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Energy farms are increasingly dotting Kansas' landscape

The Topeka Capital Journal|Tim Carpenter |October 7, 2007
KansasGeneral

The uncivil war ignited by a request from Iberdrola Renewable Energies to build a 200-megawatt complex near Hays exposed deep gaps in thinking about wind power. Advocates pointed to a sustainable, free source of energy that didn't mirror a coal-fired plant's contributions to smog, acid rain, global warming and mercury poisoning. Critics responded that each $2 million turbine was an aesthetic irritant, complete with blinking night lights to warn aircraft. Property owners near the proposed site suggested land values would nose dive. ..."No one in their right mind can possibly consider this an environmentally beneficial development for a peaceful rural community," he [J.P. Michaud] said.


LINCOLN - Ironworker Ernest Small secured the last of 270 wrist-sized bolts steadying the three blades of a modern-day sentinel of the plains.

Operators of an enormous crane had already created a turbine tower at the Smoky Hills Wind Farm by stacking four hollow steel tubes, each smaller than the latter, onto a 50-foot square concrete foundation tucked underground. The crane operator then placed the nacelle - a fancy name for the Greyhound bus-sized unit containing a gear box, low- and high-speed shaft, generator, controller and brake - atop the tower 250 feet above a beautiful slice of prairie landscape.

In an equally delicate maneuver, the first 17,000-pound blade prepared by Small was hoisted into the air and slipped into place …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

LINCOLN - Ironworker Ernest Small secured the last of 270 wrist-sized bolts steadying the three blades of a modern-day sentinel of the plains.

Operators of an enormous crane had already created a turbine tower at the Smoky Hills Wind Farm by stacking four hollow steel tubes, each smaller than the latter, onto a 50-foot square concrete foundation tucked underground. The crane operator then placed the nacelle - a fancy name for the Greyhound bus-sized unit containing a gear box, low- and high-speed shaft, generator, controller and brake - atop the tower 250 feet above a beautiful slice of prairie landscape.

In an equally delicate maneuver, the first 17,000-pound blade prepared by Small was hoisted into the air and slipped into place against the hub. Addition of two identical blades gave the turbine a wing span greater than a Boeing 747.

All in the name of catching a good breeze.

"We live in wind central," said Frank Costanza, an executive with Tradewind Energy of Lenexa. "It's a business whose time has come."

Tradewind and Enel North America, a subsidiary of Italy's largest utility, are collaborating to bring a wind farm to life on 22,000 acres south of Lincoln and west of Salina. More than 100 turbines will be tenants on the site straddling Interstate 70. Each sleek white machine will be viewed as bonanza of economic development opportunity to some, environmentally benign source of power to others and visual blasphemy to more than a few.

Smoky Hills and three existing Kansas commercial wind farms are in the business to funnel electricity to utility companies diversifying power supply portfolios sustained for decades by coal, natural gas or nuclear fuel.

But capturing the zephyr streaming across the state is doing more than brighten light bulbs - it is energizing Kansas' green revolution.

High ranking

The potential of wind power in Kansas is obvious to anyone sticking a wet finger in the air, especially in the western half of the state. Indians who long ago inhabited this prairie were known as the People of the South Wind. Kansas homesteaders who followed made use of domestic windmills to pull water from wells.

Larry Flowers, a 25-year veteran of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., said this natural phenomenon ranks Kansas as the nation's third-best state in terms of wind energy potential. Kansas has more than 16,000 square miles of Class 5, or excellent, terrain for production of wind power.

The problem is about 10 states have done a better job than Kansas developing this indigenous resource.

Flowers said wind generation in Kansas could reduce reliance on increasingly expensive Wyoming coal shipped hundreds of miles to power plants making 70 percent of the state's electricity. Unfolding wind also could trim consumption by utility companies of water from the Ogallala Aquifer and the surface water system, he said.

"We think wind is a very serious solution," Flowers said. "Wind needs to be embraced by states that are water-challenged."

Kansas has created 364 megawatts of wind power, with 100 megawatts at Smoky Hills scheduled for completion by December. The state has a long way to go before joining the elite company of Texas with 2,768 megawatts of wind, California with 2,361, Iowa with 936, Minnesota with 895 and Washington with 818. One megawatt produces enough electricity to serve an average of 250 to 300 households for a year.

Voluntary targets

Wind proponents found a friend in Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who wasn't impressed a mere 3.5 percent of electricity produced in Kansas came from commercial turbines.

She persuaded utility executives to endorse a goal of tapping wind for 10 percent of electricity manufactured in the state by 2010. The target would double to 20 percent in 2020. In power terms, the objectives could be met with a total of 1,050 megawatts of wind in 2010 and 2,100 megawatts a decade later.

"Clean, renewable energy is the best direction in which to move forward," Sebelius said.

The governor dismissed the idea of forcing power generators to comply. She has wanted no part of savage political battles triggered by debate in 21 states that adopted portfolio standards to hasten development of renewable energy.

Despite lukewarm attitudes in the past about wind development, Topeka-based Westar Energy, the largest electric utility in the state, and Kansas City Power & Light, with customers in Kansas and Missouri, are poised to make power plays in the market.

Westar is prepared to invest $500 million in the acquisition of 300 megawatts by the end of 2008 and to obtain 200 megawatts more by 2010. KCPL is exploring options for expanding its wind holdings to 400 megawatts in 2012.

"They recognize there is value to the environment and to their customers and shareholders in utilizing wind," said Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, who co-chairs the Kansas Energy Council.

Some environmentalists dismissed the wind goals as modest, but at least six utilities serving Kansas endorsed the plan.

"Wind is clearly a very desirable strategy here in Kansas," said Michael Chesser, president and chief executive officer of Great Plains Energy, the parent company of KCPL. "It's clearly not going to be the whole solution."

A newcomer

Mark Lawlor, who represents Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy, is preparing to add Cloud County to the list of commercial wind farm hosts.

Construction is scheduled to begin next spring on the 200-megawatt Meridian Way Wind Farm about 50 miles north of Salina and six miles west of Concordia.

Named for an old farm road well known to locals, the company's wind towers would take root on 20,000 acres of pasture and wheat, alfalfa and milo fields. Site selection took into account wind speed and topography, along with potential threats to wildlife habitat and unplowed prairie grasses, Lawlor said.

"It's a very important issue in this state where these projects are located," he said.

Commercial wind got its start in 1999 when the precursor to Westar put up an experimental 1.5-megawatt tower at Jeffery Energy Center in Pottawatomie County. Serious production followed in 2001 with completion of Gray County Wind Farm near Montezuma. The 112-megawatt facility has 170 turbines surrounded by fields of wheat, milo and sunflowers.

Pete Ferrell, a Beaumont rancher whose family has lived in the Flint Hills for more than a century, served as spark plug for the Elk River Wind Facility in Butler County. The 150-megawatt complex was finished in 2005.

"It is a project and an energy source that anyone can support in good conscience," Ferrell said.

In 2006, the 100-megawatt Spearville Wind Energy Facility east of Dodge City became operational.

In addition to Smoky Hills and Meridian Way, Westar plans to build two 100-megawatt wind farms - Flat Ridge in Barber County east of Medicine Lodge and Central Plains in Wichita County between Leoti and Scott City.

These new projects must run the gauntlet of local public opinion. Survival isn't guaranteed.

Big squall

The uncivil war ignited by a request from Iberdrola Renewable Energies to build a 200-megawatt complex near Hays exposed deep gaps in thinking about wind power.

Advocates pointed to a sustainable, free source of energy that didn't mirror a coal-fired plant's contributions to smog, acid rain, global warming and mercury poisoning. Critics responded that each $2 million turbine was an aesthetic irritant, complete with blinking night lights to warn aircraft. Property owners near the proposed site suggested land values would nose dive.

Once installed, supporters claimed, farmers could tend crops within a few feet of each tower. But land exposed to development would have a checkerboard of roads that encroached upon wildlife, foes answered.

Wind farm advocates said it was an opportunity to bring new investment, jobs and lease revenue to a rural area striving for economic sustainability. On the contrary, came the rebuttal, developers were drawn to Kansas by state and federal tax incentives rather than interest in rural life.

As debate approached an apex in September, 30 signs denouncing Iberdrola were strategically placed in Ellis County. One sign adorned with the message "Keep your ugly wind turbines in Spain" was transformed by vandals with black spray paint to say "support wind energy."

Hays resident J.P. Michaud, who reported a case of vandalism to police, said placing a forest of turbines near the city was unthinkable.

"No one in their right mind can possibly consider this an environmentally beneficial development for a peaceful rural community," he said.

The Ellis County zoning commission had voted 6-1 to recommend issuance of a permit to Iberdrola. Angry local residents produced a petition with enough signatures requiring Iberdrola to secure the unanimous consent of the Ellis County Commission.

Commissioners Vernon Berens and Dennis Pfannenstiel couldn't trump Commissioner Perry Henman's veto, who felt zoning rules were insufficient to handle a large wind project.

Wires crossed

Aside from personal advocacy, the greatest deterrent to construction of wind farms remains lack of high-voltage transmission lines to get electricity from isolated wind-swept areas in western Kansas to population centers in the eastern part of the state.

It is no small irony a company seeking permission for a $3.5 billion coal-fueled power plant expansion could help.

Earl Watkins, president and chief operation officer of Sunflower Electric Power Corp., said approval of the 1,400-megawatt coal project at Holcomb would require installation of new transmission lines into Kansas. He said 1,000 miles of line costing $1 billion would become reality if the Kansas Department of Health and Environment endorsed Sunflower's air-quality permit application.

"That will allow us to actually develop and utilize the wind resources that naturally sit here," Watkins said.

The Kansas Legislature recognized the power transfer problem in 2005 by establishing the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority. The organization can build lines, but prefers utility companies to fill voids. So far, Westar and the state's newest utility, ITC Great Plains, are biting.

Bill Moore, Westar's chief executive officer, said the company would break a bottleneck by building a line from Wichita to Hutchinson in 2008 and an extension from Hutchinson to Salina in 2009.

"It's a first big step for us," he said. "It provides opportunities for other providers in the state to move energy."

ITC Great Plains president Carl Hulsig said the Topeka-based company would erect 180 miles of line in southwest Kansas to remove other transmission roadblocks.

"The time for change is now," he said. "Without significant regional transmission expansion, wind energy will be limited."

Growing a hedge

Brad Beecher may be the most aggressive out-of-state cheerleader for Kansas wind power. Of 215,000 customers served by Empire District Electric Co., of Joplin, Mo., only 10,000 live in Kansas. The rest are in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Beecher, vice president of Empire Electric, said the company agreed in 2004 to buy the 150-megawatt output of Elk River Wind Farm in Beaumont. The deal saved the company several million dollars during a price spike, he said.

"The attributes of wind energy have proven to be a key component in a balanced mix," he said.

Now, Empire Electric wants another piece of the action. An agreement in June obligates the company to take 100 megawatts from the future Meridian Way farm. Westar is to take the other 100 megawatts.

Blake Elliott, senior electric supply planner with the Kansas City (Kan.) Board of Public Utilities, said BPU had a far more subtle approach to wind. The municipal utility holds a 20-year purchase contract for 25 megawatts from Smoky Hills.

He estimated the agreement would save BPU ratepayers about $3 million during the next decade.

"It's a hedge against high market purchase prices," Elliott said.

For the chicken

The lesser prairie chicken is a candidate for listing as a threatened species due to habitat loss. This shy lover likes to nest on open prairie also favored by commercial wind developers.

Brian Obermeyer, director of the Flint Hills Initiative for the Nature Conservancy, said the prairie chicken and other animals struggled with "habitat fragmentation" following construction of roads, turbines and transmission lines at wind farms.

Research at Kansas State University suggests a single 1.5-megawatt turbine could negatively influence prairie chicken nesting in a one-mile radius. Females preferred to nest 400 yards from power transmission lines and 600 yards from roads.

"Wind power is definitely a technology that can help us reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but we need to be careful how we go about it," Obermeyer said. "The beauty of wind power is that ecological impacts can be greatly minimized through siting."

Disturbed land with high wind potential should be exhausted before developers consider unblemished acreage, said Ron Klataske, executive director of the Kansas Audubon Society. He said the Smoky Hills and Elk River wind projects violated this ethic.

"Tragically, construction of an industrial wind power development on the sprawling Smoky Hills site will eviscerate 20,000 acres within the most intact prairie landscape in the Smoky Hills region," Klataske said. "It will dominate the future view of the most spectacular scenic landscape visible from I-70 between Junction City and Colorado."

Larry Patton, of the Kansas group Protect the Flint Hills, said embracing development of renewable energy sources shouldn't require the sacrifice of other natural resources.

"Not all sites are created equal," Patton said.

Holding treasure

Sebelius took an unflinching stand in 2004 to save the "Heart of the Flint Hills" from exposure to commercial wind farming. She called for a voluntary wind farm ban on Tallgrass Prairie bounded by US-24 highway to the north, US-77 on the west, US-400 to the south, and K-99 and K-4 on the east.

"We've been actually incredibly pleased with the collaborative effort on preserving what all of us agree is a national and international treasure," Sebelius said.

Her position on the Flint Hills, however, put a surprising chill on overall development of Kansas wind.

"It had an unintended consequence," said Parkinson, the lieutenant governor. "The international wind industry saw the headlines of the controversy of wind in the Flint Hills and misinterpreted that as Kansas was against wind."

Recent incursions by heavyweights Enel, of Italy; EDP, of Portugal; and Iberdrola, of Spain; suggest apprehension is diminishing, Parkinson said. The thaw is sufficient to justify lobbying turbine builders about locating a plant in Kansas, he said.

It reflects a business climate making the United States the fastest-growing market for wind power and placing Kansas in position to be a bigger generator of green energy.

Just the type of blustery news Rep. Josh Svaty, D-Ellsworth, yearns to hear.

"I've struggled to see how the wind industry in the state has been sluggish compared to Texas, Oklahoma and other states because of the perception we're not as open for business," he said. "The beautiful thing now - this year and last year especially - is we do have the momentum building in a state that is perfect and wonderful for wind."

Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 295-1158 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.


Source:http://cjonline.com/stories/1…

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