facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c108+61?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .38098 2013-04-18T17:46:26Z 2013-04-18T17:46:26Z

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) this week released a new proposal to share the "oversupply costs" that pile up when there is not enough demand for all the electricity produced by hydroelectric dams and wind-power producers. During these oversupply periods, when wind-power producers may be asked to shut down, the plan would compensate them for lost revenue, according to Doug Johnson, a BPA spokesman.

.35225 2012-06-15T21:17:58Z 2012-06-15T21:17:58Z

The policy essentially would curtail production - particularly wind generation - when there is too much power for BPA to handle, a situation that usually occurs in the spring. And it would also pay the wind energy producers for their lost revenue. PUD commissioners say that amounts to subsidizing an already subsidized industry by passing the costs on to BPA customers like the Grays Harbor district.

.34912 2012-05-06T13:01:36Z 2012-05-06T13:01:36Z

The order forced wind farms along the Columbia River to shut down for about 10 hours during the past weekend. ..."Our folks are working as hard to minimize it, but as the runoff continues, it is certainly possible that it will happen again. It depends on a number of factors: the runoff, what the wind is doing. Certainly what amount of power people are using."

.34872 2012-04-30T01:14:46Z 2012-04-30T01:14:46Z

The agency, which manages much of the power grid in the Northwest, confirmed it issued the orders during the early morning hours of Sunday and Monday, when demand is low. The action rekindles a dispute from last year, when the agency curtailed wind turbines because the water from a large mountain snowpack.

.33607 2011-11-14T12:42:33Z 2011-11-14T12:42:33Z

And in this state, Chris Gleason, community and media services manager for Tacoma Public Utilities, said the wind industry "is no longer in its infancy" and that tax subsidies have distorted the market, leading to overdevelopment of wind power in the Northwest.

.32502 2011-07-19T13:44:34Z 2011-07-19T13:44:34Z

At night and on weekends, when demand was low, the Bonneville Power Administration ordered wind farms to shut down, saying there was more electricity than the region needed or could export.

.32185 2011-06-14T23:06:20Z 2011-06-14T23:06:20Z

Since May 18, BPA has ordered wind generators to shut down several hours a day, usually in the low-power-demand nighttime hours. The result so far has been the loss of 74,114 megawatt hours of wind energy, or about 15% of what the wind farms might normally have generated.

.31696 2011-04-13T14:02:26Z 2011-04-13T14:02:26Z

As the wind industry expands, the BPA has found it more difficult to transmit all that power and still meet other responsibilities, which include selling hydro power outside the region and spilling water over dams to aid the passage of migrating salmon.

.30524 2010-12-21T15:58:51Z 2010-12-21T15:58:51Z

"One of the big challenges of wind power is it is intermittent," said Rob Newsom, a PNNL scientist. "We're at the mercy of Mother Nature. Wind doesn't always blow when we want it." That can make adding wind power to the grid problematic, because the grid requires a steady power load. ..."We worried about if speed shifts quickly. An hour off in a forecast can make a big difference."

.29239 2010-09-23T21:57:55Z 2010-09-23T21:57:55Z

The same storms also brought wind. Bonneville has added 5,000 megawatts of wind power in the last few years, and it is mostly concentrated in the Columbia River Gorge in what is known as the "wind ghetto." As a result, at any given moment, almost all of the wind machines in Bonneville's territory are either running or not running. In June, they were running.

.28252 2010-07-13T22:03:46Z 2010-07-13T22:03:46Z

A recent study in Klickitat County, Washington indicates 6,500 birds and 3,000 bats are killed annually in the two states-though the number of deaths in the two states may be much higher. ...an untold number of birds are devoured by vultures or coyotes before they're included in the count.

.28128 2010-07-07T00:40:48Z 2010-07-07T00:40:48Z

Engineers say that if the power grid becomes more reliant on renewable energy, a lot of new transmission lines will have to be built at some point or there will be unhappy consequences. Mostly this problem has been predicted rather than experienced. But the future may have arrived last month.

.27833 2010-06-17T12:49:52Z 2010-06-17T12:49:52Z

A small Del Mar company said Wednesday that it has landed a bigger stimulus check from the federal government than expected for developing a big wind farm in Washington state. Cannon Power Group said it is getting $200 million in stimulus funds for its latest work on a 500 megawatt farm on ridgelines along the Columbia River.

.22345 2009-07-26T14:16:25Z 2009-07-26T14:16:25Z

In the space of one hour last month, electricity generated at wind farms in the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge shot up by 1,000 megawatts -- enough to power some 680,000 homes. Less than an hour later, it plummeted almost as much. In coping with the variations, the BPA has at times adjusted flows through dams at rates that exceeded guidelines established to protect fish. "It is stressful. You have the threat of fish issues on one hand you are trying to prevent, and at the same time you're trying to meet load," she said. The events of June 4 and 5 highlight the challenge facing the agency

.12723 2007-11-14T21:08:09Z 2007-11-14T21:08:09Z

Looking east into Gilliam County and north into Washington, turbines are strung over ridgelines as far as the eye can see. And there are nowhere near enough of them. ...West Coast utilities and independent power producers are locked in a land rush to secure the best wind sites and the power they produce. Coupled with a worldwide shortage of turbines and a falling dollar, the resulting scarcity is driving up the cost of wind power, a burden electricity ratepayers will shoulder.

.11329 2007-08-14T11:43:23Z 2007-08-14T11:43:23Z

There's a big obstacle to creating a shiny techno-green future by adding wind, sun and wave energy to our power system: the grid. The nation's electric power transmission system, aka the grid, could be imagined as an overworked tangle of fraying household wires repeatedly spliced together by your grandfather, who refuses to call the electrician. It is based on century-old technology and, from a modern management perspective, is dumb. Often, it's likened to the nation's highway system. But one local utilities executive said that is wishful thinking. "More like a collection of New England country lanes," said Roger Garratt, resource acquisition manager for Puget Sound Energy.

.10933 2007-07-24T10:44:56Z 2007-07-24T10:44:56Z

The United States is expected to be home to an anticipated 49,000 MW of installed wind-power capacity by 2015, making it the world's largest wind-power producer, according to a recent report. Developers are expected to invest more than $65 billion between 2007 and 2015 in wind-power facilities, researchers say.

.10202 2007-06-16T11:13:16Z 2007-06-16T11:13:16Z

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) peddled a Democratic energy bill in her party's radio address Saturday despite the bill stalling over a dispute on renewable energy this week.

.10146 2007-06-14T11:02:52Z 2007-06-14T11:02:52Z

A tax break that has helped spur the development of windmill farms in Washington state could be extended for five years as part of the new Senate energy bill, Sen. Maria Cantwell said Wednesday. But the ability to carry that power from turbines in some of the wind-swept regions of the Northwest to the customers who need it isn't part of the proposal at this time.

.4611 2006-08-23T21:31:56Z 2006-08-23T21:31:56Z

Energy consumption: Universities are paying more for renewable energy generated by dams and wind farms. Western Washington University and The Evergreen State College were among the first in the state to go 100 percent green. Colleges are also exploring other energy options, such as biodiesel and solar power.