energy.agwired.com

While the debate goes on whether to move forward on the Cape Wind energy project in this country, the Europeans seem poised to leave those efforts in the wind-swept dust.

BusinessWeek.com reports Spain-based Iberdrola SA will build the world’s largest onshore wind-energy project in Romania, a $2-billion project that will produce 1,500 megawatts of capacity … five times bigger than Europe’s largest wind complex and three times bigger than the Massachusetts offshore wind project:

Iberdrola, which became the world’s biggest wind-farm owner by using government incentives and charging above-market electricity rates for clean energy, now operates in 10 markets including the U.S. and U.K. The Romanian mega-park, near its operations in neighboring Hungary, may extend the Spanish company’s lead over second-ranked wind producer FPL Group Inc. of Florida.

“That makes Romania an attractive market,” Young said today in an interview. “Romania has relatively high power prices and flexible energy generation that allows power producers to feed in electricity easily.”

Iberdrola plans to build 50 wind farms in Romania, able to light up almost one million homes.

The decision whether to allow a wind energy project off the coast of Massachusetts to move forward could be seen as an indicator of just how serious the Obama Administration is about green energy efforts.

The Washington Times reports that the U.S. Department of the Interior will decide by April 30th whether the Cape Wind Project, planned for 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod, gets the green light … a decision that after nine years of work is expected to have major implications for other wind energy projects:

“If it doesn’t get approved, it will have a big impact,” said Mr. [Mark Rodgers, spokesman for Cape Wind developer Energy Management Inc. of Boston].

Cape Wind poses a particular dilemma for the administration. It was bitterly opposed by Mr. Obama’s close friend and political mentor, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, even though backers say the completed project could supply well more than half of the cape’s power needs.

A White House spokesman passed on commenting on the Administration’s position, referring comments to the Interior Department. Hmmmm … I guess the buck doesn’t stop at a certain executive’s desk.

An advocate for wind energy in the country is calling for a better electrical grid to handle wind energy needs.

The American Wind Energy Association has called for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to update the way the nation’s electric utility system is operated to make it more efficient and better able to accommodate wind and solar power:

“While utility system operators have done an outstanding job of managing the system to ensure reliable electricity supply, many of the rules and procedures they are using were developed a generation or more ago, when our energy mix and the structure of the electric industry were very different and computing and communication technology was far less advanced,” explained Rob Gramlich, AWEA Senior VP for Public Policy.

“These reforms will make the power system operate more efficiently, even in areas where there is not a large amount of wind energy. Consumers’ electric bills will be lowered and they will get more reliable power. Being able to better integrate large amounts of wind and other renewable sources of energy onto the grid is an added bonus.”

The AWEA says many of the ideas for reforms have already been adopted in Europe and could be implemented here.