Thanks to that push, the Energy Information Administration estimated that the industry would set a record for total windpower installations in the U.S., potentially topping 12, 000 megawatts of installed capacity.
Escalating tensions over a proposal to impose rolling outages on wind-power farms in Oregon and Washington State to prevent the electric grid from overheating has convinced the Bonneville PowerAdministration (BPA), which is responsible for operating the power grid in the Pacific Northwest, to pull the plug on the plan.
As I noted in my February 24 column, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that for new power-generating facilities entering service in 2016, onshore windpower will be 49% more expensive than conventional coal over the lifetime of the respective facilities, offshore wind will be 90% more expensive than coal, solar thermal will be 155% more expensive than coal, and solar photovoltaic will be 295% more expensive than coal.