.Posted on 10/25/2001 10:52:46 AM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
PITTSBURGH -- Pennsylvania's two newest wind farms have opened for business, tripling the amount of wind-generated energy in the state and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The 24 megawatts of wind-produced electricity will supply enough power annually for more than 8,000 homes. The 16 new turbines in the southwest part of the state stand 125 feet tall and have three blades.
Three universities -- Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania --as well as Philadelphia Suburban Water Co. and grocer Giant Eagle Inc. have agreed to buy 75 percent of the energy.
The rest of the power -- produced by the Exelon-Community Energy farms -- will be sold to commercial and residential customers in the mid-Atlantic region, said Brent Alderfer, president of Community Energy Inc., a green electricity marketing company.
Environmental groups say the new wind farms will prevent an estimated 75 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year _ the equivalent of taking 5,400 cars off the road or planting more than 10,000 acres of trees.
"It's really a start of a new market to bring wind energy east of the Mississippi, where a lot of people said there wasn't enough wind to make this work," said John Hanger, director of PennFuture, an environmental group.
Community Energy and the five purchasers "have invested in Pennsylvania and made possible clean energy that will fight dirty air, acid rain and global warming while improving our energy security and independence," Hanger said.
Thought you might want to vent some steam.
The Penn Future guys better run up there and make sure their toy hasn't relocated to New Jersey. Last night and today here in Pittsburgh, the wind has been gusting to I'd guess 60+ mph. Up on Laural Ridge, (the most beautiful place in the state) it has to be a lot stronger.
As to Pitt and CMU buying the power from these turkeys --- they can afford it. They'll just raise tuition as much as necessary to be PC.
Somerset, Fayette counties home to largest wind power project in East
By C.M. Mortimer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, October 25, 2001SOMERSET - Robert Will was busy tending to his dairy farm in Somerset County three years ago when he was asked to help launch what is now touted as the world's fastest growing form of electricity generation - wind energy.
On a wind-swept knoll overlooking the Pennsylvania Turnpike, state Public Utility Commission Chairman Glen R. Thomas "flipped the switch" Wednesday and started the six wind turbines of the 15-megawatt Somerset Wind Farm.
The Somerset project and its sister wind farm, the nine-megawatt, 10-turbine Mill Run Wind Farm in Fayette County, make up the largest wind project in the eastern United States.
The two wind farms, which combined produce 24 megawatts of electricity, will also help to nearly triple the amount of wind energy in the eastern United States, supplying enough emission-free electricity annually to power 8,200 Pennsylvania homes.
Will, 63, who attended the dedication ceremony yesterday, said he made the right choice when he and his wife, Tomalee, were approached by the developers for three acres of a 300-acre spread shared with others.
"I never dreamed that something like this would happen in my lifetime. Now we can say we're the only farmers in Pennsylvania milking cows next to wind mills," Will joked.
Both projects were built by Somerset Windpower LLC and Mill Run Windpower LLC, joint ventures between Atlantic Renewable Energy Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based wind energy developer, and Houston-based Zilkha Renewable Energy, which owns wind energy projects in the United States, United Kingdom and Costa Rica.
Power generated from the two farms will be purchased by the Exelon Power Team, a wholesale marketing unit of parent Exelon Corp., a utility and nuclear power plant operator created in April through the merger of Philadelphia-based PECO Energy Co. and Chicago's Unicom Corp.
The new lily-white 1.5-megawatt wind turbines were built by California-based Enron Wind Corp. Straddling the rural landscape and resting on steel towers 215 feet tall - with blades spanning 230 feet in diameter - they can easily be seen by travelers near Somerset Exit 10.
Several new electricity buyers were announced yesterday - including Giant Eagle Inc., the Pittsburgh-based supermarket chain - who committed to buy nearly 3 million kilowatt hours each year over the next five years.
"We're in it because we want to be community leaders in helping western Pennsylvania become an alternate supplier. We're not just concerned about selling food, we're also concerned about the economy and the environment," said jim lampl, Giant Eagle's conservation director.
In addition to environmental benefits, proponents of wind power say that wind generation can offer stable, 20-year prices because it is not subject to fuel price risks. Longer-term contracts also offer the best price.
But rates for electricity generated by wind still will be higher compared to traditional electric suppliers.
"There's a two-cents-per-kilowatt extra premium that we're paying. ... But we hope to play a leadership role, and if we can pull others along in the supermarket industry, that's fine. If it translates into goodwill, that would be an additional benefit," lampl said.
Giant Eagle operates 111 corporate and 91 independently owned stores throughout western Pennsylvania, northeastern Ohio and north central West Virginia.
Cliff Timko, energy manager for Giant Eagle, said the average store uses about 2 million kilowatt hours annually, and the amount of wind power the company is buying could provide power to almost two stores.
The PUC's Thomas said that with the addition of the two wind farms, Pennsylvania will receive more than 30 megawatts of electricity from wind - with nearly 200 additional megawatts planned.
Financing for the Somerset project included a $3.6 million low-interest loan from Pennsylvania's Sustainable Energy Fund, which supports clean energy projects statewide. About $2 million from the PECO-Exelon merger was used to help finance the The Mill Run project.
In May, Carnegie-Mellon University became the first university in the state to sign up for renewable energy from the wind farms by agreeing to buy 4,778 megawatt hours, or 5 percent of its total electricity needs.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has purchased 168,000 kilowatt hours annually for the next two years.
The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia signed on to buy 20 million kilowatt hours that will be delivered annually for the next three years, making it the largest retail wind energy purchase in the nation.
Penn State University agreed to purchase 13.2 million kilowatt hours of wind energy over the next five years, making Penn State the second largest user of retail wind energy.
C.M. Mortimer can be reached at cmortimer@tribweb.com or (724) 836-5252.
I think windpower is a fascinating alternative source of energy that is applicable for remote locations where other sources are less feasible.
Plugging them into the main grid is a subsidized boondoggle to pacify the enviro-weenies.
Take 5 acres up on the ridge for the turbines, and we're independent for an extra 2 cents a kWhour?
I don't know if a 2¢ premium in Pennsylvania would validly translate to a 2¢ premium everywhere else in the nation. Gotta check with Ditto to know what Pa. electricity costs.
I don't know how noisy these windmills are, but they do have a tendency to slice and dice the local birdlife.
Bummer. I thought you might actually see past the Rush Limbaugh hype.
About $2 million from the PECO-Exelon merger was used to help finance the The Mill Run project.
Now I get it. Financing this toy for the eco freaks was the price paid to let the merger go through (extortion) with a low interest taxpayer financed loan and a gurantee to sell all the power produced no matter how much it costs or if it is even needed. You got to hand it to the enviro-industry --- they know how to set up a sweet deal.
One thing we will never see in a press release from Penn's future is any mention of availability and capacity figures or actual operating costs. The virtually scream that these toys can provide power for 8000 homes. What they don't mention is that they can only do it for about 30% of the time and the other 70% has to be delivered by big bad conventional power plants. Making electricity is a 24x7x365 business. If the wind decideds to kick up at 3am on a Sunday morning, when CMU is using squat, 24MW of high priced power will be on the grid vs. 24 MW of cheap power. Someone (guess who) is going to pay for that.
Wind and solar power are simply ploys to get us to rely on far less efficient technologies.
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