In the second quarter of 2006, Texas had edged ahead of California by adding a total of 375 MW. Take that Texas! I don’t know about “out on the range”, but out on the Coast we don’t say “So, Sorry”, we say “SoCal”.
SCE (Southern California Edison) and Australian-based Allco Finance Group Ltd. have announced the biggest wind power purchase ever by a U.S. electric utility.
This is another indication of strong growth in the U.S. wind power industry. The amount of power this wind farm is expected to be capable of producing (1500 megawatts) is nearly equal to what the total wind power capacity in the U.S. was just seven years ago. As previously noted, the cumulative wind power capacity in the United States is approaching a significant goal: 10-gigawatt (10,000-MW).
The farm is planned for 50 square miles in the Tehachapi area of southern California. The first turbines should be up and running by 2011, and SCE has a transmission project proposed for the area to move the power from this large wind farm and others.
California’s progressive renewable energy and global warming legislation is continuing to spur renewable energy development. Already, 17% of SCE’s electricity comes from a mix of renewable sources. The company delivers more kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year than any other U.S. utility.
In posting the announcment, Maria Energia notes that project plans indicate enough power from this one SoCal wind farm to serve about 650 homes in SCE’s service area at once. She equates this generation to that of a large coal or nuclear plant. Hopefully, sometime in the not so distant future, such comparisons will become antiquated.
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Meanwhile, on the other coast, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), one of the 10 largest water and wastewater utilities in the nation, has committed to a 10-year wind power purchase to meet one-third of the agency’s overall electricity use. The 70 million kWh annual purchase, equivalent to 30 MW of wind energy capacity, makes WSSC the number one local government user of renewable energy in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership.
WSSC is contracting with Constellation NewEnergy to purchase power from a new wind farm to be constructed in Somerset County, Pa. The arrangement involves paying a fixed price over 10 years, which WSSC estimates will save the agency $20 million dollars over the life of the contract while also providing long-term electricity price stability.