Energy Department urges New Mexico
to inherit the wind
December 6, 2000
By John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
The Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories
will buy wind-generated electricity in an effort to
encourage the wind power industry in New Mexico, labs
officials announced Tuesday.
The electricity will power 12 percent of the power
needs of the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant, a nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad, said
Margie Tatro, head of Sandia's energy programs.
Sandia, which has a large operation at WIPP, is making
the purchase as part of an Energy Department program
requiring the use of renewable resources to generate
7.5 percent of the electricity used at department
sites by 2010.
In making the announcement, government officials
acknowledged that wind power is not yet economically
competitive with electricity generated by burning
coal or natural gas.
"There's a little bit of a premium," said Phil Dougherty,
coordinator of the Energy Department's wind power
program.
Wind power costs roughly 6 cents per kilowatt hour
to generate versus 3 cents for the same amount of
electricity burning conventional fuels, according
to the Energy Department.
But that is likely to change in the future as technology
improves, said Sandia scientist Al Zelicoff.
Enough wind blows in New Mexico to meet all our power
needs with enough left over to export to other states,
according to Zelicoff.
"I think the technology is just about there," he
said.
Sandia will be buying the wind-generated electricity
in the next year from Southwestern Public Service
Company, a division of Xcel Energy. The power will
come from an already-built wind turbine near Clovis.
As a result of the deal with Sandia, the company
will add an additional turbine at the Clovis site.
Copyright
2000, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
All Rights Reserved
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