BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2007 12:00 am
When it comes to wind energy, Wyoming is falling further and further behind compared to surrounding states and the rest of the country, a University of Wyoming professor says.
Sadrul Ula, professor and director of the UW Utility Consortium, spoke Tuesday to the Wyoming Board of Agriculture at a meeting in Casper.
Ula noted that in 1999, Wyoming ranked fifth in the country, generating 73 megawatts of wind power electricity. Today, according to data compiled by the National Renewable Energy Lab, Wyoming ranks 13th in the country, generating 288 megawatts.
"New York generates more wind energy," said Ula, and the Empire State doesn't have nearly the wind that the Cowboy State does.
"Wyoming is falling behind," he said. That's ironic, considering that the state has some of the best wind conditions in the country.
The big difference between Wyoming and other states, Ula said, is that other states have imposed mandates on their utilities to generate percentages of power from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal.
States that had no wind generation in 1999, but have passed Wyoming since then, include Washington (818 megawatts), Colorado (366 megawatts), Oklahoma (595 megawatts), Illinois (385 megawatts) and New York (390 megawatts).
Ula said Colorado, Washington and Oregon are all generating more wind energy than Wyoming, with lower-quality wind conditions.
Jeff Hymas, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Power subsidiary of PacifiCorp, said two states have required the company to develop a renewable energy portfolio, generating certain percentages of power from renewable energy sources. Those states are Oregon and Washington.
Hymas said PacifiCorp supported the renewable energy requirement in Oregon, but opposed it in Washington.
"The devil's in the details," he said, adding that PacifiCorp just wanted to do what is best for its customers. He noted that Rocky Mountain Power has two new wind projects proposed for Wyoming, the Glenrock Project and the Seven-Mile Hill Project near Medicine Bow. Both projects would have 66 wind turbines generating 99 megawatts by the end of 2008.
"We have an integrated system," said Hymas, so wind energy from Wyoming could help meet renewable portfolio obligations in the Northwest.
Ula said utility companies use the excuse of not enough transmission lines for why more wind generation farms aren't built in Wyoming.
Up to the threshold of generating 20 percent of energy from the intermittent renewables of wind and solar, Ula said, more transmission lines are not needed in Wyoming to get wind-generated electricity to customers.
Ula said Spain, which has 60 percent of its electricity from wind generators, manages the power and transmission challenges just fine.
Los Angeles is buying wind power from a wind farm near Evanston, while Eugene, Ore., draws power from the wind generators at Arlington between Rawlins and Laramie - without building massive transmission lines.