Local Energy’s New Spin

By John Myers, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Jan. 19–Northland residents couldn’t have noticed when they turned on their coffee pots and televisions in recent weeks, but the region’s first major surge of wind-powered electricity began flowing into local power lines.

The juice is coming from 22 giant wind turbines in Oliver County, North Dakota. They are hooked into the Minnesota Power grid that moves the electricity east.

It’s the Duluth-based utility’s first major venture into wind energy, and plans already are in the works for more.

Minnesota Power officials today will announce a second wind farm to be built next to the Oliver County site northwest of Bismarck, doubling the utility’s wind power by the end of the year.

“We’re on a path to add even more wind,” Paul Johnson, renewable energy project developer for Minnesota Power, said in an interview with the News Tribune. “This is an exciting time.”

As the cost of wind turbines drops and efficiency increases, Minnesota Power has taken a closer look at wind to supplement the coal-fired power plants that make up most its generation.

Coal-fired power plants are among the cheapest sources of electricity but are considered one of the largest producers of greenhouse gasses. The plants also emit large amounts of mercury, al-though recent pollution control improvements at some plants are reducing mercury emissions.

“From a corporate standpoint, we’re looking at a diversified mix of fuels that make sense for our customers,” said Eric Olson, a spokesman for Allete, Minnesota Power’s parent company. “There are a lot of factors involved, and environmental is one of the large ones.”

When the second North Dakota wind farm is finished by the end of the year, wind power will ac-count for about 3 percent of Minnesota Power’s retail electrical supply, Johnson said. Coal-fired generators still will account for about 90 percent. Hydropower from dams on Northland rivers makes up about 5 percent.

The wind farms are part of the utility’s effort to meet the state’s goal, set in 2005, of producing 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. But state lawmakers, conservation groups and Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week said they are increasing that goal to 25 percent renewable elec-tricity by 2025, and plans are underway to make that target mandatory.

Only about 3 percent of the state’s electricity comes from wind.

Supporters of increased wind-energy production cite a recent Minnesota Public Utilities Com-mission study that shows the state’s electrical grid and wind resources could easily provide 5,000 megawatts of electricity while adding only pennies to the average electric bill, with no interrup-tions of power. It would take more than 2,000 wind turbines to produce 5,000 megawatts.

The study also found that the variability of wind isn’t a big issue because turbines would be placed in different regions and because the state’s existing electrical grid has ample backup.

“The governor and legislators are agreeing on the goal of 25 percent and are getting close on the timeline. Minnesota is definitely moving toward much more wind energy,” said Michael Noble, executive director of Fresh Energy, formerly called Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy.

“It’s very exciting that Minnesota Power is starting to get serious about wind energy,” Nobel said. “But the future is much bolder now. We’re talking thousands of megawatts from wind … much more than a 50 megawatt project here and another 50 megawatts there.”

The Oliver County Wind Energy Project was built and is owned and operated by Florida-based FPL Energy, the nation’s largest wind-energy utility. Minnesota Power signed a long-term agree-ment to buy all of the power produced there.

In the past, Minnesota Power customers could voluntarily contribute to the production of wind energy in other regions by paying an extra fee on their monthly electric bills. But this is the first time that wind has been integrated into the company’s mix of electrical generation for its share of the continental electric grid.

Minnesota Power’s customers won’t pay any more for the new wind energy. Thanks to a federal tax credit of $19 per megawatt hour, FPL can sell the wind power to Minnesota Power for a price that, on average, is competitive or even cheaper than for electricity on the spot market, Johnson said.

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:ALE,