Wind on the wires: Bigger isn’t better

Wind power is big in Minnesota. Carleton and St. Olaf both have wind turbines, and Carleton is planning another one, reports Sarah Lemagie in the Strib. So do Macalester and the U of M-Morris. St. Olaf’s turbine supplies about a quarter of the college’s electricity, while Carleton sells its wind power to Xcel Energy. In Woodstock, MN, Juhl Energy expects to earn $12 million from small Midwest wind farms, developed in partnership with farmers and other community-based owners, Neal St. Anthony writes in the Strib.

[Minnesota wind pioneer Dan Juhl, retired Gen. Wesley] Clark and JUHL President John Mitola, an engineer, lawyer and veteran utility executive, have spent a lot of time figuring out how they can keep the wind energy from becoming just the province of huge energy players such as utilities and energy conglomerates.

“Dan, on his own and without any silk-stocking investment bankers, managed to get about $200 million in wind farms going that are owned by farmers and other community members,” Mitola said this week. “We’ve got [hundreds of millions more] in the pipeline. But we need capital.”

While many people associate “local” and “sustainable” in discussions of energy or food, the contest for control of “green” energy has big-time national players, the feds seem to be lining up with big-bucks proposals for massive wind farms and giant powerlines. AP reports that the Obama administration and congressional leaders say the federal government should have greater authority to locate transmission lines, and not allow states to stand in the way of construction of a “smart grid” for wind and solar energy transmission.

Sea Stachura reports for MPR that an out-of-state power company wants to build a $12 billion power line across seven states, saying it will carry wind-generated electricity to eastern states. The ITC Holdings Corp.’s “Green Power Express” proposal calls for a 765 kilovolt power line with thick electric lines 150 to 300 feet in the air. Critics say the giant power lines would interfere with bird migration, tourism and the ecosystem. ITC does not guarantee that the power carried over the lines would be wind power, and critics also say much of it would be coal or nuclear-generated.

According to the MPR report, CapX 2020 is a consortium of MN utility companies that wants to upgrade and expand its power lines in MN. MN Senator Amy Klobuchar says she supports power lines to carry wind energy to the East Coast.

While Minnesota (and several other states) claim to be “the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” Saudi Arabia may not be the best development or energy production model. The Institute for Local Self Reliance reports that bigger isn’t always better:

Rapid growth of the renewable energy industry requires economies of scale. The status quo rewards ever-larger production facilities for rather modest reductions in costs and indirectly reduces local ownership. A policy of locally-owned renewable energy production, however, could pour nearly $1 billion into rural economies via thousands of rural owners. That’s an economy of scale.

Giant wind farms require giant transmission line grids, which are not only environmentally suspect but also economically inefficient.

A large, 200 MW wind farm can produce electricity for 25% less than an otherwise equivalent local 10 MW wind farm, but large wind farms often need new transmission lines to send their power long distances. If a 200 MW project sends its power 500 miles, transmission costs and losses largely offset its economic advantage. [emphasis added]

On the other hand, twenty 10 MW projects injecting their electricity into the existing transmission system could produce the same power at close to the same cost while also providing substantial local economic benefits.