Wind energy still slow in California

Wind energy still slow in California
By Matt Nauman
Mercury News
Posted: 02/26/2009

Wind energy had a banner year in 2008, as 8.3 gigawatts worth of turbines — enough to power 2 million U.S. homes — was added to the grid nationally.

But the company behind one of the two wind energy projects completed last year in California, which formally dedicates the project today, doesn't expect more than a handful of these projects to be built in California in the near future.

Blame the credit crunch, a frustrating state permitting process, and the lack of transmission access in places where the wind blows best in California, said Mark Tholke, director of Enxco's southwest region. Enxco is a division of the French company EDF Energies Nouvelles.

"There will be a disappointingly small number of projects built here in 2009 and 2010," he said. "I don't think more than two or three."

Shiloh II, along Highway 12 near the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City, took four years and $300 million to complete, Tholke said. Three hundred workers built the wind farm, and eight people will operate it.

But even as Shiloh II neared completion in late 2008, there were worries that its turbines would interfere with radar at nearby Travis Air Force Base. Another issue: the 6,100 acres of farmland it used for its 75 turbines is home to a threatened species, the California tiger salamander.

Add to that the credit crisis that blew up in September, and the project's final few months were "dicey," Tholke said. Cooperation with the military, Pacific Gas & Electric and California's Department of Fish and Game helped see the project through, he said.

With wind farms at capacity near Palm Springs and continuing concern over the number of bird deaths at wind farms at Altamont Pass in Alameda and San Joaquin counties, two regions have emerged as potential growth areas for wind energy in California, Tholke said.

One is Tehachapi, which has good access to transmission lines, and the other is Solano County, in what is called the Montezuma Hills Wind Resource Area. Tholke said more progress could be made if the state's permitting process was less onerous. In November, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the state to streamline the permitting and environmental-review process for renewable-energy projects, but "so far I haven't seen any evidence that it has worked," Tholke said. "It's too early to tell (if it'll improve), but it hasn't yet."

Other states are eager to provide wind energy to Californians. A consultant's report presented to the California Energy Commission in late 2008 noted that large wind farms in Wyoming, Washington, Utah and Oregon are emerging as sources for municipal utilities seeking to meet state renewable standards.

Contact Matt Nauman at (408) 920-5701 or mnauman@mercurynews.com.