http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/4208 Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:45:51 GMT Nearly completed Wild Horse Wind Project 1.8 MW turbines sit in the hills east of Ellensburg, Wash., on July 12. http://www.windaction.org/articles/4208 http://www.windaction.org/articles/4193 Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:05:46 GMT Wind plant near the Oregon-Washington border http://www.windaction.org/articles/4193 http://www.windaction.org/articles/3527 Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:12:45 GMT Workers atop a generating unit near Bickleton, Klickitat County, wait to guide rotors into place 262 feet above the ground. Once assembled, the final structure is 357 feet tall. http://www.windaction.org/articles/3527 http://www.windaction.org/articles/3419 Wed, 14 Jun 2006 08:10:05 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/3419 http://www.windaction.org/articles/2348 Mon, 03 Apr 2006 11:32:00 GMT Eastern Washington is home to five operating wind farms so far, including this one near Walla Walla. http://www.windaction.org/articles/2348 http://www.windaction.org/articles/1182 Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:20:03 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/1182 http://www.windaction.org/articles/6632 Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT Workers at the Hopkins Ridge Wind Farm, near Dayton in Columbia County, assemble turbines in October 2005. Hopkins Ridge, owned by Puget Sound Energy, has been generating electricity for customers since November 2005. http://www.windaction.org/articles/6632 http://www.windaction.org/articles/24128 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:25:54 GMT A state energy council on Monday recommended approval of the 95-turbine Desert Claim Wind Power Project but also put conditions on its future construction and operation eight miles northwest of Ellensburg. The approval is a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire who will make the final decision on the project, which has been sought since January 2003 by the French-owned firm of enXco USA Inc. Gregoire is expected to formally receive the recommendation in early December and has until early February to make her decision. http://www.windaction.org/articles/24128 http://www.windaction.org/articles/24070 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:37:10 GMT The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Hal Holmes Community Center to consider a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire on whether to approve the 95-turbine, $330 million Desert Claim Wind Power Project. EFSEC officials estimate a final decision by the governor could come in early February 2010 at the latest. The wind farm, proposed by the French-owned firm of enXco USA Inc., is planned for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg spread on 5,200 acres north of Smithson Road. http://www.windaction.org/articles/24070 http://www.windaction.org/articles/24007 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:38:44 GMT A proposal to build the first wind farm in Western Washington may stall, and may even be doomed, because of concern that turbine blades would kill members of an endangered bird species, a state lawmaker says. "I'm just not feeling real confident that this is going to grab hold and move forward very fast," Rep. Dean Takko, D-Longview, said last week. "There are key players who aren't very supportive, and I think it's going to hold this up. Is it going to kill it? I don't know." http://www.windaction.org/articles/24007 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23768 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:42:24 GMT The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, today resumes deliberations on whether to approve the 95-turbine, $330 million Desert Claim Wind Power Project proposed for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg. EFSEC's seven members were scheduled to gather again behind closed doors in Olympia at 1 p.m. today, according to EFSEC Manager Allen Fiksdal. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23768 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23406 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:54:51 GMT John Lodahl held the torpedo-like instrument steady while Max Holder calibrated it from inside a metal-skinned microwave station on this cold, windswept hill north of Sunnyside. Satisfied with the readings, Lodahl climbed down from the top of the 30-foot tower on a recent morning, marking the end of a tour that has taken the pair from Astoria, Ore., at the mouth of the Columbia River, to the Horse Heaven Hills in Benton County over the past five weeks. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23406 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23177 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:15:35 GMT Biomass growing on 2.1 million acres of state forests could be burned to generate electricity or converted to a liquid fuel called methanol, he said. Further, he endorsed the careful expansion of the state's burgeoning wind energy business to the west side of the Cascades - provided the massive towers won't imperil wildlife. ...Wind is not the only renewable energy resource on state lands, he said. Goldmark will sort through 30 proposals for two biomass pilot projects http://www.windaction.org/articles/23177 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23166 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:31:44 GMT Wind energy and hydropower have a see-saw-like relationship: When one goes up the other goes down. But the Bonneville Power Administration is hoping a small device that looks like a model rocket and weighs a few pounds can help ease the tricky synergy. BPA on Wednesday installed an anemometer to help the power-marketing agency better forecast oncoming wind at the Horse Heaven substation just west of Paterson. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23166 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22817 Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:48:57 GMT The Washington Department of Natural Resources is no longer considering leasing 2,560 acres of state trust land to SDS Lumber Co. for possible future expansion of the proposed Whistling Ridge Energy Project in Skamania County. A notice released by the DNR's Ellensburg office on Aug. 10 says the agency "is no longer considering a lease" but could reconsider the option at some future date. "The reason it was withdrawn was because of issues with endangered species," DNR spokesman Aaron Toso said Friday. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22817 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22749 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:22:03 GMT Today the Bonneville Power Administration will install the first of fourteen anemometers to better track where and how hard the wind is blowing. The BPA, which markets power from the Northwest's network of federal hydroelectric dams, has struggled to incorporate increasing amounts of variable wind energy into the region's electric grid. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22749 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22713 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:19:18 GMT Jason Lowe, a biologist with the Bureau of Land Management's Eastern Washington office in Spokane, ...conducted two field surveys this spring and summer, which confirmed what he feared: The hawks are fewer and farther between. Where there were 17 nesting pairs in 1987 in the Juniper Dunes area of Franklin County, only four were spotted last year and just one this year. ...Wind farms are proliferating in Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon, which is a concern, he said. "Information is not complete, but there have been reports of hawks being hit by the (rotating windmill) blades," he said. While ferruginous hawks are unlikely to nest on ridges where windmills are located, they typically forage for food over a 17-mile radius, and that can include wind farms. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22713 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22610 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:14:36 GMT Green power, green jobs, renewable energy collide with the Endangered Species Act in a proposed wind farm in Southwest Washington. The project calling for between 48-60 megawatts of power is proposed for 3,359 acres of Washington Department of Natural Resources land northwest of Naselle, Washington. ...The DNR has the power to stop the project if it deems the project endangers Murrelets. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22610 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22459 Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:28:24 GMT Today DNR has 24 active wind power leases in various stages. Five wind farms with 65 turbines operate on state trust land, all in Eastern Washington. The leases yield $670,000 a year. However, the DNR failed to consider whether allowing wind turbines on state land might conflict with the compact the state made with the federal government in 1997 when it promised to manage its land in a way that would minimize harm to threatened and endangered species. And Sutherland didn't foresee that some uses might not be compatible with the giant spinning turbine blades that feed renewable energy into the power grid. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22459 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22441 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:14:52 GMT The Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest has run smack into an issue that may well be repeated elsewhere as wind power gains a larger share of the electric power generation mix. The issue is wind integration and, more to the point, how to manage operational and cost allocation issues that arise as wind power projects come into service. It also touches on public perceptions about wind and what role it can and can't play in meeting electricity demand. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22441