GE, Local Utilities Develop Wind Energy Project in Colorado

LAMAR -- - Strong, consistent winds blow over an estimated 6 million acres of Colorado plains, bringing new sources of energy to power providers large and small.

GE took over the project when it acquired Enron Wind when that operation's parent was broken up.

At 162 megawatts, the new Colorado Green wind farm will be the third-largest in the nation and will produce enough electricity each year to meet the needs of roughly 75,000 homes.

Lamar Light and Power plans on purchasing three 1.5 GE megawatt turbines and placing them three miles south east of the city while ARPA is looking to construct one turbine located 3 miles south of Springfield and another east of the Lamar site.

Jim Henderson, general manager of ARPA, said that the two projects are only feasible if they are timed with the Colorado Green Project.

"It is essential to us that the project is going forward and without GE, I don't think we could afford to bring a new source of energy to the area," he said.

Leon Sparks, superintendent of Lamar Light and Power, agreed with Henderson, saying that the Lamar project would cost too much if they had to buy turbines from other companies and since GE is going to develop in the area any way, it's a good time to move forward.

GE's policy on selling turbines states that only big orders can be fulfilled.

"They (GE) don't just sell you three turbines -- it has to be a big order," Sparks said.

By coattailing on the GE project the Lamar and ARPA project will get the turbines and they will also use the company's contractors for construction.

"We will save in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 percent by doing it this way," Sparks said.

He said that if Lamar Light and Power went out and placed an order for three turbines from another company (because GE won't only sell three) the cost would be considerably higher.

Sparks says that GE's project, which is within about 20 miles of the Lamar site, is in the drivers seat.

"We are set by their timetable, whenever they complete their site then they will start on ours," he said.

Mary McCann, director of communication for GE, said she anticipates the Colorado Green wind farm will be up and running by the end of the year.

"The project is moving forward as we are looking for a buyer -- we will have another owner in the future, but for now we are moving forward," she said.

Sparks said that it looks like GE is going to start the road work and the foundations for the Colorado Green project this month and deliveries will start in October. "We are hoping to have our turbines delivered by the end of the year," Sparks said.

When it came to looking for a wind site Sparks said he looked at several different characteristics including proximity.

"We serve 167 square miles so we have power lines going out in every direction from the city -- so we tried to find a site that was close to one of our high voltage lines so that we wouldn't have to build a new line back to it."

Sometimes constructing power lines can get as expensive as a wind project itself, Sparks said.

"The site we picked is only three miles from one of our major substations so we are going to save a considerable amount of money on the project."

Lamar's project will cost approximately $5 million to complete.

The Lamar site, which is in a corner of a wheat field owned by Prowers County Commissioner John Stulp, currently has a 50 meter sampling tower that has been collecting data from three different wind collecting apparatuses set at 20, 30 and 50 meters in order to get data from three different levels. Sparks said that the information is stored in one tiny computer chip which will hold about 640 pages of data.

Of all the different wind sampling sites in the state, the Lamar and ARPA sites are in the top third as far as wind energy potential. "That's pretty good -- the wind blows like a son-of-a-gun out here and we thought that if the wind blows like this we may as well take advantage of it and not just complain about it," Sparks said.

Sparks and Henderson agree the main advantage of a wind farm is that there is no fuel involved.

"The major component of a power plant is the fuel cost -- that's killing us," Sparks said.

Lamar's current plant is a natural gas fired plant and according to Sparks, the gas has become very expensive.

"As long as we could buy local gas we were in good shape because we could blend in with the gas from the pipeline, but as the local gas supplies dwindled it got to where we had to shut down our 25-megawatt power plant," Sparks said.

Right now the town is buying power off the grid more cheaply than it can actually produce it out of its own power plant because of the high gas prices.

Although the wind doesn't always blow, it blows considerably in southeastern Colorado.

"It blows between 35 and 39 percent of the time depending on the season," Sparks said.

The wind blows a little more in late winter and in the early spring than it does in the summer time, Sparks said.

Lamar's three turbines, which will be 262 feet from the ground to the top with 111-foot blades, will produce enough power for nearly 2,000 homes, Sparks said.

At a special meeting in La Junta Thursday, ARPA members voted in favor of Henderson placing the orders for the two turbines.

ARPA's proposed site is located in Baca County, south of Springfield near County Route 24.3.

The potential for this particular site is suitable for a 40 to 50-megawatt farm and the ARPA board voted to by two turbines and potentially put up a 1.5 megawatt turbine in Springfield and another at the Lamar site.

"ARPA's intent is to put the turbines up at those locations but we can still change our minds -- we are definitely buying two turbines," Henderson said.

The cost for the ARPA project is set at approximately $3.3 million which includes the estimated cost of the turbines as well as installation.

The turbine ARPA is setting up in Lamar will be connected to the same line to the substation as the other three which will be purchased by Lamar. "It will be a four-bank unit rather than a three-bank unit with ARPA picking up the cost on the fourth unit," Sparks said.

Henderson said that ARPA is looking in to local financing options as well as federal money for the project.

The average wind speed at the Springfield site is about 19 miles per hour, Henderson said.

"The wind is excellent out there -- there is no other adjective to describe it," he said.

Henderson said there is a need for only about 13 mph gusts to have a viable wind project. The energy increases as the wind speed gets faster -- just one mile an hour makes a tremendous difference," Henderson said.

ARPA has hired Sea West Consulting LCC of San Diego to study the project and they have predicted the site will generate power 90 percent of the hours in a typical year and that one turbine will meet 41.2 percent of the energy used by the town of Springfield.

Part of the motivation for the town of Springfield to construct a wind farm is to attract a private developer to develop a bigger wind farm in Baca County.

This approach serves two purposes. First, it could serve as a viable demonstration project of wind energy in the area, by providing energy to the town of Springfield. Secondly, it would serve as a catalyst for encouraging a large commercial wind energy project in Baca County, thereby providing jobs, tax base, land royalties and ancillary business opportunities in a largely rural farming and ranching community.

"We feel that the wind resource there is excellent and the county is hopeful that if we can demonstrate just how good the wind resource is, then other developers will consider Baca County," Henderson said.

"That would be a tremendous boost for the local economy," he added.

The ARPA site will be on pasture grasslands, unlike the Lamar site which stands along a wheatfield. Henderson said even if they put up two turbines, the actual land directly impacted by them is less than .07 of an acre.

"It doesn't take up a lot of room to put up a wind turbine."

ARPA members include the towns of Holly, Lamar, Springfield, Las Animas, La Junta, Trinidad and Raton, N.M.

Southeastern Colorado has among the lowest per capita income of any region in the state and the $160 million Colorado Green wind project is expected to bring substantial economic benefits to the region.

Sparks says the wind farm in Lamar can bring 300 construction jobs to the county, up to 20 permanent jobs as well as boost Prowers County's property tax base by 30 percent.

"We are trying to take advantage of the wind as well as the Colorado Green Project in the area. We hope to have some very long term advantages with this project," Sparks said.