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Sep 02 - The Pueblo Chieftain
Plans to build another wind farm in Southeastern Colorado are on hold due to a shortage of available wind turbines, a Prairie Wind Energy spokesman said Thursday. The site is the state's largest with a capacity of 162 megawatts. Each new turbine will produce 1.5 megawatts. Members of PWE have been working on this proposal for nearly two years, according to Chris Rundell, a PWE member. Rundell said that the country's energy policy has been in such flux that turbine manufacturers around the world have been reluctant to produce turbines to sell in the U.S. market. "Their ability to sell has risen and fallen with production tax credits and whether or not they are available. So, one year they can sell a huge number and in another year they sell hardly any," Rundell said. He said that with the renewal of production tax credits in 2004, all of the people who had wind projects on line and ready to go took all of the available turbines. "They basically snatched up all the turbines that were there and once we realized that we had a contract, our ability to secure those turbines was non existent," Rundell said. Since the company secured the deal with Xcel, Rundell said that he has been negotiating with turbine manufacturers to no avail. Rundell said that because of high prices for turbines, PWE has not been able to purchase turbines that would economically work for the project. "The one thing that I learned in economics class in college was that if you have an unregulated market and you have high demand and low supply, those who have the supply will get to set what the prices will be," Rundell said. Rundell said that the crisis with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans also may delay production. "The hurricane situation is starting to put some cloudy visions on several different projects around the country, so we are not sure how that will set us back either," he said. Rundell said that the company will continue to negotiate with turbine manufacturers until they come up with a reasonable price. "It looks like it's going to take some time, but we are working hard," he said. The $100 million facility would generate 69 megawatts that will be transmitted to an Xcel Energy substation northeast of Lamar. From there, most of the energy will be utilized across the Front Range. The proposed site is eight miles southeast of Lamar between the Colorado Green wind farm and the Lamar Wind Energy wind farm. The area is known locally as "Signal Hill." The majority of the proposed site, which is roughly three miles wide and four miles long, lays on farmland and grasslands. Rundell said that there are 22 local investors involved with the project. ----- To see more of The Pueblo Chieftain, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chieftain.com . Copyright (c) 2005, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com. XEL, |
Turbine Shortage Idles Colorado Wind Projects