Wind energy picks up steam

New Colorado Green plant in Lamar will be dedicated today

By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News
May 14, 2004

Colorado wants to get on the fast track with wind energy starting today with the dedication of the 162-megawatt Colorado Green wind farm, capable of supplying power to 75,000 homes.

The wind farm in the eastern Colorado town of Lamar is jointly owned by Portland, Ore.-based PPM Energy Inc. and Shell WindEnergy Inc. of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Xcel Energy has a long-term contract to buy all the electricity generated by the wind farm to serve some of its 1.2 million customers in Colorado.

Gov. Bill Owens has proclaimed today "Colorado Wind Energy Day" to commemorate the dedication.

"Affordable, reliable power is essential to consumers and businesses in Colorado," Owens said in a statement released Thursday. "The Colorado Green wind farm is an example of how Colorado uses its abundant natural resources to provide power to its citizens."

Xcel also has plans to add another 500 megawatts of wind energy in Colorado by 2006 - catapulting the state to No. 3 among wind energy states in the nation.

Currently, it ranks No. 8 with a total of 240 megawatts of wind power.

Although the Lamar wind farm will be dedicated today, it has been operating commercially since the last week of December 2003 to take advantage of a production tax credit that expired Dec. 31.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill to extend the credit for three years. The House is likely to pass the provisions next month, paving the way for the credit to be implemented by summer.

Including the tax credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt/hour, electricity from wind at 2.8 cents to 3.5 cents per kWh is cheaper than either natural gas at 5 cents to 6 cents per kWh or coal at 4 cents to 5 cents per kWh.

Unlike coal, which can be used continuously, both natural gas and wind are used to fire power plants that are switched on intermittently during times of higher demand.

"What consumers will be most excited about is the cost of power generation at the Lamar wind farm; we have estimated savings of $7 million over the next 20 years," Xcel spokeswoman Margarita Alarcon said. "We find that a highly competitive and cost-effective basis for bringing in new power installation."

 

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