WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOCIATION
POWER WATCH CLEARINGHOUSE

RENEWABLE ENERGY

last update: 05/16/02 12:28 PM

May 15
Comments are being requested on a new report "Assessing the Potential for Renewable Energy on Federal Lands."  This draft report represents a partnering effort between the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to identify and evaluate renewable energy resource potential for power production on federal lands. The objective of this collaboration was to identify BLM planning units in the western states with the highest potential for private-sector development of renewable resources. This draft report is submitted for public comment through July 12, 2002. Comments should be directed to
Mike Kirby: Mike_Kirby@blm.gov or fax 303-236-6450
Doug Dahle: douglas_dahle@nrel.gov or fax 303-384-7411.
Please include the subject “Comments on Draft BLM Renewable Energy Assessment Report” on e-mails or faxes.

April 18 
New interactive wind maps for the northwest region are now available on-line. There are maps for Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and parts of northern California, Nevada and Utah.

April 8 
Close to 300 people attended Colorado's workshop on Wind & Distributed Energy: Renewables for Rural Prosperity. Presentations will be available at this web site. 

March 1
Nevada Power plans to purchase 85 megawatts of wind power. The 60 wind turbines, to be built on DOE's Nevada Test site, will be able to deliver power in late 2003. 

January 15 
Omaha Public Power District has installed a 660-kilowatt wind turbine and a landfill gas plant and is offering a green pricing program. The wind turbine was installed on an innovative tower that incorporates a lifting platform for installing the turbine. 

The American Wind Energy Association reports that 1,694 MW of new wind generating capacity was installed in 16 states in 2001. Of that, 900 MW were installed in Texas alone. 

December 21 
The Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska is planning to build a wind-energy farm of up to 20 turbines in Kimball County, Nebraska. 

December 20 
In response to an RFP, Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power received 49 proposals to provide over 4,000 megawatts of power from renewable resources. 

December 4
Montana Power announces wind power purchase.

November 20
Construction will begin soon on the Nine Canyon Wind Farm in Washington State. The 48 MW project will be owned by Energy Northwest and will generate power for nine public power utilities.

November 16
Governor Guinn has announced the nine members of the Nevada renewable energy and energy conservation task force that will administer the newly created Trust Fund for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation.

November 15
50 MW Rock River 1 wind farm goes on line in Wyoming.

November 14
BPA will purchase output of 50 MW Oregon wind farm.

October 16
Second windfarm provides another 30 MW of wind power for Colorado customers.

September 17
The California Power Authority is negotiating approximately 1320 MW of
renewable energy projects, comprised mainly of wind and bio-fuel.

Seattle agrees to purchase wind power from Stateline Wind Generating Plant starting in January.

September 2
Data from the California Energy Commission shows that Californians continued to reduce peak demand during August 2001.

July 31
Texaco will install a photovoltaic system to help power an oil field in
California. The first phase will be 400 kilowatts but could be increased to
one megawatt.

July 27
California Governor Davis has endorsed a plan to increase California's
usage of renewable power from 12 percent to 17 percent by 2006.

July 19
An industry group will study the impact of wind generation on electric system operations. The project will analyze the impacts of significant amounts of intermittent generation - such as wind plants - on the real-time operations and short-term planning of electric power systems.

July 10
Demand for solar photovoltaic and water-heating systems has outstripped supply at all levels, from manufacturers to installers. In California, 653 solar systems were installed in the last three months, and another 1,300 are under construction, says the California Energy Commission.

July 9
None of the nearly 30 power plants planned for the Pacific Northwest will operate on hydropower but will instead rely on natural gas, wind and coal to generate energy.

Carbon County, Wyoming's Planning Commission unanimously approved a special-use permit for Clipper Windpower LLC to build 14 turbines east of McFadden and north of Bosler Reservoir. The turbines would be capable of generating a combined 21 megawatts, said S

July 2
Montana Power Company announced that 15 companies submitted 23 proposals to generate 1,650 megawatts (MW) of wind power in response to a request for 150 MW of wind power.

June 19
Under a plan called "poop to power" by Mayor Dick Murphy, the city added 1.35 megawatts to the power generation capability of its waste water treatment plant Monday. The power--enough for 1,000 homes--will be generated by a hydroelectric turbine at the city's Point Loma plant. The city already produces 16 megawatts of power, with half sold to the grid. 

Madera Power, a biomass-fueled generation facility located near Fresno,
California, has begun operations and is supplying up to 25 megawatts of
electricity to the California market.

The California ISO is examining ways to increase wind generation in the
state. (Attachment 1 -- Attachment 2 -- Attachment 3)

The Montana state Land Board on Monday told the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to determine which state-owned lands would be the most attractive for leasing by developers of wind-power projects. Money from leases would go to public education.

June 13
Gov. Jim Geringer today announced the completion of the first installation of a wind turbine at Curt Gowdy State Park, located 24 miles west of Cheyenne.   The 20 kw vertical axis wind turbine, manufactured by Terra Moya Aqua, Inc., a Wyoming company, will produce electricity to power buildings such as park headquarters and the employee residences at the park.

June 8
Nevada Governor Guinn has signed legislation which will require Nevada
utilities to increase the amount of renewable energy they purchase.

June 5
The Wyoming Water Development Office will look into opportunities across the state for generating hydropower as it reviews plans for Wyoming's river basins, office Director Mike Besson said last week. 

June 4
FERC has approved a plan to permit a temporary increase in hydroelectric
generation at the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project in Washington State.

June 1
Southern Idaho is sitting atop some of the largest reserves of geothermal
energy in the nation, and experts say tapping that resource could take a
significant bite out of escalating power bills. 

An environmental group on Thursday announced a door-to-door summer campaign to talk 250,000 Californians into energy conservation.  The California Public Interest Research Group wants to encourage citizens statewide to reduce electricity use and urge their elected officials to expand solar, wind and geothermal power. 

May 31
Arizona Governor Jane Dee Hull and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christine Todd Whitman toured the Arizona Public Service Solar Test and Research Center (STAR) in Tempe, a development and test site for solar electric generation technology.  Following their tour of STAR, Hull and Whitman toured Desert Vista High School, an energy efficient school in Tempe.

May 30
A new hydroelectric facility is to begin generating power Wednesday, a full year earlier than initially expected.  The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will run four turbines at the Diamond Valley Lake reservoir capable of producing 13 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power about 9,750 homes.

May 25
Utah's Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee Wednesday heard testimony on implementing a program that allows customers of a major utility to generate their own power that can be sold back for use on the utility's grid.

May 7
BPA announces plans for a 150 MW wind farm in Washington state.

A wind power generation facility is proposed for the Blackfeet Indian
Reservation in Montana. Power from the 36 to 66 MW wind farm would be sold to BPA.

May 2
Wind generators will be offered along with solar systems in a grant program offered to Montana Power Co. customers. The program is administered by the Butte-based National Center for Appropriate Technology and pays for about one-third of the cost of the systems.

April 27
Since Jan. 1, companies have applied for 13 permits to investigate building new hydroelectric plants on Idaho rivers. That includes placing turbines at the existing Ririe, Blackfoot, and Mackay dams in eastern Idaho. 

April 26
BPA has received 25 proposals for wind projects that add up to about 2,600 megawatts of power in response to its request for proposals. Options for future expansions would increase the total capacity to 4,000 megawatts. BPA will select the most promising proposals by the end of May and then begin contract negotiations with developers.

April 25
The Boulder City Council (Nevada) unanimously approved two plans that
would bring extensive solar energy facilities -- to be used both commercially and for research -- to a 3,000 acre city-owned parcel in Eldorado Valley.  The 3,000-acre energy zone is about 14 miles southwest of city limits and within an 85,000-acre desert tortoise preserve.

April 13
Msla Trust, working with Enron Wind Corp., has offered to provide Montana with 200 to 500 megawatts of wind power at a cost of less than $30 a megawatt hour under certain conditions.

April 3
Arizona Public Service is scheduled to dedicate three new solar facilities this week. The new solar plants will bring the amount of solar energy produced by the utility to nearly one megawatt.

March 8
Governor Locke promotes wind power.

March 2
The Arizona Corporation Commission adopted an Environmental Portfolio
Standard and Environmental Portfolio Surcharge in early February.  The Environmental Portfolio Standard requires regulated utilities to generate a minimum of 0.2 percent of their total retail energy sales from renewable sources in 2001. The percentage will increase each year to 1 percent in 2005 and top out at 1.1 percent in 2007. The Environmental Portfolio Surcharge will be $0.000875 per kilowatt-hour. For the full text of the order, see the ACC's "Environmental Portfolio Standard Developments" Web page at:
http://www.cc.state.az.us/utility/electric/environmental.htm.

March 1
As part of the budget President Bush announced on Tuesday, there is some funding for initiatives in advance of development of a Comprehensive Energy Policy. These include increased funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program, tax credits for domestic solar and extending tax credits for electricity produced from other renewable resources, opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing and using the proceeds to fund increased research on solar and renewable resources, and redirecting coal research to focus on reducing the environmental impact of using coal.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has ordered Xcel Energy to add a wind farm to its energy mix based on the economics of wind power. This is the first time the PUC has determined that a wind-energy project makes sense based on economics alone. Smaller projects have been marketed by Xcell as part of a "green power" program and consumers agree to pay a premium. The PUC approved the utility's plan to contract with five natural gas fired plants to add 1,270 MW but also directed the company to contract with the 162 MW wind plant.

February 23
The Bonneville Power Administration has issued a request for proposals for
1000 megawatts of wind power.  The RFP sets a minimum of 15 average megawatts (about 40 to 60 megawatts of nameplate capacity) for a project, but BPA is especially interested in large projects. BPA noted: "Wind projects are particularly attractive because they can come online in a relatively short time (24 to 30 months), offer power that is competitively priced with other sources such as combustion turbines, are relatively easy to site and expand, have low environmental impacts (including no carbon emissions) and are highly desirable to buyers of "green" power."

February 16
The Bonneville Power Administration has announced a new $200-million energy conservation and renewable resource development program.  Regional utilities that buy power from BPA and choose to participate will get a discount on their wholesale power bill if they agree to invest in conservation measures or renewable resources. There are also other BPA conservation programs adding up to $465 million funding, including conservation augmentation, demand exchange, and funding for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and other utilities to implement a region-wide compact fluorescent lamp rebate programs this spring.

February 8
California Gov. Davis announces plan to accelerate construction of power
plants and to speed up permitting process. The governor's plan will provide
for bonus for early construction of plants, set up a State Emissions Offset
Bank and provide incentives for distributed generation and renewables.

January 30
Wind farm planned in Wyoming

January 11
World's largest wind farm will be built on Oregon-Washington border. Power
from the 300 megawatt project will start flowing to 11 western states by the
end of the year.

Gov. Locke's 2001 proposal for energy tax incentives include renewables.