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Dec 2, 2009

Oklahoma should look at potential in wind energy

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=49&articleid=20091202_49_0_hrimgs792432

State should look at potential in wind energy, Bode says

by: ROD WALTON, World staff writer
Wednesday, December 02, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY — Wind energy makes economic sense locally, environmental sense nationally and security sense worldwide, proponents said Wednesday.

Speakers at Revolution: Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference — from former CIA Director James Woolsey to former Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode — touted the potential benefits of expanding not just the use of wind turbines, but also domestically abundant energies across the board.

The conference continues through Thursday at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

Increasing wind generation potential in Oklahoma makes the most sense because the western region has such a steady supply, advocates such as Bode said. Building wind turbines and transmission lines promotes sustainable economic development and keeps pace with neighboring states, which are going full-throttle on wind energy, she said.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Bode, president and CEO of the Washington D.C.-based American Wind Energy Association.

Oklahoma has developed about 830 megawatts of installed wind capacity, putting it 10th nationwide. The state, however, is not one of 29 states nationwide that have adopted renewable energy standards, Bode noted.

Woolsey, a native Tulsan who served as CIA director for two years in the Clinton administration, said wind power fits perfectly into an electrical generation mix that should include solar energy and additional natural gas-fired facilities. Quantum leaps in battery technology should eventually help in using that electrical generation to power more of America’s transportation fleet, he added.

And here’s why that’s important to Woolsey: the top 22 nations that generated at least two-thirds of their economy from oil production are either dictatorships or autocratic kingdoms, he said. Heading that group is Saudi Arabia, a kingpin that funds hatred of non-Muslims through various fundamental schools.

Woolsey, now a venture capitalist and member of the Hoover Foundation at Standard University, believes that natural gas, wind, solar and battery technology are but a weapons in a much-needed war to reduce dependency on oil. In fact, he hopes that oil eventually will be like salt, once a desperately coveted commodity that sparked territorial battles between nations. Electrical power, particularly used in freezing meat, made salt far less valuable and volatile, he noted.

“Salt was destroyed as a strategic commodity,” Woolsey said. “Nobody goes to war over salt mines anymore. We need to do that to oil.”

AEP-PSO Chief Operating Officer Stuart Solomon also outlined his utility company’s commitment to wind power. American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma does not build wind farms, but purchases power from other producers and distributes it to customers.

Last month, AEP-PSO began receiving 99 megawatts in installed wind potential from the Blue Canyon V farm north of Lawton. The utility buys that power from Horizon Wind Energy.

Altogether AEP-PSO has just under 500 megawatts in total installed capacity, according to reports. By 2010, Solomon said, the utility’s generation mix should be 44 percent natural gas-fired power, 44 percent coal and 12 percent wind.

“We’ve got a great resource here; it’s only natural we take advantage of it,” he said. “It’s great fuel hedge and a great environmental hedge.”

Companies that harness the wind, however, must find ways to make it work practically and economically, he warned. Relying on natural gas-power turbines, which can ramp up and down quickly, creates a balance with wind energy.

A vibrant wind-power economy needs state-of-the-art forecasting to maintain grid efficiency and perhaps the move toward “day-ahead markets” that would allow pricing on supply-and-demand factors, Solomon said.

“It’s a new challenge for us,” he said.

The conference also included discussions about the threats to some endangered wildlife species from wind turbines and how to train the state’s work force for the new construction demands.

Thursday’s sessions features discussions on a potential expanded transmission grid, and a Sooner Survey poll which showed that 71 percent of Oklahomans are willing to pay more to use wind power.

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