Here comes the sun

Price competitive now

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

By SAL CHAVEZ
Valley Press Staff Writer

TEHACHAPI - Wind and solar energy for years have been a means to supplement energy resources, but were too expensive to compete with fossil and natural gas fuels.

California's continuing energy crisis is causing many to take a new look at these and other alternative energy sources.

Kramer Junction Co. operates one of the largest solar energy fields in the world. Just outside Boron on Highway 395, the plant is large enough to produce the energy needed to power a community of 150,000 for a year, said Scott Frier, vice president and CEO of the company.

And today's economic climate and the skyrocketing price of electricity are making alternative energy sources more competitive, he said.

"The alternative energies have become an inexpensive commodity with fossil fuels becoming more scarce and expensive," Frier said.

The three solar facilities in the Mojave Desert are strong enough to power a community of 350,000 when the plants are working at full capacity, Frier said.

Bob Gates, senior vice president of Enron Wind, agrees with Frier's outlook on alternative energy sources.

Twenty years ago, generating wind energy was more expensive than energy from fossil fuels, but times have changed. Wind has a value that other traditional energy sources can't provide - price security, Gates said.

"Today, wind (companies) can go into an agreement to supply power at fixed prices for 20 years," Gates said.

For example, natural gas prices were once 2 cents to 3 cents per kilowatt hour and have now risen to about 10 to 15 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind energy, once 50 cents per kilowatt hour, is now set at about 8 cents per kilowatt hour under a 20-year agreement, he said.

Paul Gipe, author of books and articles on alternative wind energy, says wind energy is a booming business outside the United States. It is no longer an "alternative" source of energy with winds farms seen all over countries such as Denmark and Germany, he said.

"Wind energy has come of age," Gipe said. "If you need energy and clean energy wind is an attractive option."

Gipe said the United States is behind other countries, and he expects greater investment in wind farms in this country - most likely in California.

"If wind developers, companies and advocates of solar energy in California had been permitted to build plants in the 1990s, we wouldn't be in this pickle," Gipe said.

But the state is suffering an energy crisis and, with a growing population, the problem won't get better soon.

The California Independent System Operator, which controls most of the state's power grid, extended a Stage 3 alert for several days this month. Such an alert means California's power reserves have fallen to about 1.5% and there is a good chance of rolling blackouts.

Such blackouts shut off power to San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and other northern and central California cities several times this month, leaving people in the dark for as long as two hours at a time.

Germany and Spain are world leaders in the use of wind energy, with the United States coming in third, Gates said. However, western Europe tends to be more advanced in their views of renewable energy because natural gas is more expensive there, he said.

State Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight said although California has wind farms and solar fields, they are not a point where they can be relied upon alone as a source of continuous energy.

"It is an additional energy we should pursue," Knight said, adding alternative power sources have a long way to develop before they can create as much energy as a plant run on fossil or nuclear fuel.

Knight believes the answer to California's energy problem is to build more power plants. He said people must come to realize that nuclear power is the way to go.

"Right now, we need more power generating, because the demand is far greater than the supply," Knight said.

California has two nuclear power plants, and once they reach the end of their "safe operating" life, they will be closed and no longer used in California, Gipe said.

Nuclear power is no longer an option because it is too costly and hazardous, Gipe added. Not only that, but nuclear power creates waste that is hard to dispose of and an accident at the plant can be disastrous, he said.

"When a windmill falls over, you don't have to evacuate Los Angeles," Gipe said.

Knight disagrees with Gipe's opinion of nuclear energy.

"We use nuclear energy on aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines and have been doing so for 40 to 50 years, and it's no big deal," Knight said. "Aircraft carriers have 5,000 people living in them and they've got a nuclear power plant in the basement. Kind of amazing, isn't it, that we can't put one someplace in the desert?"

Still, as promising as alternative energy sources are, Gipe cautioned that building a wind farm tomorrow won't stop today's energy crisis. The crisis was about 10 years in the making and will take time to solve, he said.

Assemblyman Phil Wyman, RTehachapi, blames "radical environmentalists" for the shortage of power plants in the state. He believes they have created so many roadblocks to power plant construction that California has fallen behind the past 12 years.

Frier said bureaucratic roadblocks need to be taken out of the way of building power plants.

"It's a new world, so it will take time for people to take to (alternative sources of energy)," Frier said.

Solar Electric Generating Systems, which produce solar energy, operate like a magnifying glass, taking sunlight and concentrating it into heat, using curved mirrors. The heat is focused on a pipe filled with synthetic oil, heated to 750 degrees and then pumped into a steam generator, where water is heated and produces steam through a turbine. The turbine creates electric energy that is transmitted to power companies.

Then the energy is sold to Southern California Edison Co., Frier said.

Although excitement about solar energy has risen this past year, Frier said it is premature to expect more solar fields to be built any time soon.

Wind energy is growing, however.

Enron's wind farm in Tehachapi is one of the largest and most productive wind farms in the world, Gates said. Tehachapi's facility supplies 2% of the state's total power, he added.

Florida Power & Light is planning a wind farm near Jawbone, off Highway 14 south of Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Gipe, Sierra Club chairman of the Kern-Kaweah chapter, said the club asked Kern County to prepare a full environmental impact report on Florida Power & Light's proposed wind farm.

Wind farms have a very low environmental impact and are a clean source of energy. Aesthetic and visual impacts can be eliminated if wind turbines are installed correctly, he said.

Energy is created when wind blows through the arms of a wind turbine. The wind creates mechanical energy, and a shaft in the turbine creates electricity that is carried through power lines to the power plant.

Gipe said the Sierra Club has a long tradition of supporting renewable energy. The club is just concerned that the county not cut corners because of the ongoing energy crisis.

"We just want to make sure if they build wind farms in Tehachapi, they do it right," Gipe said.