DOT: $80M in High-Speed Rail Grants
U.S. Wind Growth Slows in First Quarter
Nissan Breaks Ground on U.S. Battery Plant for Leaf
Mississippi State U. Wins EcoCAR Competition
Florida Approves 100 MW Biomass Plant
US Must Act Now to Cut Greenhouse Gases
DOT Awards $80 million for High-Speed Rail
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it's delivered nearly $80 million in grants to five states as part of President Obama's high-speed and intercity passenger rail program.
The bulk of the funds-$66.6 million-will go towards program management and preliminary engineering on a planned high-speed rail service in Florida, running between Tampa and Orlando. The project includes 84 miles of track where trains will run at 168 miles per hour.
California also received grants for track relocation work in support of a high-speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Sacramento; to Wisconsin, for environmental assessments of planned stations on a 110-mph rail line between Milwaukee and Madison; and to New York State, for planning projects to increase the speed of the Empire Corridor to 110 mph. The 468-mile Empire Corridor connects all New York's largest cities.
New Mexico will receive a grant to create the state's first rail plan, which would eventually link all the major cities in the Southwest. With the exception of New Mexico, all of the projects also received a share of $8 billion in Recovery Act funds announced in late January. See the DOT press release and an article on the Recovery Act funding for high-speed rail from the February 3 edition of the EERE Network News.
U.S. Wind Growth Slows in First Quarter
The U.S. wind industry had its slowest first quarter since 2007 this year, installing only 539 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
While the industry installed over 10,000 MW in 2009, the project pipeline has slowed over the past 18 months, a situation that AWEA attributes to a lack of long-term market signals, low energy demand, and low energy prices.
AWEA notes the amount of wind installations each quarter over the past three years has varied dramatically, falling near 100 MW in the slowest times and rising to more than 4,000 MW in the most active quarters.
Illinois led first-quarter growth with the 300 MW Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Power Project, and the state has two more large wind plants under construction. See the AWEA press release and the first-quarter report (PDF 587 KB).
The first quarter trend may continue through 2010, according to IHS Emerging Energy Research. The study finds that the U.S. wind industry is growth-constrained in 2010 and will face increased competition, holding growth to about 6,300 MW to 7,100 MW.
In the long term, however, the IHS report projects 165 GW of new U.S. wind capacity through 2025, on average about 11,000 MW a year.
The Global Wind Energy Coalition (GWEC) has a similar outlook, expecting the North American market to grow at a steady pace for the next couple years before accelerating again in 2012. GWEC expects an additional 63 GW of wind capacity to be installed in the US and Canada over the next five years, an average of 12,600 MW per year. GWEC has an even brighter outlook for global wind power, anticipating average annual growth of 21%, resulting in global wind capacity increasing from 158.5 GW in 2009 to 409 GW by 2014. See the press releases from IHS and the GWEC, as well as the full GWEC report (PDF 4.0 MB).
