NEWS
Most recent local, state and federal updates pertaining to the Wind Industry
TUNE INTO NEWS TALK RADIO 100.3 FM APRIL 25th
Bob
Davis and Sue Jeffers of News Talk Radio were complaining that
Windmills are not economical. They mentioned the battle in Goodhue
County and said that they wanted to get someone from Goodhue County to
talk about the Windmills. So, we contacted them.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST FROM SATURDAY APRIL 23rd
Please
enjoy listening to the Sue Jeffers Radio Show about the Goodhue Wind
project! It was an excellent Program. Sue's guest and callers were
right on with their comments!
Sue talks wind farms and their invasion on property owners. A recent case happening in Goodhue County is covered. Click here to listen to the podcast.
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Monday morning April 24, 2011 broadcast
Bob, Sue Jeffers and Kristi Rosenquist talk wind energy laws Click here to listen!
Investigators | Wind Power Struggle in Minn.
Updated: Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:50 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 09 May 2011, 10:08 AM CDT
by Jeff Ballion / FOX 9 Investigator
Minnesota
is under a state mandate to produce more electricity without using
fossil fuels. Xcel Energy is supposed to generate 30 percent of its
power from renewables -- like wind -- within the next ten years, but
that push is starting to run into opposition from landowners all across
the state. FOX 9 Investigator Jeff Ballion tells us why. Click here to view!
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WindAction Editorial
Section 1603: The renewable energy bailout(Posted February 2, 2011)
In the waning hours of the tax bill debate last December, the Obama Administration and GOP leaders released the terms for continuing the Bush-era tax cuts. The framework negotiated between the parties initially omitted any reference to extending the renewable energy programs introduced in 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which were scheduled to sunset last December.
The response from the renewables industry was fierce. A media blitz hit overnight, and wind and solar lobbyists huddled with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Repeated warnings about job loss and the immediate harm to green energy businesses worked. Lawmakers relented and sanctioned a 1-year extension. The windfall? A check from the U.S. Treasury for 30 percent of a project's qualifying cost.
With the fuss now behind us, we decided to examine one of the more popular renewable subsidy programs to be extended, the Section 1603 cash grants. Our analysis revealed a pattern of rewarding inflated project costs and decreased energy production, while shifting a substantial portion of the development risks to American taxpayers.
T. Boone Pickens: Tilting at Minnesota windmills? How "cozy" has our govenor been with T. Boone Pickens? Read here!
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Wind industry protesting plan to pay for new lines -
The emerging wind industry in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest could be shut down by the cost of connecting to high-voltage transmission lines if a proposal by the organization that controls the Midwest's power grid goes through, wind advocates say. The grid operator and some utilities say the wind industry is overstating the effect, but the long-simmering dispute over who should pay for new transmission lines boiled over Thursday.
August 14, 2009 by Leslie Brooks Suzukamo in Pioneer Press
Cost-sharing proposal decried as threat to renewable energy goals
The emerging wind industry in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest could be shut down by the cost of connecting to high-voltage transmission lines if a proposal by the organization that controls the Midwest's power grid goes through, wind advocates say.
The grid operator and some utilities say the wind industry is overstating the effect, but the long-simmering dispute over who should pay for new transmission lines boiled over Thursday.
If the matter can't be resolved, the wind industry insists, Minnesota's renewable energy goals would be at risk.
The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, which covers 13 states and Manitoba, Canada, last month proposed changing the way costs are shared for new transmission lines. It wants to put 90 percent of the cost on energy generators, including the wind farms springing up across the Dakotas and southwestern Minnesota.
Previously, the cost has been split 50-50 between energy generators and transmission-line owners, typically utilities.
However, Otter Tail Power of Fergus Falls told the grid operator, known as MISO, recently that unless the sharing agreement is changed, Otter Tail would pull out of the system.
Wind farms in the Dakotas representing a total of 10,000 megawatts of electricity - a significant chunk of the power waiting to be added to the grid - wanted to connect to Otter Tail's grid to reach Minnesota and the rest of the transmission system operator's territory, said JoAnn Thompson, Otter Tail's manager of federal regulatory compliance and policy. Otter Tail consumers were going to have to pay half the cost of the new transmission, even though they would use almost none of that power, as it would be transmitted onward, she said.
"We support developing renewable energy but not at a substantially disproportionate impact to consumers," she said.
The new cost-sharing proposal, which was submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval, would increase the cost of developing wind energy projects so much they would no longer be economical, wind energy advocates said Thursday.
The American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C., and Wind on the Wires, a St. Paul-based industry association, filed a protest Thursday with the energy regulatory commission opposing the proposal.
"If (the transmission system operator) loads up the cost (of new transmission) on the generators, we won't get new transmission built," said Beth Soholt, executive director of Wind on the Wires.
"So unless we get the cost of new transmission spread out more evenly in the MISO footprint, wind-energy development is going to come to a screeching halt."
The changes also could throttle efforts to export wind energy from the Upper Midwest to the rest of the country, the American Wind Energy Association added.
The Upper Midwest has been dubbed "the Saudi Arabia of wind" because of the region's gusty conditions, but unless big and expensive transmission lines are built, there is no way to get that power from the scores of wind-energy projects proposed for the isolated prairie to energy-hungry metro areas like the Twin Cities, Chicago and points east, American Wind Energy Association analyst Michael Groggin said.
But Xcel Energy, which must generate 30 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025, says the impact will be temporary. Xcel on Thursday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require MISO to propose an alternative plan by April 1 next year, to be effective July 1, said Kent Larson, Xcel's vice president of transmission.
MISO said it requested the shift in cost sharing to keep Otter Tail from bolting from the organization, which is voluntary. If Otter Tail pulled out, the wind farms in the Dakotas would have to pay higher rates to use Otter Tail's lines as a bridge to the big cities anyway, said Clair Moeller, MISO vice president of transmission asset management.
A proposal by American Wind Energy Association and Wind on the Wires to spread the cost of new transmission to all MISO members would have caused utilities in the eastern part of the territory with no renewable-energy requirements to leave, Moeller added.
If members left MISO, the system of using the organization as a market to buy the cheapest electricity on the system would fall apart and rates would go up, Moeller said.
