GE and partners ready to start work on $500 million wind project
Submitted by Rocky Barker on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 4:50pm.
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Gov. Butch Otter will join other dignitaries near Hagerman Tuesday for a “blade signing,” as wind developers call a groundbreaking. GE Energy Financial Services and partners including Boise-based Exergy Corp. are celebrating the development of the Idaho Wind Partners project – 11 wind farms near the Oregon Trail spread out from Burley to Hagerman.

This is big stuff.

The $500 million project will become Idaho’s biggest wind project and one of the largest in the entire Pacific Northwest. Once completed the 11 wind farms will be able to generate 183 megawatts, enough to power 39,700 Idaho homes.

This is not Mother Earth News.

The wind farms will sell all of their power to Idaho Power Co. under 20-year agreements, as required by the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. Once finished GE and its partners are confident the project will be eligible for Federal Treasury Grant program designed to stimulate renewable energy projects.

So Otter will be crowing about a project that expected to create 175 construction jobs, 25 permanent and using federal Energy Department estimates will support 2,200 full time jobs a year nationwide. And it probably wouldn’t have happened without stimulus money.

“The federal stimulus package renewal energy incentives were a key driver of the attractive economics of this project,” said Andy Katell, a spokesman for GE Energy Financial Services.

Idaho Power already has exceeded its plan for wind power as a part of its effort to expand its renewable energy base. It announced today it was ending contract negotiations with a wind developer mutually because of the changing market for alternative energy.

Essentially the drop in the cost of natural gas has lowered the price Idaho Power must pay for small power projects and even bigger ones. That’s because these projects’ price are calculated based on how much Idaho Power would pay the get the power elsewhere.

Since its main alternative is natural gas and the price of natural gas has dropped so has the price it will pay for wind, solar and geothermal. Idaho Power has over 200 megawatts of wind power on its system and over 250 additional megawatts under contract. If all of the projects are completed, Idaho Power may have around 800 megawatts of wind on its system in a few years.

Idaho Power is currently studying how it can better integrate intermittent sources like wind into its system. It says its new Langley Gulch natural gas plant will help.

"While working to maximize the value of our existing hydroelectric generation resources, we continue to remain focused on developing a balanced resource portfolio that includes adding new, non-hydroelectric renewable resources like wind, geothermal and solar," said Idaho Power Senior Vice President of Power Supply Lisa Grow.

One of the other benefits of the new Idaho Wind Partners is reduced greenhouse gases-- 331,000 tons -- certainly as important a factor as Idaho's low and stable taxes. So what would GE recommend as public policy to encourage more of these projects?

“We are calling on Congress to enact a national renewable energy standard which would help stimulate growth of more wind, solar and other cleaner energy projects across the United States,” said Kevin Walsh, managing director and head of Power and Renewable Energy at GE Energy Financial Services. “A renewable energy standard would help provide long-term certainty the energy industry and financial community need to ensure continued expansion of renewable energy throughout the country.”