, with facilities producing cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel from woodchips and excess agricultural material.
But with current efforts to repeal the federal renewable fuels standard in play, Hunter said, growth of the biofuel industry is up in the air -- and future government funding is uncertain as well.
"There's been pushback on the Navy in the past year regarding using renewable jet fuel -- whether it will be included in the budget," she said.
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