The credit crunch that has slowed the construction of wind farms in the U.S., and increased domestic production of wind power components, hasn't dashed the hopes of some West Coast seaports that wind-related imports will continue to be strong in the foreseeable future.
At the Port of Vancouver USA, officials are gearing up for what could be a strong market for wind power imports in 2011-2012 - if the credit market opens up. Last year, Vancouver was the nation's top port for wind energy imports. Yet, because some of the wind farms that shipped components in 2009 were unable to obtain financing to complete their projects, the components were left sitting in storage at the port. Those components have now moved out to their destinations, and port officials hope that more orders for wind equipment will move through their port soon.
The same is true at the Port of Olympia, Wash. where 180 Brazilian-made blades shipped in 2009 were recently loaded onto specialized trucks for delivery to a wind farm in central Washington.
Both ports are hoping that a proposed national renewable electricity standard, known as RES, will be adopted by Congress and will eventually result in significant business for their ports. That RES, which is supported by President Obama, would require as much as 25 percent of the nation's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, with an aggressive near-term target of as much as 10 percent by 2012.
If such a standard were adopted, the number of wind projects that would be built in the United States would exceed the number of components that could be manufactured domestically, says Jim Knight, marketing and business development manager for the Port of Olympia.
Knight recently attended the WINDPOWER 2010 conference in Dallas, Tex., which attracted 20,000 attendees and 1,400 exhibitors from around the globe. He said that the majority of new wind component manufacturers are located in Asia, and most of those manufacturers are in China.
Alastair Smith, the senior director of marketing and operations for the Port of Vancouver USA, shares Knight's optimism. In 2010, 1.6 percent of the world's electricity is expected to be generated by wind. By 2019, that percentage is expected to grow to 8.4 percent, Knight said. If that happens, U.S. manufacturers will not be able to meet the domestic demand for wind components and will be forced to seek parts from overseas.
During the next two to three years, the five northern states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are expected to generate as much as 9,000 megawatts of power from the wind, Smith said. With a single windmill generating between 1.5 and 2.3 megawatts of electricity, about 4,700 windmills would be required to meet the total megawatt demand of those states.
Even more windmills may be needed in the upper Midwest states, Smith says.
As a result, Vancouver is working hard to expand its facilities to handle a projected onslaught of wind equipment. The port already has invested in two heavy lift mobile harbor cranes that can reach across the holds of ships to offload 50 to 88-ton nacelles - the generators that sit atop windmills.
The port also is in the process of expanding its rail system from its current 60,000-car annual capacity to a total 160,000-car annual capacity and has already completed a loop track that can handle unit trains to move wind components to the Midwest. The loop track sits on a recently purchased 218-acre parcel of land, and encircles 100 acres that can be used to store wind components after they enter the port, Smith said.
Officials at the Port of Longview, Wash. also are optimistic about the future of wind-related imports. Even though wind imports declined during the first quarter of 2010 due to the credit crunch, Marketing Director Valerie Harris says she thinks the imports will pick back up and remain steady for five to seven years.
While Pacific Northwest ports prepare for increased imports of wind components, California's Port of Stockton is already enjoying a resurgence in wind-power business.
The port recently attracted Siemens USA, which will join Denmark-based Vestas as a wind component importer through Stockton. Although the port has welcomed only three shipments of wind components so far this year, Stockton Executive Director Rick Aschieris expects another 10-12 shipments before the end of the year.
Aschieris agrees that demand for wind components could exceed domestic production. Although competition among seaports to handle imported components is strong, Aschieris does not seem concerned. Citing Obama's proposed energy plan, he says there may well be "plenty of business to go around."
-- The Cunningham Report
