Yesterday, the Department of Energy released a report titled, “20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy’s Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply.” You can visit the report’s website to download the 4MB pdf, or read the press release on the DOE site. The report resulted from a collaboration among government, industry, and environmental groups. From the DOE press release:

The analysis concludes that reaching 20 percent wind energy will require enhanced transmission infrastructure, streamlined siting and permitting regimes, improved reliability and operability of wind systems, and increased U.S. wind manufacturing capacity. Highlights of the report include:

1. Annual installations need to increase more than threefold. Achieving 20 percent wind will require the number of annual turbine installations to increase from approximately 2000 in 2006 to almost 7000 in 2017.
2. Costs of integrating intermittent wind power into the grid are modest. 20 percent wind can be reliably integrated into the grid for less than 0.5 cents per kWh.
3. No material constraints currently exist. Although demand for copper, fiberglass and other raw materials will increase, achieving 20 percent wind is not limited by the availability of raw materials.
4. Transmission challenges need to be addressed. Issues related to siting and cost allocation of new transmission lines to access the Nation’s best wind resources will need to be resolved in order to achieve 20 percent wind.

The report does not mention production tax credits for wind (and other renewables), which are due to expire at the end of this year. The Senate has approved a year’s extension; The House is still mulling it over.