5 signs Utah is on the brink of becoming a player in wind power

Posted by Josh Ewing in Alternative Energy, Featured Articles, Uncategorized on Dec 17th, 2009 | 10 responses

Wind power is the most cost-effective of current renewable energy technologies. Cost of generation is very competitive with traditional sources and the demand for clean energy only continues to increase. So, can Utah become a real player in the burgeoning wind power industry?

Here are 5 positive signs that Utah is poised to become a real player in the West’s wind-power landscape.

1. Boston-based First Wind chose Utah over other attractive options for it’s largest wind farm

Wind turbines at FirstWind's Milford wind farm. Photo courtesy of milfordwind.com

Arguably one of the smartest and most aggressive US companies in the wind generation businesses, First Wind, looked around the United States and chose Milford, in southern Utah, as the location for its largest wind farm. The company didn’t receive any incentives from the state for its 203 MW facility, which it hopes to expand into the largest farm in the US. And, it had plenty of options. Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming all have great wind resources close enough to California, the source of the real demand for renewable energy in the West.

The company plays it coy when asked why it chose Utah. Sure, there’s the great story about the “wind kids” at Milford High. They helped identify the wind resource at Milford. But, it’s hard to swallow that a company as sophisticated as First Wind threw down $376 million just because the students had did a little leg work for them. There are also rumors that the winds at Milford are unique in that they blow strongest during the day, when power is needed the most.

But even that would likely not be enough to sway such an important decision. First Wind has staked its future on Milford, and before you make an investment like that, you analyze a lot of complex factors: transmission costs, operating costs, land leasing costs, and incentives. But there were no incentives.

The bottom line: Utah is an attractive and cost-competitive location for wind farm development.

2. Utah now has one of the most competitive incentive programs for renewable energy development

Approved in the 2009 legislative session, Utah’s Renewable Energy Development Incentive program offers up to 100% tax rebates to companies that develop commercial-scale renewable energy generation projects, such as wind farms. The incentive went into effect this summer, and Utah has already had a great deal of interest from large wind producers. Although it’s unlikely that a full 100% rebate would be granted, rebates in the 50-80% range would still be very significant to wind developers. The state’s portion of sales taxes spent on the project, income taxes from worker salaries, and corporate income taxes can all be rebated.

Remember, First Wind chose Utah without any incentive. So, the incentive really should be the icing on the cake for other companies looking to site wind farms within easy transmission range of the California marketplace.

3. Community support for to wind development is building

As we’ve seen around the country, communities are often fearful of wind development. They’re anxious about noise issues, view impacts, and property values. But when projects go in, and those fears don’t come to life, support grows. Take for instance the Spanish Fork wind park by Wasatch Wind. The conservative community there has embraced the farm and is now branding their community with a renewable image. The folks in Milford have seen the jobs created and the economic value of the state’s largest wind farm.

4. Utah has innovative research and academic leaders hot on the case

Until recently, Utah’s academic and research communities were not focusing on wind. Now several leading thinkers are working full-time to advance Utah’s position in the renewable space. Cathy Hartman and Edwin Stafford have started the Center for the Market Diffusion of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology at USU. They’re working to help create a “rural renaissance” in Utah, bringing the economic benefits of wind development to rural areas. The team recently released a compelling economic study of the impacts of a potential new wind farm in Summit County at a location called Porcupine Ridge. And the two have been working on a documentary called “Harnessing Canyon Winds,” which they hope to release next spring. In short, we now have reputable business minds helping to tackle the economic and political challenges to wind development.

USU is also home to the Center for Active Sensing and Imaging (CASI). With the help of USTAR, the CASI team is developing an intriguing set of tools to “map the wind” with lasers. If successful at creating an economically viable service, CASI will be well on the way to helping wind farms increase their productivity by 10-30%. This sort of productivty improvement would have a dramatic impact on increasing wind’s economic competitiveness and helping developers finance projects.

Bob Barson recently outlined CASI’s plans at a recent “Leonardo After Hours” event. CASI’s first technology, which has already been deployed on a test scale, is called “Valid Wind.” The team floats inexpensive air balloons with special reflective tape in the wind stream. Then, they bounce lasers off the balloons allowing them to precisely map the wind flow. Currently, the technology is quite “low tech,” requiring manual tracking of the balloons with laser range finders. However, the team is working to automate the process. When this is completed, the technology will allow wind companies to validate their own anemometer testing results, quickly and inexpensively, making sure they don’t miss crucial wind flows. CASI’s second generation wind-mapping technology, which is still “on the bench,” is called “Volume Wind.” This system will use more sophisticated laser measuring systems, currently used for air quality testing, to create a large 3-D map of airflow in an area. When completed, this technology has the potential to totally revolutionize wind farm siting, reducing the need for expensive anemometers and dramatically decreasing the time needed to test a location.

5. So far, Utah has avoided significant resistance to wind development

This final observation falls in the “knock on wood” category. But so far, Utah has avoided the sort of controversy that is building around wind development in surrounding states, particularly Wyoming. High Country News recently published an in-depth story explaining the surprising resistance to wind development in Wyoming. In particular, traditional energy interests are resisting development because it tends to block off their routes to drill for fossil fuel sources. On the other side of the coin, environmentalists are raising concerns of sage grouse populations they say are threatened by development. Fortunately, Utah’s geology may help us avoid many of these problems. Our basin-and-range geography places the best wind sites away from fossil fuel sites (for the most part). And, so far, the best wind sites seem to have no serious wildlife habitat concerns. We’ll watch this issue closely, but hope that Utah can avoid the pitfalls seen elsewhere and perhaps even benefit from developers coming to Utah, who don’t want to deal with the issues in Wyoming.