Admittedly, most people don’t word associate wind farms and Starbucks, except for, perhaps, those in the wind farm industry. They, like many other commercial developers are probably familiar with what is called the Starbucks Rule.The Starbucks Rule is pretty simple, don’t build a wind farm within thirty miles of an area that has a Starbucks are you risk running afoul of the rule and could find your project being delayed by angry “Not in my Backyard” (NIMBY) complaints from local residents who might object to the sight of a 250-300 foot tall tower in their backyard. Michael Arndt’s post in Business Week online discusses the rule. You can access the post by clicking here.
As the Environmental Leader online reports, “Andris Cukurs, CEO of U.S. operations for Suzion Energy, said that not only his company—but also competitors—follow this informal rule . . .” Suzion has operations in 21 nations and has a hold on 12 percent of the global wind turbine market.
It appears as though companies building wind farms in America, where there is ample land for the farms, are heeding the Starbucks Rule. The largest wind turbine in the world is in Texas, and just a mere 200 miles from Dallas.
“Wind turbine sales in the U.S. are projected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 percent to reach an annual production volume of almost 8,000 turbines with an average capacity of greater than 1 megawatt by 2015, according to new research.”
If the US is going to reach its peak wind power capacity, the informal Starbucks Rule may be its biggest obstacle to overcome.
To read the Environmental Leader article click here.
Posted: 10/13/09
