EXPORT-IMPORT BANK APPROVED LOAN TO HONDURAN POWER COMPANY FOR $28.6 MILLION

Map: Honduras. Credit: CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
U.S. Exports Will Expand Wind Farm in Honduras:
Ex-Im Bank Supports 200 Jobs in Six States

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two hundred Pennsylvanian workers will assemble twelve high-tech wind turbines for export, because the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) approved a $28.6 million direct loan to a Honduran power company. The transaction helps to expand a project first supported by the Bank in 2010, when its long-term financing of 51 U.S.-built turbine generators established the Cerro de Hula Wind Farm in Santa Ana, Honduras. The project developer and borrower, Energía Eólica de Honduras S.A., will sell the electricity to the Central American nation’s utility, Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica.

"Building on the success of this impressive project, Ex-Im Bank is demonstrating the importance of its role to fill gaps in financing for creditworthy borrowers," explained Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of Ex-Im Bank. "With this project, we’ve achieved an impressive win all around: for exporters, for U.S. workers, and for energy consumers in Honduras, because the wind-driven generators cost less to operate than their equivalent in fossil-fueled equipment."

Gamesa Wind US, LLC, a technology firm based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, will manufacture and export six each of its high-efficiency model G87 and G-97, 2.0 MW turbines to generate electric power in rural Honduras. Gamesa operates two facilities in the U.S., a blades factory in Ebensburg, near Johnstown, and a nacelle plant outside Philadelphia. In 2011, Gamesa was named Ex-Im Bank’s "Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year." Other U.S. exporters involved in the project will also benefit. They include engineering contractors, financial and legal advisors, and represent jobs in the states of Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas.

The Cerro de Hula Wind Farm now produces about six percent of the electrical power in Honduras. With the additions from this transaction, the wind farm will have 63 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 126MW providing power to the national electric utility.

"The Americas are still far from realizing the full potential of a clean energy economy," said Gamesa North American chairman David Flitterman. "But at Gamesa, we’re proud to manufacture American-made wind turbines that get shipped from our U.S. plants to countries far and wide. While the U.S. wind industry slowly is recovering after late renewal of the U.S. Production Tax Credit in January, thanks to Ex-Im Bank these export projects are creating new business opportunities in emerging markets, and are supporting good-paying jobs throughout the entire supply chain."

The exporter is a technology firm with manufacturing operations in Pennsylvania, and is a subsidiary of Gamesa Technology Corporation, a sustainable-energy concern headquartered in northern Spain. It ranks as the fourth-largest manufacturer of wind turbines and is in the top ten globally for wind farm development. Gamesa builds photovoltaic power stations and wind farms on land and off-shore. Although the parent company is Spanish, Ex-Im Bank provides financing only for goods and services associated with production by U.S. workers.

SECRETARY OF INTERIOR SALAZAR SPEAKS ON ENERGY PROJECTS

FROM:  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
President Obama has made it clear that our country needs an all-of-the-above strategy to develop American energy – energy that's cleaner, cheaper, and generates new jobs for Americans.

On Tuesday, we took another major step forward in President Obama's commitment to responsibly expand development of America's abundant natural gas resources by approving the Greater Natural Buttes gas development project in Utah.

This project, proposed by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, could produce more than six trillion cubic feet of natural gas over its life, support more than 4,000 American jobs during the different phases of development, and infuse millions of dollars into local Utah communities.

The project is a model for a balanced approach to energy development: by using innovative technologies and best practices, the project will limit new surface disturbance to just five percent of the area. And, as part of a landmark cooperative agreement with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Anadarko will drill the 3,600 new wells while safeguarding air quality and ensuring the protection of critical wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation values.

Today's announcement exemplifies the kind of progress we are making as part of the Administration's all-of-the-above energy strategy. In 2011, U.S. natural gas production grew by more than 7 percent – the largest year-over-year increase in history. U.S. gas production is now at an all-time high and oil production is at an eight-year high. And America's dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since President Obama took office; we have cut net imports by ten percent – or a million barrels a day – in the last year alone.

But that's not all. Renewable energy production has nearly doubled over the last three years. And on public lands, we are well on our way to meeting the President's goal of permitting 10,000 megawatts of large-scale renewable power by the end of the year.

Earlier this week, in the sun-drenched southwest corner of Nevada, we "flipped the switch" on the first large-scale solar energy facility on U.S. public lands to deliver power to American consumers. The Enbridge Silver State North solar facility uses innovative photovoltaic technology to deliver clean energy to more than 10,000 homes and businesses across Nevada.

The 50-megawatt project generates electricity with no air emissions, no waste production, and no water use. The advanced process displaces about 42,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually – the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the road.

Prior to 2009, Interior had not authorized a single solar project on public lands. But today, the Silver State North project is one of 29 large-scale renewable energy projects that Interior has approved on public lands, including 16 solar projects, 5 wind farms, and 8 geothermal plants. If built by the companies, the facilities will provide more than 6,500 megawatts of power to communities across the West.

We need to keep this momentum going and help put America in control of its energy future. That's why President Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation that will extend the Production Tax Credit to support American jobs and manufacturing in the wind industry alongside an expansion of the 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit that supports American-made clean energy manufacturing.

All of these trends show the gathering strength of America’s energy economy as we move forward with an all-of-the-above energy strategy.

Thank you,

Ken Salazar
Secretary of the Interior

NIGHT-WARMING EFFECT NOTICED OVER LARGE WIND FARMS

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Photo:  USDA
Scientists Find Night-Warming Effect Over Large Wind Farms in Texas
April 29, 2012
Large wind farms in certain areas in the United States appear to affect local land surface temperatures, according to a paper published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study, led by Liming Zhou, an atmospheric scientist at the State University of New York- (SUNY) Albany, provides insights about the possible effects of wind farms.
The results could be important for developing efficient adaptation and management strategies to ensure long-term sustainability of wind power.

"This study indicates that land surface temperatures have warmed in the vicinity of large wind farms in west-central Texas, especially at night," says Anjuli Bamzai, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research.

"The observations and analyses are for a relatively short period, but raise important issues that deserve attention as we move toward an era of rapid growth in wind farms in our quest for alternate energy sources."

Considerable research has linked the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels with rising global temperatures.

Consequently, many nations are moving toward cleaner sources of renewable energy such as wind turbines. Generating wind power creates no emissions, uses no water and is likely "green."

"We need to better understand the system with observations, and better describe and model the complex processes involved, to predict how wind farms may affect future weather and climate," said Zhou.

There have been a growing number of studies of wind farm effects on weather and climate, primarily using numerical models due to the lack of observations over wind farms.
As numerical models are computationally intensive and have uncertainties in simulating regional and local weather and climate, said Zhou, remote sensing is likely the most efficient and effective way to study wind farm effects over larger spatial and longer temporal scales.

To understand the potential impact of wind farms on local weather and climate, Zhou's team analyzed satellite-derived land surface temperatures from regions around large wind farms in Texas for the period 2003-2011.

The researchers found a night-time warming effect over wind farms of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade over the nine-year-period in which data were collected.
Because the spatial pattern of warming mirrors the geographic distribution of wind turbines, the scientists attribute the warming primarily to wind farms.
The year-to-year land surface temperature over wind farms shows a persistent upward trend from 2003 to 2011, consistent with the increasing number of operational wind turbines with time.

"This warming effect is most likely caused by the turbulence in turbine wakes acting like fans to pull down warmer near-surface air from higher altitudes at night," said Somnath Baidya Roy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a co-author of the paper.
While the warming effect reported is local and small compared to the strong background year-to-year land surface temperature variation, the authors believe that this work draws attention to an important scientific issue that requires further investigation.
"The estimated warming trends only apply to the study region and to the study period, and thus should not be interpolated into other regions, globally or over longer periods," Zhou said. "For a given wind farm, once there are no new wind turbines added, the warming effect may reach a stable level."

The study represents a first step in exploring the potential of using satellite data to quantify the possible effects of the development of big wind farms on weather and climate, said Chris Thorncroft of SUNY-Albany, a co-author of the paper.
"We're expanding this approach to other wind farms," said Thorncroft, "and building models to understand the physical processes and mechanisms driving the interactions of wind turbines and the atmosphere boundary layer near the surface."