Co-op buys into wind farm, will save customer-owners money

Published 06 102010 by Citizen Andy

From The Amarillo Times: http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2010-10-02/co-op-buys-wind-project

Co-op buys wind project

By Kevin Welch

Golden Spread Electric Cooperative announced Friday it has purchased a company developing a major wind farm in Oldham and Potter counties.

"We expect it to be completed by late 2011," said Mark Schwirtz, president and general manager of the co-op.

The Golden Spread Panhandle Wind Ranch will have a peak capacity of 78.2 megawatts, but that would require full production constantly. The wind farm will be able to serve the needs of more than 27,000 homes, according to a news release.

Unlike the wind farms planned to tap into a planned transmission system to send power downstate, the Golden Spread facility will serve the local region through rural, customer-owned co-ops from southwestern Kansas to the Edwards Plateau in Texas.

It will be adjacent to the Wildorado Wind Ranch owned largely by Edison Mission Group, of Irvine, Calif. That facility, rated at 161 megawatts, began generation in 2007.

Construction preparations on the 34-turbine project began Thursday, said Walt Hornaday, president of Cielo Wind Power, the company that developed the new wind farm through a subsidiary. It also developed the Wildorado Wind Ranch.

"The contractor began things like surveying. Bulldozers will start in a couple of weeks," he said.

While the sale is final, Cielo will still be involved in finishing the project.

"Cielo will work for us, but we will be supervising overall," Schwirtz said.

Because the wind farms will be adjacent to each other, they can maximize usage of infrastructure.

"A unique aspect of this is they'll be sharing a transmission tap that is part of the infrastructure built four years ago," Hornaday.

Funding for the new wind farm will come from co-op reserves and private financing as well as federal stimulus money.

"We'll be applying for Department of Energy grants for up to 30 percent of qualifying costs," Schwirtz said. "We have high expectations."

The purchase and construction come at a good time, said Hornaday.

"There's a lull in the industry, so they got good terms," he said. "It's a smart move in the long run to do this now."

The Golden Spread facility will complement the 168 megawatt Antelope Station natural gas project the company is building near Abernathy. The generators at that plant will provide power much of the time, but will also be able to start in less than 10 minutes, are energy efficient and use virtually no water, providing a supplement to the intermittent generation from the wind ranch, Schwirtz said.

Besides providing renewable energy, the wind farm should benefit Golden Spread members by hedging against potentially high natural gas costs and future carbon and renewable energy legislation and regulation, according to a news release.