Siemens. They have been asked by MidAmerican Energy to supply no less than 448 turbines. Yep, as the title suggests it is the world’s largest order ever for onshore wind turbines.
The turbines are for five wind farms that are to be established in the US state of Iowa. The output will be 1050 MW which is enough energy to power over 300,000 homes. The manufacture, assembling and commissioning of the turbines will create 40 permanent jobs and 1,000 construction jobs for a two year period. Siemens will manufacture the blades at their Fort Madison facility in Iowa, while the nacelles will be produced at their factory in Hutchinson, Kansas. Siemens will also be supplying the towers. The total cost is almost $2 billion.
Bill Fehrman, MidAmerican’s CEO, said that production tax credits are key to the company’s wind projects, and enabled this giant venture to get off the ground. However the federal tax credits are due to end on the 31st December this year. Fehrman said:
“We’re continuing to work with our congressional delegations and others to try and continue that credit going forward. It’s not clear where exactly that may stand, but clearly with regard to these projects, the benefit of the tax credit was very crucial to our decision to move forward with this project. The production tax credit, for us to continue to do projects going forward … would have to be in place.”
Siemens said that each wind turbines to be used would have a nominal rating of 2.3 megawatts and a rotor diameter of 108 metres. Siemens will also be responsible for service and maintenance of the wind turbines. The five projects should be completed during 2015.
In Europe and Africa Siemens successfully installed more than 1 gigawatt of wind production in the last financial year. They have also installed 1.2GW of wind power for MidAmerican Energy up till now.
It’s no surprise that the five wind farm projects are to be in Iowa; Iowa is one of the leading U.S. states in wind energy generation. In around a quarter of total power generation in the state was provided by wind power.
Chris Huhne, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change visited the Isle of Wight on 3 August this month to understand the Island’s integrated approach to the green economy and sustainability, and to meet with wind turbine manufacturers Vestas Wind Systems, local MPs and green businesses.
The Vestas plant, in Newport, is capable of designing and manufacturing wind turbine prototypes and testing some of the largest wind turbine blades in the World. The Isle of Wight, which is off the South Coast of England, is playing a key role in UK offshore wind development and supporting low carbon and renewable living. The Minister talked about these being very exciting times and said that in many ways, what we are living through just now is nothing short of a true revolution as we move to a low-carbon economy.
He said that this wasn’t a “nice to have” ambition, but one that was vital if we were to reduce the UK’s dependency on energy imports, reduce emissions and tackle climate change. He told workers at the Vestas plant that the UK currently leads the world in terms of offshore wind with some 1.5GW of capacity installed.
Numbers gathered by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) found almost all turbines installed in the first half of 2011 were in the UK: 101, compared to 7 in the rest of Europe. In a reference to the new high-yield multi-megawatt turbines likely to be tested and developed at the plant, he said that such innovative components would play a crucial role in bringing down costs. Vestas is one of a number of companies that have announced intentions to open turbine manufacturing plants in the UK… very welcome given the recent disappointing unemployment figures released for April-June 2011.
The Minister then went on to discuss the Isle of Wight “Ecoisland” project, a Community-led initiative backed by local and global businesses. This Ecoisland Partnership has secured a mix of private partner funding to give the Isle of Wight.
RenewableUK, the UK Industry body, has commissioned a YouGov poll which reveals that there is a great deal of support for renewable energy in Wales. Almost two thirds (64 per cent) of people in Wales support the development of wind power as part of a mix of renewable and conventional energy according to the findings of the poll, which was published this week.
The poll also found that 64 percent of Welsh people are generally in favour of large scale wind projects in their local council area, more than double the number (24 per cent) who said they would support shale gas and the 27 percent in favour of nuclear. The highest support was for renewables such as solar and hydropower, with 82 percent saying they would support these in their local area.
Renewable energy was also popular as the main source for electricity generation. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) said they would like solar to provide the majority of their electricity, 23 percent said hydro and 16 percent said the wind. Fossil fuels were way down the list in terms of popularity. Just four percent said they favoured gas to produce electricity and three percent said coal. Shale gas was favoured by just one per cent.
Two-thirds of the people surveyed (66 per cent) said that the presence of a wind farm would not affect their decision to visit an area. This is an important finding and shows that while the Welsh Dragon may be red on the outside, it has green at its heart!
Dr David Clubb, the Director of RenewableUK Cymru, said:
“The poll reaffirms what we already know from our experience talking to people across Wales; the majority of people in Wales are in favour of wind energy, and they strongly support the deployment of all forms of renewable energy. This bodes well for a future of more sustainable livelihoods, greater community investment and a cleaner environment. As an industry, we need to continue to work together to demonstrate the huge benefits of renewable energy, to help further increase the consent rates. This research gives great context for the debate about wind energy in Wales, and should leave nobody in any doubt that the future of Wales is renewable.”
David Clubb of RenewableUK-Cymru
The fact that the people of Wales are so pro-renewable is in stark contrast to the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, who has voiced concern over the siting of wind turbines. His son, Prince Harry, also raised the issue when he was in the United States recently. Susan Reilly, chief executive officer of Renewable Energy Systems Americas, said after speaking to the Prince that she had to reassure Harry about the benefits of wind turbines – just as she’d done with his father.
She said: “Prince Harry said he was worried about their visual impact, I told him that I had met his father some years ago and when we discussed wind farms he shared his concerns. But as with Prince Charles, I pointed out that we need to strike a balance between their visual impact and the need for renewable energy for future generations.”
Perhaps Prince Harry and his Father should pay a visit to Wales and discuss their concerns with their subjects there, who appear to have no such qualms about wind power!
Japan’s parliament is about to approve a historic bill on renewable energy while Taiwan Government is to reduce nuclear power. It hat was championed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a way to reduce the nation’s unhealthy dependence on nuclear power. The Bill should be enacted in the next few weeks. Unsurprisingly, the Fukushima nuclear disaster boosted the prospects for the bill becoming law astronomically. There was little hope for its success before the accident.
In essence, the law will require that Japanese Utilities must purchase power from renewable energy power generators, and at a price fixed by the country’s Industry Minister. It is hoped that the law will open the door for Japan to make greater use of alternative energy sources, including wind power.
The Prime Minister predicted that the legislation would spark “explosive growth” in solar and wind power. He made a commitment to raise the share of renewable energy to at least 20% of the total power supply by the early 2020s. Mr. Kan has made considerable personal efforts to make the Bill law, which it is claimed was inspired by a visit to a wind farm in Denver, Colorado, United States, over 30 years ago!
Japanese Prime Minister from June Naoto Kan.
Hideaki Matsui, a senior researcher with the Japan Research Institute, pointed to the potentiality of wind power generation. “Wind energy, including offshore wind farm plants, have the most potential of any renewable energy source,” he said. “However, the government needs to show a clear goal if it wants such wind power generation to spread.”
Despite the groundswell in opinion away from nuclear power, there is a possibility that the law will lack teeth because electric power companies will still be allowed to reject purchases of electricity generated through natural energy, such as solar power and wind power.
There will also be other challenges to using wind power, such as connecting a large number of renewable-power generators to the grid. Upgrading the grid is expected to take time and cost up to ¥2 trillion ($26 billion), according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. To increase the amount of electricity generated by wind power generators, the power grid to transmit electricity to big cities needs to be reinforced. At present, wind power generation accounts for only 0.5 percent of electric power generated in Japan. Most such generators are concentrated in areas along coasts and mountains in the Tohoku, Hokkaido, and Kyushu regions.
Off-shore and semi-off-shore based wind power generators such as this one at will need to be made typhoon-resistant, which will be costly. In addition, fishing rights over areas where the generators might be built could pose a challenge.
Finally, just as one law supporting renewable energy is about to come in, another, under which the government bore one-third of the costs of building wind power plants, was abolished last year.
However the mood of the pro-wind lobby is optimistic, and there’s no denying that the enactment of the new law will bring a welcome focus to the opportunities of harnessing wind power in Japan and reducing reliance on nuclear power.
It’s a fact that the offshore wind turbines being installed now, and being planned for the future are getting bigger and bigger. The North Sea has winds often exceeding 90 mph and is therefore ideal for the generation of wind power.
Hundreds of wind turbines produce now electricity off the coast of the North Sea and send it onshore to connect with grids and power homes and businesses in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Denmark. Thousands more are planned for the next 15 years, and it would seem that bigger will be better as far as wind turbine makers are concerned. The U.K. government aims to install 32GW in offshore wind capacity between 2015 and 2025. That’s more than 10 times the offshore capacity currently installed in the entire world. The U.K. Carbon Trust estimates the offshore wind market will be worth $52 billion by 2020.
Vestas and Siemens, are anticipating rapid market growth and are developing 7MW and 6 MW turbines, respectively. And the United States General Electric Co. is working on a turbine that could be as big as 15 MW; five times larger than existing offshore machines.
The 7MW Vestas V164 turbine has more than double the capacity of the biggest fully-functioning offshore machines today, which are 3 MW. It weighs 800 tons (excluding the underwater foundation).
But do we want bigger and longer lasting offshore turbines? The technical challenge to create these monsters and make them last for up to 25 years is immense. The rotor tip on the V164 will be cutting the air at just under 200mph. Compare and contrast with a modern jet plane that requires checking and servicing after just 15-25 hours of flying time. That is impractical for an offshore wind turbine and so it must be technologically very sophisticated, yet hardy and robust to stand against anything the North Sea can throw at it. It’s not only expensive to send technicians to repair turbines at sea, but also physically impossible during bad weather. And a turbine that is not running is costing its operator a lot of cash in energy that it is unable to produce.
Bigger turbines generate electricity at a lower cost per kilowatt-hour. Taller is also better because of wind speed and consistency increase with altitude. So leaving aside reliability and maintenance, it makes sense for offshore turbines to be as big as possible. Mega-turbines are almost impossible onshore, where manufacturers are constrained by the size of roads and bridges over which the turbine parts will have to be transported.
So simple economics dictate that if a large reliable wind turbine can be manufactured, delivered and installed in an ideal offshore location, in the long run, it should be the better option in terms of wind-generated bangs for bucks (or watts for wonga if you like!).
While Vestas won’t have a prototype ready for the V164 until next year, Siemens is already testing its first 6 MW turbine offshore from Denmark, and serial production is expected to begin in 2014.
Aside from the different capacities, the two rival manufacturers are also betting on different technologies. The Vestas machine will be a conventional geared turbine, while the Siemens one operates with direct drive.
In a conventional geared turbine, the rotor turns a large gear, which turns a smaller one, which turns the generator. With direct drive, the turbine directly turns the generator at the same speed as the blades. The generator converts the mechanical energy generated by the blades into usable electrical power. How effective the generator is directly affected how much wind can be converted into electric power. Today, most wind turbines have generators connected to a gearbox.
Vestas looked into using a direct drive on the V164 but decided against it. The company says a geared solution is more efficient, uses a lot less rare earth materials and will need to be serviced less often compared with a direct drive turbine. On the other hand, direct drive weighs less.
While in the past the gearbox was the main cause of turbine failures in the industry, now it is generally accepted to be the electrical systems. And a direct drive turbine has to have four times more electrical components than a geared turbine, which would seem to increase the chance of a malfunction. Siemens says its direct drive machine will require less maintenance than existing models. The proof of this pudding will obviously be in the eating! We await the battle of the offshore giants in the North Sea arena…
The North Sea Horns Rev 1 offshore wind turbines. Unique meteorological conditions resulted in the wind turbines creating condensation of the very humid air, thus making it possible to see the turbulence pattern behind the wind turbines. Photograph by CHRISTIAN STEINESS.
For three days at the end of last month in Frankfurt, international exhibitors displayed their new offshore turbines and wind-related products, such as a huge HVAC submarine cable, and some offshore foundation developments to support the turbines. Here’s a selection of what was presented that we will expect to see in 2014 and beyond:
Samsung showed off their 7MW S7.0-171 offshore turbine. A prototype has been installed in the UK- and it boasts a 25-year operating life, and the longest blades yet have seen; a whopping 83.5 metres in length. It has a compact medium-speed drivetrain made up of a two-stage planetary gearbox designed and built by the UK firm David Brown. The gearbox has been integrated inside the large-diameter hollow main shaft, which in turn is supported by two rotor bearings. According to a Samsung spokesperson, the turbine can achieve a 73 percent capacity factor at high-wind sites. The S7.0-171 under such conditions generates at 63 percent of the time measured over the year over 80 percent of its rated power. Certification is expected next year.
Samsung’s new 7MW turbine being erected for testing in Fife, Scotland
Germany’s REpower introduced the long-anticipated successor to its 6.15-MW 6M (2009) turbine. The new offshore model builds on the flagship 6M turbine(now renamed 6.2M126) and comes with the same power rating. So what’s new about this development of the original? It switches to a load-optimized cast main chassis and an enlarged 152-metre rotor diameter. This offers 46 percent more rotor swept area and, according REpower, a 20 percent higher yield at 9.5 percent average wind speed sites. It also has new slimmer blades- thanks to REpower in-house product development. The turbine is called 6.2M152.
Locally based in Frankfurt, Aerodyn introduced an innovative two-bladed 8-MW SCD 8.0 down-wind offshore turbine with 168-metre rotor diameter. (SCD stands for Super Compact Drive.) One special product feature of the SCD 8.0 is a helicopter-landing platform integrated in the nacelle upper part. Isn’t that dangerous? No actual landings are only permissible after locking the rotors in a horizontal 180-degree position. Two-bladed turbines have not been a feature of the offshore wind industry but that may be changing because they are more easily stored on the deck of boats and can be lifted into position more easily than the traditional three-bladed turbines.
Thirdly, Siemens Energy showed off its new 4-MW and 6-MW offshore turbines in Frankfurt, including a new 4-MW SWT-4.0-120 model version with 120-metre rotor diameter. The company said that it was its intention to reduce the lifecycle-based cost of energy (CoE, which equals turbine cost/kWh/20-25y) for both the 6-MW direct-drive and 4-MW geared turbine models by up to 40 percent compared to today’s levels. That’s a considerable uprating if it can be achieved.
Wind turbines have evolved considerably since the first shaky steps were taken to produce electricity from wind. Not just in size and power potantial, but also from blade design, tower height, and gear box innovations. This year saw the unveiling and testing of a new line of turbines from GE that can generate almost a quarter more electricity than the nearest comparable turbine in terms of size and class. If you think’s that innovative, clever even, then you’ll understand why the range is called “Brilliant”.
GE’s Brilliant 1.6-100 and 1.7-100 wind turbines are different because they use a short-term, grid-scale battery storage system paired with asomething called an “industrial internet”. This is a sophisticated computer-based system that is able to predict when power will be needed and when the wind will be blowing. This increases efficiency and capacity factor, and therefore how much energy a turbine actually can produce.
The wind, much as we love it, does not blow all the time. It is an intermittent renewable source of energy and we are always trying to deal with its vagaries. When a light switch is thrown, you want the power to come on straight away, not just if there’s a wind at the local wind farm. Energy providers that take an hour or even a few minutes to come online when there is a demand for more power are worth less to those whose job it is to ensure that when you turn on your lights, there is energy ready at hand. In the past natural gas plants have been more valuable than, coal plants because it is easier to get a flow of methane to turn a turbine quickly than it is to stoke up and get a coal furnace hot.
When the wind blows near one of GE’s Brilliant turbines, the “industrial internet” will let the power producers and the grid operators know when that energy can be expected. It is able to micromanage the most efficient way to position the turbines for optimal rotation to harvest wind, and when the grid has enough electricity and is unable to use it, the battery system attached to the turbine allows it to feed excess electricity into the batteries. It is converted to electrochemical energy that the grid can use upon request, with nearly immediate turnaround time.
Using this battery-powered source to smooth and meet frequency regulation demand is much more efficient — it also allows the grid to dump extra electricity into the battery systems.
67 of these Brilliant turbines will be built and then instralled high up in the mountains of New South Wales in Australia later this year,. Grid connection and power flow into the grid is expected by the end of 2014. 59 are destined for Michigan as part of a wind farm planned by NextEra Energy Resources, while Invenergy Wind is building a wind farm in Mills County, Texas that will comprise three x 2.5 MW GE Brilliant turbines.
Are these new range of turbines so innovative that all other turbine manufacturers will begin to make their new-design turbines intelligent and with inbuilt battery storage? Watch this space!
While nuclear power may be a way of weaning us off nasty fossil fuels, should it be getting equal status with “genuine” renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power? A new report published this week thinks not.
Let’s look at the much-trumpeted mini nuclear reactors- the Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Small Modular Reactors are nuclear power plants that are smaller in size (300 MWe or less) than current generation baseload plants (1,000 MWe or higher). These smaller, compact designs are factory-fabricated reactors that can be transported by truck or rail to a nuclear power site. But they are going to be at least as expensive as larger reactors according to the report. And not only that, SMRs won’t fit the needs of a more flexible grid system. Finally, the development of SMRs will be siphoning off money that should be used to fund developing renewable innovations such as gear-less, floating, and new-design wind turbines.
Yes, nuclear reactors have a lack of emissions, but they are also expensive, can be prone to accidents with disastrous effects, and there’s the problem of what to do with the nuclear waste that’s going to be around for centuries. Both nuclear, solar, and wind power all require government subsidies- but will wind and solar power prove to be the first to make themselves viable without hand-outs from the tax-payer?
Dr. Mark Cooper is a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, New Hampshire, United States. He is the author of “The Economic Failure of Nuclear Power and the Development of a Low-Carbon Electricity Future: Why Small Modular Reactors Are Part of the Problem, Not the Solution”.
He says that analysis from international economic, climate change, and energy groups all reach the same conclusion: In Dr. Cooper’s own words-
“Nuclear power is among the least attractive climate change policy options and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable [future]. Worse still, pursuing nuclear power as a focal point of climate policy diverts economic resources and policy development from critically important efforts to accelerate the deployment of solutions that are much more attractive: less costly, less risky, [and] more environmentally benign.”
So why should SMR nuclear not be a part of the renewable energy equation?
SMR is a new technology and therefore costs more; it uses more material per MW of capacity and the costs of establishing the infrastructure to design and build SMRs are not small. Cooper predicts that it will require up to $90 billion by 2020 just to fund two designs and associated assembly lines. For the US that’s three-quarters of the total projected investment in all electricity generation- and it’s far more than renewables’ slice of the pie. And let’s not forget that for 60 years nuclear power has been deeply reliant upon vastly more subsidies than renewables have received, and it’s still dependent upon them.
Although SMR may be in the spotlight as the great nuclear hope for the future, it’s been around for five years still on the drawing boards, with key developers Westinghouse and Babcock & Wilcox reigning in their SMR efforts as they struggle to find customers and major investors. They blame the current flood of cheap gas for this.
Cooper concludes:
“It is always possible that nuclear power’s fairy godmother will wave her magic wand over the technology and solve its economic, safety, and environmental problems but there is nothing in the 50-year history of commercial nuclear power that suggests this is anything but a fairy tale.
There is a trend toward a more decentralized energy delivery and dispersal system in most countries, That is the opposite direction from the passive one-way 24/7 base-load delivery model of a nuclear reactor.
“Any resource that is not flexible becomes a burden on the system, rather than a benefit to it,” said Cooper.
Strong words indeed, but few disagree with Cooper’s point of view. It would seem then that we should not be throwing money at new nuclear technologies, but developing the existing ones for wind and solar power to make them more efficient and less reliant on grants.
The Dutch energy company, Eneco has confirmed the Danish firm, Vestas, to supply wind turbines in a 129MW supply deal for a wind project off the Dutch North Sea coast. Eneco is one of the biggest energy suppliers in the Netherlands, providing electricity, gas and heat to more than two million customers, both business and domestic. In 2009, Eneco was awarded an exclusive right to develop 200MW in block Q10 in Dutch territorial waters of the North Sea.
Vestas will supply 43 V112 3MW turbines (picture above). Construction will commence in 2013 with completion set for the following year.
Eneco said it hoped to expand the project to 150MW, by replacing seven of the turbines with next generation 6MW machines. It had received a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation to complete the €400-450 million budget.
The Q10 wind farm is located 17 kilometres south of the existing Q7 Princess Amalia Wind Farm (left). It will be at the same 23 km distance from the coast and at a similar water depth (20-25 metres). The 200MW planned capacity will be sufficient to supply electricity for over 150,000 households.
Eneco’s Energy Division Director Ton Meijer says “Not only is the Q10 location relatively favourable (water depth, distance from the coast), but it is also very similar to that of the Princess Amalia Wind Farm. This allows us to directly apply the knowledge and experience gained with that wind farm to Q10 and therefore construct a new offshore wind farm in a relatively short period of time.”
Facts & figures
Number of turbines
43 turbines
43x3megawatts or 36×3 megawatts+7×6 megawatts
Capacity
129 or 150 megawatts
Number of households
at least 135,000 or 150,000
Location
23 km off the coast of Noordwijk,
17 km south of the Prinses Amalia Wind Farm
Depth of drain
18 – 24 metres
Investment amount
400 to 450 million euros
SDE grant
up to 989 million euros, period 2014-2029
Construction period
2013-2014
The Q10 is part of the Dutch government’s goal to have 6,000MW of offshore wind energy operational by 2020 in the Dutch part of the Continental Shelf of the North Sea. They have mapped out sites for 65 wind farms in the North Sea. The sites are in shallow water, far enough from shore to be unobtrusive and to reduce the risk of catching birds in their blades.
Similar-sized projects are planned for Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and the United States.
BT, the giant communication company, has agreed to a £300m deal to buy enough energy to meet the needs of all its Scottish operations for the next 20 years from a wind farm being completed in the Borders. The company will buy 50% of the electricity generated by the 48-turbine Fallago Rig scheme near Lauder, which is just north of the border between Scotland and England. Continue reading “BT Buys 50% Output from Scottish Wind Farm”
The fossil fuel followers have often said that the carbon cost in manufacturing commercial wind turbines is so great that it takes years, if ever, to recoup that carbon cost from the renewable wind energy produced from the turbines. Not true! A two year comprehensive life-cycle study of two 2 MW turbines has found that the turbines have an energy payback of a mere 6 months. That means that in their first six months of their operation, large wind turbines produce the same total amount of energy that was needed to produce and install them, which is comparable to the best solar photovoltaic systems.
The study was conducted by Oregon State researchers and published recently in the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing (IJSM):
The background is that wind turbines produce energy with virtually no emissions, but there are environmental impacts associated with their manufacture, installation, and end of life processing. The work presented in the document examines the full life cycle and environmental impacts of two 2 MW wind turbines. Manufacturing, transport, installation, maintenance, and end of life were measured for both models and then compared using the “ReCiPe 2008” impact assessment method. Below is an overview (a simplification) of what it looks at:
On top of this, energy payback analysis was conducted based on the cumulative energy demand and the energy produced by the wind turbines over 20 years. The life cycle assessment revealed that environmental impacts are concentrated in the manufacturing stage, which accounts for 78% of impacts. The energy payback period for the two turbine models were found to be 5.2 and 6.4 months. Based on the assumptions made, the results of this study can now be used to conduct an environmental analysis of a representative wind park to be located in the US Pacific Northwest.
It’s a double-whammy for fossil fuel energy plants, because not only do they too cost carbon to produce in the first place, their day-to-day energy production adds to the carbon pollution. To be fair, in the early days of renewable energy when manufacturers had not yet applied mass-production techniques to these new technologies, the energy payback time (EPBT) of renewables was considerably longer than 6 months.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association conclusion was:
“Depending on the type of PV system and the location of the installation, the EPBT at present is between 0.5 and 1.4 years.”
With increasingly efficient new wind turbines and greener production there should be a continued improvement in EPBT: Year after year, renewable energy will become a better and better investment. Here is a picture of GE’s GE 2.5-120 which they claim is the world’s most efficient wind turbine:
note:
The IJSM is an organisation proposes and fosters discussion on developing various elements of science-based sustainability principles and their applications in innovative products, processes and systems for manufacturing with emphasis on economic, environmental and societal aspects of sustainability. This covers the biocomplexity of the environment and its associated technological challenges facing the needs of the society for economic growth and prosperity as applied to design and manufacturing of discrete products. Product lifecycle issues involving the development of use of materials and resources for sustained quality requirements and perpetual material flow would form a basis for sustainability applications in product design and manufacture to be promoted by the journal.
NV Energy will purchase electricity from a wind farm proposed for eastern Nevada, the company announced today.
The utility has agreed to purchase 150 megawatts of electricity from wind developer Pattern Energy, which has an 8,500-acre wind farm planned for land 30 miles east of Ely.
The project is proposed for Bureau of Land Management land and is in the environmental assessment stage of permitting. The company plans to break ground this fall and deliver electricity by fall 2011.
The project will employ more than 150 people during construction and 10 people permanently.
The company says it will hire locals wherever possible.
