Dec. 15, 2006 - 22:37 MST

FLY IN THE OINTMENT

Funny how all these years we are fed hype only to find out down the road the engine won't gin. An article in The Rocky Mountain News by Gargi Chakrabarty of that paper this morning lets us in on one of the obfuscated bits of fact here in our state and also country wide. Herewith quoted in part:

WIND FARMS DYING ON THE VINE

Holdups in building transmission lines retard new plants

"Xcel Energy is ahead of schedule with construction of its wind projects, but the utility backed off several others because it can't get the power to customer's homes."

"The reason is a shortage of transmission lines."

"Building the high-voltage power lines, which carry electricty from generating stations to substations before delivering to homes and businesses, has lagged the rapid construction of wind farms because of cost, location and regulatory and technical issues."

"And that, in turn, has discouraged wind farms in many areas, especially in northeast Colorado, one of the windiest areas in the state."

"Lawmakers plan to introduce bills in the coming legislative session to help alleviate the problem by offering incentives for the construction of transmission lines and mapping the state to figure out the best corridors for the lines. Xcel supports those proposals."

"I think transmission is the key to unlocking a lot of renewable energy resource in Colorado," said Patricia Vincent, CEO and president of Public Service Co., Xcel's utility in Colorado."

Colorado is not the only state plagued with inadequate transmission lines. The problem exists nationwide."

"A study by the U.S. Department of Energy released in August identified areas of severe transmission constraints, with New England, Phoenix-Tuscon, Seattle-Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area topping the list."

The second level included Montana-Wyoming and Kansas-Oklahoma. Experts say unless Colorado acts now to resolve its growing problem, it could end up like its neighbors."

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It appears that the power companies have been building wind farms fairly near existing transmission facilites and lines and accomplishing much with little. But the problem is that in the windiest parts of our state (and probably other states too) the population is few and far between, no truly decent transmission lines available and too expensive to build and maintain in the present setup.

The power company has been touting wind farm electricity for years, but has been silent on the scarcity of tranmission infrastructure in the places where the wind is the strongest.

Of course help from our legislature in the way of incentives would probably involve using tax money, which in the overall picture would make our energy more costly, although hidden one way or another.

I am sure that along the way by the use of many methods wind farm power will help bring the cost of energy down, the route long and tortuous and taking much time and debate.

On that same page of our paper is an article about another method of renewable supply of fuel being set up as a test here, I'll make an entry on that tomorrow night.

Anyhow, in the end, showing up in the Wind Farm medication is the proverbial FLY IN THE OINTMENT . . . . . . . . . . . .

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