Answers to West Coast energy crisis blowing in the wind

Wind turbines along the Washington and Oregon border will provide income to farmers while leaving the land available for growing crops

By Environmental News Network staff

Part of the solution to the West Coast's energy crisis may be blowin' in the wind.

The world's largest wind farm will be built this year on the Oregon-Washington border, with 450 huge windmills generating enough electricity to power 70,000 homes in the West. Oregon-based PacifiCorp has agreed to buy all of the power from the wind farm for the next 25 years.

Under development for more than a year, the project is particularly timely because of a growing energy crunch in the West, which has led to skyrocketing prices and a call for more generating plants. PacifiCorp and FPL Energy of Florida, which will build and operate the facility, insist the timing is coincidental.

"But it couldn't have come at a better time," said PacifiCorp spokesman Dave Kvamme.

The new plant, dubbed the Stateline Wind Generating Project, will produce 300 megawatts of power, which will be merged with electricity from the Pacific Northwest's hydroelectric dams. That power will then be sold to 11 western states.

Few commercial wind farms approach the size and potential volume of the Stateline project.

"This is wind power on a grand scale," said Terry Hudgens, president of PacifiCorp's power marketing subsidiary. "With Stateline, wind is just a small niche in our supply, but has taken a position as a very real and significant part of the new electric resources the region badly needs."

The red marks denote Ridgeline turbine locations

Officials say the wind power will help fill gaps in the power exchange between the Pacific Northwest and energy-strapped California. Electricity from Oregon and Washington is sent south in the summer to cool homes. California ships extra power north in the winter to provide more heat.

A deregulated energy market in California, supply shortages and increased demand have left the West Coast in poor shape this winter. Calls have already gone out for aggressive conservation and more generating capacity.

"It just so happens that the market is going crazy right now, so this is a perfect solution at a perfect time," said Rachel Shimshak, director of the Renewable Northwest Project, which advocates for renewable energy such as wind, geothermal and solar.

Officials at PacifiCorp, which supplies power to six states, said wind power will be an important part of diversifying energy sources.

"I think you're going to see lots more wind," Kvamme said. "It's absolutely clear that in the Northwest, new resources need to be brought on-line, and this is part of what's called for."

Experiments have been conducted with wind power for decades, but never has such a large wind farm been built to provide commercial power. Technology advances in the last few years have replaced older, faster-moving windmills with new, self-monitoring turbines whose 150-foot long blades adjust to wind direction and speed.

Construction of the Stateline project is scheduled to get under way next month. Officials hope to see the 240-foot-tall turbines generating juice by the end of the year.

"The Stateline project is just the sort of sustainable solution we need for the region's energy shortage," Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said.

Power from the wind farm will go to Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Montana.

Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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FPL Energy of Florida
Stateline Wind Generating Project
PacifiCorp
Renewable Northwest Project
Wind Power

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