Wind farm supporters say coal-plant
decision dooms their projects
Nov 12, 2007 - The Associated Press
As many as 13 potential wind-farm projects
in western Kansas could be in danger because of the
state's decision to reject two coal-fired generating
plants near Holcomb, proponents of the wind farms
said.
New transmission lines were to be part
of the $3.6 billion Sunflower Electric Power Corp.
project, which was rejected by Rod Bremby, the state's
secretary of health and environment. But with the
fate of that project in doubt, several western Kansas
officials say their projects aren't feasible without
the additional transmission capacity.
"I'd say this decision pretty much halts
wind development in western Kansas," said David Snyder,
economic development director in Ness County. "We
need transmission lines, and we need the coal plants
to get them."
Snyder said it's not economically practical
for transmission lines to be erected for wind alone
because of the erratic nature of that power source
and the expense of the lines.
Building transmission lines costs about
$1 million per mile.
"It's bad enough that we face shortages
in power and the loss of a sizable amount of money
already invested in preparing for the construction
of the plants, but now we could lose our wind project,
as well," said Neal Gillespie, economic director for
Stevens County in far southwest Kansas.
Bremby rejected the permit for Sunflower's
coal plants because of their potential carbon dioxide
emissions. Many scientists see CO2 as a major contributor
to global warming.
Critics also noted that much of the
energy that would have been produced at the new Holcomb
plants would have been exported to other states.
Gillespie said he doesn't understand
why the exporting issue suddenly has become a bad
thing.
"I was at an economic summit in Topeka
a few years back where one of the key problems we
talked about was how Kansas used to be an energy exporter
and now we've become an importer," he said. "Out here
we look at exporting as a good thing. In fact, most
of western Kansas' wind projects have been conceived
as economic development with plans to export the energy."
ITC Great Plains, based in Lawrence,
has received approval to add a transmission line from
Spearville, near Dodge City, to Wichita, and it might
build even more lines across the state.
But Snyder said that line won't do anything
for the region north of Dodge City or west of Spearville,
where there's the biggest potential for wind farms.
"We've got a lot of wind power companies
interested in our potential," Snyder said. "Then they
find out that we've got 115 kilowatt lines with no
capacity to add any power and the answer we get is,
`When you get bigger lines, call us.'"
Larry McCants, a Goodland bank president
and leader in the Goodland Energy Park project, said
wind power is a component of that project, too. And
there's an even larger wind farm proposed in Sherman
County near Goodland, he said.
"Without the transmission lines and
the baseload capacity that would come from the Holcomb
project, our wind development really won't happen,"
McCants said. ___ Information from: The Wichita Eagle,
http://www.kansas.com
|
