Speeches & Texts
2nd Offshore Summit 2010
Rostock, September 2, 2010
Ambassador Philip D. Murphy
Herr Minister Seidel, es ist mir eine Ehre, mit Ihnen diese Konferenz eröffnen zu dürfen. Und es ist mir eine Ehre, diese internationalen Energieexperten zu treffen. Energie ist eines der wichtigsten Themen auf der globalen Agenda. Im 21. Jahrhundert werden diejenigen Volkswirtschaften die wohlhabendsten und wettbewerbsfähigsten sein, die Energie effizient nutzen. Dort wird es die meisten Arbeitsplätze und Branchen geben. Außerdem ist eine saubere Energiewirtschaft – die den Ausbau kohlendioxidfreier Energiequellen wie Wind- und Solarenergie voraussetzt – auch ein entscheidendes Element jeder Strategie zum Kampf gegen den Klimawandel.
Schon früheste historische Aufzeichnungen zeigen, dass die Menschen damals Windenergie nutzten. Sie lernten voneinander, Technologien zu verbessern und an die gegebenen Umstände anzupassen. Im 11. Jahrhundert nutzten die Menschen im Nahen Osten Windmühlen bei der Herstellung von Nahrungsmitteln. Diese Idee brachten Kaufleute und Kreuzfahrer mit nach Europa. Die Holländer verfeinerten diese Technologie und passten sie so an, dass sie damit Seen und Marschen im Rheindelta entwässern konnten. Auswanderer brachten die neue Technologie mit in die Neue Welt.
Auch heute können wir voneinander lernen. Herr Sturm, ich danke Ihnen und der Stadt Rostock dafür, dass Sie 2010 Gastgeber des 2. Offshore-Gipfels sind.
Minister Seidel, it is an honor to share the honors of opening this conference with you. It is also an honor to meet this transatlantic group of energy specialists. Energy is one of the most important topics on the global agenda. In the 21st century, the most prosperous, competitive economies will be those that use energy efficiently. This is where the jobs and industries will be centered. Just as important, a clean energy economy is a crucial element in any strategy to combat climate change. That means expanding non-carbon energy sources such as wind energy.
Since early recorded history, people have been harnessing the energy of the wind. They learned from each other how to improve and adapt technologies to their own circumstances. In the 11th century, people in the Middle East used windmills for food production. Returning merchants and crusaders carried this idea back to Europe. The Dutch refined that technology and adapted it for draining lakes and marshes in the Rhine River Delta. Settlers took this technology to the New World. Today we can also learn from each other. Mr. Sturm, thank you and the city of Rostock for hosting the 2nd Offshore Summit 2010.
This is a wonderful opportunity to exchange information about an issue that is on the top of President Obama’s list of priorities. President Obama showed that commitment at the very beginning of his administration by making the largest investment in clean energy in America’s history – investments that totaled more than $80 billion. Those investments are expected to create or save more than 700,000 jobs across America by the end of 2012 – jobs manufacturing next-generation batteries for next-generation vehicles; jobs upgrading to a smarter, stronger power grid; jobs doubling America’s capacity to generate renewable electricity from sources like the sun and the wind. These investments were all part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The investments were footnoted by some very clear benchmarks. Last week, Vice President Biden released a new report, “The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy through Innovation,” which details how we are doing in meeting the goals that President Obama established.
Let’s look at one target: renewable energy. Three decades ago, the U.S. led the world in the development of wind, solar, and geothermal power. Since that time, because of the failure to invest in these industries, we’ve fallen behind.
Well, we have jumpstarted investment in renewable energy and by 2012, we plan to have doubled both U.S. renewable energy generation capacity and U.S. renewable manufacturing capacity. As the Vice President’s report documents, we are on track to meet those goals.
Wind is one of the most mature renewable energy technologies. Excluding hydropower, it is currently the largest source of renewable power in the United States. It accounts for nearly two percent of the nation’s total electric generation. In 2009, the wind industry expected a drop due to the effects of the economic and financial markets downturn. Instead, the industry broke all previous record – thanks to a large part to Recovery Act incentives.
A good portion of the wind installation that will come online this year and next will be supported by Recovery Act funding invested in 2009 and 2010. If these projections are met, the U.S. will come close to meeting its goal of doubling renewables in three years through wind alone. Growth in solar and geothermal could take us well beyond our three year goal.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that wind could generate as much as 20 percent of America’s electricity 20 years from now – especially if we tap into offshore wind energy. Wind energy resources off the coasts of the United States are vast and plentiful but they remain largely untapped. They are especially attractive because they are located in relative proximity to the country’s largest centers of electricity use. The Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound is the first wind farm project on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. But on the whole, policies and regulations for offshore wind energy development are still in preliminary stages in the United States. Long-term success will require addressing a number of interrelated political, technical, economic, financial, and environmental issues. Established models used to manage oil and gas extraction can provide some policy guidance, but after the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf, it is clear that any new regulatory models will require coordinated cross-sector engagement. Government policies and regulations set the stage for the research, investment, and development needed to create a sustainable offshore wind industry and send signals about the viability of the sector. Currently European Union countries lead the world in offshore wind development. In many respects, the U.S. offshore wind industry is at a crossroads. We are intent about building a framework for offshore renewable energy development. The kind of dialogue that can take a place at this offshore summit is therefore very useful and extremely important.
Generating renewable power is only half the story. President Obama also set a goal of doubling U.S. renewable manufacturing capacity by the end of 2011. We’re on track to meet that goal, too. We’re using tax credits to increase incentives for renewable energy manufacturers to set up or relocate their businesses in the US. Already, $346 million in tax credits for wind alone have been paid out, resulting in 52 new wind manufacturing projects in the US. The key here is that it is not just about government funding. It’s also about leveraging private capital. Seed money from clean energy funds is expected to generate more than $100 billion in non-federal investment in new energy projects.
Last April, President Obama visited one such project – the Siemens Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing Plant in Fort Madison, Iowa. The facility took advantage of the Recovery Act’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit. Output was boosted and 600 new workers were hired. New molds and equipment were also acquired. When the President visited, he was very impressed by the turbines they were manufacturing -- blades for some of the most advanced wind turbines in the world. Each one was as tall as Air Force One is long; each one, capable of generating enough power for hundreds of homes.
The first large-scale wind turbine designed and built to deliver power directly into an electric utility’s system was installed almost sixty years on October 19, 1941 on Grandpa’s Knob, a small mountain in Vermont. Grandpa’s Knob made history in the global wind energy industry.
It started with a whim and an idea. An engineer – Palmer Cosslett Putnam was his name – was irritated by high electric costs at his summer home on Cape Cod. He thought it should be possible to harness the steady ocean breeze. After several years of research and consultation with a local manufacturer of water turbines, the Putnam wind turbine was ready for field-testing. The twin-bladed 175-foot turbine was designed to withstand winds of up to 115 miles per hour and could generate enough electricity to light 12,500 100-watt light bulbs. For several months during World War II, it fed electric power to the local utility network. In 1945, a blade failed on the turbine. That was the end of the Putnam wind turbine. With postwar coal prices twenty percent cheaper than the price of electricity produced by the wind turbine, there was little interest in the wind station on top of Grandpa’s Knob.
At the time, many considered the project a risky, even foolish, venture. But in the end, Palmer Cosslett Putnam’s wind turbine was considered an engineering success. It helped future researchers understand the behavior of wind and improve wind turbine technology –and it proved that the wind could be used to generate electricity.
One of the most important factors in developing a clean energy economy is encouraging that kind of entrepreneurship and innovation. What the U.S. government is doing with Recovery Act funding and other programs is planting the seeds. The private sector waters the seeds and makes them grow. We have seen it in the past and I know we will see it again in the future: entire industries can be launched, nurtured and grown; at the same time, creating hundreds of thousands jobs and sparking new forms of commerce.
President Obama chose Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as his Energy Secretary because of the message he sends about the importance of innovation. After all, you don’t win a Nobel Prize for repeating the formulas of the past. You win one for doing something that’s never been done before. You win one for innovating. In his Nobel Prize lecture in 1997, Dr. Chu said, “As scientists, we hope that others take note of what we have done and use our work to go in directions we never imagined.” Please here at the 2nd Offshore Summit 2010, take note of all the good work that has been done in the field of offshore wind energy – and take it further in directions and dimensions we cannot imagine today.
Thank you.
Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit.