TURN, TURN, TURN . . .
New Wind Farm starts cranking out power in the Columbia Gorge

By Ned Piper

Wind farms are sprouting up all over the place. Drive through the Columbia River Gorge or parts of California, or ride a train across the plains of Spain and you’ll see rows of huge windmill-like towers, their graceful blades turning the wind into electrical energy.  And a brand new wind farm is about to begin cranking out power, right in our own backyard, in the Columbia River Gorge.

What’s not to like about wind?
Wind power, like its renewable cousins — solar, biomass and thermal power — is gaining in popularity among the nation’s power producers, in response to America’s goal of reducing its dependency on foreign oil and developing clean, “green” power. Energy derived from the wind and the sun does not emit harmful gases, like traditional coal burning plants do.

About to plug in
White Creek, currently the largest publicly-developed wind project in the United States, is set to begin turning out power Nov. 15. Cowlitz PUD is one of the partners. The site is located on 9,500 acres of farmland stretching over rolling hills 21 miles east of Goldendale, in Klickitat County in eastern Washington. Local wheat farmers gave long-term leases for the project and will continue to grow crops beneath and right up to the bases of the massive towers.

And massive they are, extending 415 feet from the base to the tip of a blade. A drive-by, on I-84 near Arlington, Oregon, across the river from White Creek, will give you a long-distance view of the project and you can get a somewhat closer look on the Washington side (see sidebar). While the towers certainly look stately from that vantage point, you cannot fully realize how impressive they are until you stand beneath one and listen to the “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh” of the turning blades.

Cutting the BPA umbilical cord
The Northwest is fortunate to draw ample hydro power from dams. As growth occurred over the years, with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in charge of distributing the power to individual utilities,their call to BPA took care of supplying the demand. After 2012, however, that will change and utilities will be responsible for their own load growth, prompting a mad scramble to build new resources. Wind seems to be the most available source.

Requiring renewables
A growing number of states now require electric utilities to service their customers with a mix of renewable power. Several environmental groups sponsored Washington’s Initiative-937 and voters passed it in 2006. By the year 2020, Washington utilities with more than 25,000 customers must get 15 percent of their power from “renewable” sources. Hydro-electric power is not considered renewable, at least as defined in the new law. (Editor’s Note: Controversy surrounds this requirement, but  it is beyond the scope of this article.)

Getting a head start
Back in 2001, long before the signatures were collected to place Initiative-937 on the Washington ballot, a dozen utilities and electric co-ops, known as Last Mile Electric Cooperative,  laid the groundwork for development of renewable power projects in the state.

Four of the 12 later coordinated the building of White Creek. The partners are Cowlitz PUD, headquartered in Longview, Klickitat PUD in Goldendale, Tanner Electric Cooperative in North Bend and Lakeview Light and Power, a municipal utility located near Tacoma.

No bats in these belfries
No wind project is without its detractors, although White Creek faced little opposition. Its location is so remote that it’s not in anyone’s “backyard,” except for the farmers who receive financial benefit from it. Any construction project must take into account potential environmental impact. With wind farms, one concern is the possible hazard to birds and bats from the turning blades.
Planners considered the risk  to wildlife and the permitting process addressed the concerns of various entities.  

It’s exciting for people in the region to experience first-hand a new power source and be on the cutting edge of a blossoming technology. I can’t wait to go back to the site and see all 89 turbines turning in the wind.
•••

The White Creek Project

By Steve Brock

Tremendous effort and  innovative financing made the White Creek project happen. After years of planning, construction began on the $360 million project in July 2006 and all 89 wind turbine generators are expected to be producing electricity on November 15.

Ned mentioned this in his article (above), but it bears repeating: The size and scale of the wind turbine generators at the White Creek Wind Project are impressive at a distance, but it’s only when you are up close that you realize just how massive they are. At more than two-thirds the height of Seattle’s Space Needle, measured from the ground to the tip of the blade at the top, they tower over the surrounding terrain (see sidebar, page 20).  The turbines are spread out over 9,500 acres of leased ranchland next to the Columbia River Gorge.

Lumps of coal in our collective Christmas stockings
Each of the wind turbines quietly cranks out enough electricity for 425 homes year-round. The output of all 89 wind turbine generators is enough to power a city of 38,000 homes, enough to replace the burning of around 76,000 tons of coal for electrical power.  Nationally, coal is the top resource for making electrical energy.

Winds greater than five miles per hour turn a wind turbine’s giant blades, which turn a generator located in the nacelle mounted at the top of the tower. The 95-ton nacelle resembles an airplane fuselage and automatically tracks the direction of the prevailing wind and adjusts its orientation to the most efficient angle to the wind.

Engineers and designers found the three-blade configuration to be the most stable. Electronic equipment and transformers at the base of each wind turbine connect the generator’s output to the electric grid.

Getting the turbine components to the project site was a major challenge. Four ships brought the blades and nacelles from Denmark to the Port of Longview via the Panama Canal. Eleven other ships carried the tower pieces from South Korea. Cranes offloaded the oversized pieces from ships and trucks delivered them to the project site, 160 miles away. Road crews widened and strengthened existing roads near the project and built new ones to withstand the pounding of trucks delivering the heavy turbine parts over the rolling hills east of Goldendale.

Not just any port
“The Port is very excited about the wind projects,” said Valarie Harris, Manager of Business Development for the Port of Longview. “The wind project business represents about 20 percent of our total business at the port and business with Siemens is most of that.” The German engineering giant, Siemens Power Generation, which supplied Wind Creek’s turbines, entered the wind turbine business after purchasing the Danish pioneer wind turbine manufacturer, Bonus Energy, in 2004.

Denmark, where many of the White Creek’s wind turbine parts were manufactured, is actively involved in harnessing the wind for electric power and currently gets 20 percent of its supply from wind.

The wind may be free, but power produced from the project comes at a cost. Electricity from the White Creek Wind Project will cost an estimated $50 per megawatt hour, more than the BPA wholesale price of around $33, but lower than the $60+ per megawatt hour prices projected by independent power providers that sell at the market’s going rate.

Why not just buy more power from BPA?
“Because,” said Cowlitz PUD spokesman Dave Andrew, “there’s no more hydro available in the region. When BPA allocates the system, White Creek will help us meet the electrical needs of a growing population.” White Creek power is 50 percent higher than low-cost hydro, the current source, but 20 percent lower than other alternative sources. “In addition,” he said, “this project will satisfy about half of our I-937 requirement.”
***

IF YOU GO

HOW TALL ARE THEY?
White Creek Wind Turbines 415 feet
Longview’s Monticello Hotel: approximately 75 feet
Kalama’s Totem Pole 140 feet
PDX Control Tower  266 feet
Trojan Tower (pre-2006)  499 feet
Seattle Space Needle: 605 feet

To VIEW / IF YOU GO
Driving Directions
Drive east on Oregon’s I-84, Columbia River Gorge Hwy. Cross bridge into Washington at Biggs Junction. Turn right onto Hwy 14, proceed to Milepost 131. Turn left onto Hwy 8 and bear right onto Dot Road at the “Y.” Follow Dot Road to the wind project. Stay on the county road, much of which is a rough gravel surface. Please remain in your vehicle and do not turn onto the local dirt roads.