Oklahoma is No. 8 in the nation for potential production of wind power.
It's not No. 8 in production yet, but the wind power industry has come a long way since it started in 2003, a Department of Commerce official said Thursday.
"We have one of the top wind resources in the nation," said Kylah McNabb, wind development specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education in Oklahoma City. "We actually have twice the amount as Texas."
Oklahoma doesn't produce as much wind power as Texas does, though. Oklahoma has about 831 megawatts of wind power projects -- or about 3 percent of total electricity production, McNabb said. That number is expected to grow to 1,128 megawatts by the end of 2009 with projects coming on line this year.
"2008 was just a banner year of installation for the wind energy industry," McNabb said. But this year the industry is ahead of even where they were last year, she said.
McNabb spoke on the last day of the American Meteorological Society Summer Community Meeting Thursday at the National Weather Center.
She addressed a crowd of about 100 meteorologists who had been discussing for two days how to meet the needs of the renewable energy industry.
McNabb highlighted their discussion.
"The work that you guys have been talking about in the past few days, we're in need of it as soon as possible," she said.
The growth of the wind industry across the U.S. and in Oklahoma has been steady, but the industry could grow faster still if it was supported by more accurate and different weather and climate forecasts, she said.
"Forecasting is key," McNabb said. "Whether it's for wind or whether it's for solar, it's just something that we need. I don't think I can say that enough."
The AMS meeting ended Thursday with participants setting forth guidelines to move forward in the effort to meet the needs of the renewable energy industry.
The participants agreed that there are many areas that need improving, including more data, faster refresh of weather data and more reliable data. Government, academia and private sector companies will need financial resources to get this done.
Joe Friday, commissioner for the Climate and Weather Enterprise Commission for the AMS and professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, said the highest priority for moving forward is improving forecasts. In order to do that, coordination between federal agencies and also between government, academia and the private sector must take place. Coordination is itself a priority, Friday said.
Wind forecasting should be the highest priority, said Justin Sharp, manager of wind asset management meteorology at Iberdrola Renewable Energies USA in Portland, Ore. And that needs to happen quickly, he said.
"If the stimulus does what I think it's going to do and what other people think it's going to do, you're going to see a doubling of wind turbines in the next two years," he said.
He pointed out, however, that these improvements have far-reaching benefits.
"This is not just going to benefit renewable energy," Sharp said. "It's doing to benefit transportation, homeland security. There are a lot of synergies here."
Julianna Parker Jones 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com
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Wind energy moves forward
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