Sun wind energy untapped

Could answer to crisis be blowin' in the wind?

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press January 29, 2001

By MICHELLE LOCKE
Associated Press Writer

ALTAMONT PASS - Stalking the gray-green ridges of the hills east of San Francisco, the turbines of the Altamont Pass wind farm stand in the dead calm of winter, their long, swooping sails motionless against a misty sky.

Wind farms like these account for only 1.5% of the state's energy pool, a largely untapped resource because of its expense and, proponents say, industry bias.

Wind energy isn't expensive right now; technological advances have brought the price down just as the state's energy crunch has driven the price of conventional fuels way up. But wind energy in California suffers from a legacy of neglect that will take money and resolve to fix.

Proponents are hoping the crisis signals a change in the wind energy business.

"We think we may be seeing the renaissance of wind energy," says Robert Gates, senior vice president of Enron Wind, which has turbines in the state's three major wind farms at Altamont, about 50 miles east of San Francisco; Tehachapi near Bakersfield; and the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs.

Interest in wind energy picked up after the oil embargo of the 1970s. In California, federal grants helped create the Altamont Pass wind farm, a complex of about 5,000 turbines, capable of producing about 550 megawatts. Combined, California's wind farms produce 1,700 megawatts, more than enough to light a city the size of San Francisco.

"We could probably easily see that doubled or even tripled in the next four- or five-year period if everybody was serious about it," says Jan C. Paulin, president of SeaWest WindPower, which has operations in California and Wyoming.

But after natural gas-based energy fell to as little as 2 or 3 cents a kilowatt hour, trying to sell the public - and the public utilities - on wind energy at 10 to 15 cents was tilting at windmills. Federal subsidies waned and several companies went under.

In the Southern California wind farm of Tehachapi, for instance, utilities had been paying companies not to produce energy because they didn't want to put in expensive transmission lines that could carry the full output.

These days, wind energy's looking like a bargain with prices from the newer, more efficient turbines as low as 4 to 6 cents a kilowatt hour due to more efficient, bigger turbines and government tax incentives. Electricity generated by burning natural gas is averaging 17 cents per kilowatt hour, with prices much higher on the spot market.

Wind energy has been making headway, with several projects planned across the country and the huge Stateline Wind Project proposed for the Washington-Oregon border. Still, there hasn't been the burst of growth advocates hoped would come with the lower prices.

"The windmills work great. They're very cost-effective. And yet, through short-term greed, we have not invested in a natural energy supply for our future," says Daniel Kammen, professor of energy and society at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jon Tremayne, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric which covers Northern California, says the problem is that renewable energy has been a high-cost item and "continued to be high-cost energy up until six months ago."

Wind energy has proved very popular in Europe. Denmark plans to supply 50% of its power from wind by 2040, said wind energy expert Paul Gipe. Wind energy is growing in the United States, too, but "typically in an American manner, stop and start, boom and bust."

In 1995, investor-owned utilities successfully fought a state plan that would have required large public utilities to sign long term contracts with independent producers, many of them in renewable energies such as wind, geothermal and solar. Southern California Edison officials argued they could buy energy more cheaply elsewhere and did not believe new supplies were needed.

Edison did not return a telephone call to The Associated Press, although it has previously defended its strategy by pointing out it took place before the deregulation that led to utilities selling off their generating plants.

Utilities, running out of money as they bought expensive energy on the spot market but had to sell at capped rates, stopped paying wind farm suppliers two months ago. PG&E sent suppliers a letter saying they were invoking a "force majeure" - an "act of God" - clause in their contract. The act in question was the Public Utilities Commission decision to grant an emergency rate hike of only 1 cent a kilowatt hour, PG&E said.

On Tuesday, Southern California Edison and wind farm suppliers reached an agreement for a five-year contract under which Edison will pay nearly 8 cents a kilowatt hour for wind energy, Gates said.

One problem with wind is you can run out of fuel unexpectedly. But producers say say that can be fixed if wind is used in conjunction with hydroelectric power - turn off the water when the wind's blowing.

Wind energy has the quickest start-up time of any energy source; a turbine can be up and running in a year. Bird kills and opposition from neighboring property owners are a problem, however.

Wind proponents say they're solving the bird problem by using wider, slower blades and designing pillars that make uninviting perches. They're still working on getting wind more widely accepted.

In the Altamont Pass, for instance, the reason turbines weren't turning this week was lack of wind. Spring and summer are the wind seasons. But another problem is that most of the Altamont turbines are old and some are in need of repair. Some companies say they'd like to install modern powerful turbines but they've been held up by local opposition.

"The silver lining to the current crisis may be a grassroots recognition that we have to do more. We have to put in power plants. We can't take forever to get permits," says Gates.