Local ownership fans Crosswind project
By Russ Oechslin, Journal correspondent | Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2007
RUTHVEN, Iowa -- With sun glistening off them, 10 new wind-turbines south of the western-most Palo Alto County community can be seen 10 miles in every direction. Owners of the Crosswind project, say that's why they are where they are.
"When we came up with the idea, we thought we'd have the turbines on our farms," in Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, explains Ken DeYoung of Laurens, Iowa, one of the 10 Iowa owners. But that didn't work out, he adds.
Sufficient wind was only part of the equation, according to another partner, Phil Sundblad, of nearby Albert City, who is president of the Crosswind project. Being on or near a transmission line was a big obstacle, Sundblad notes. While there is obviously a line near Alta, Iowa, there was no opportunity to connect to that grid.
Now, partnering with the California-based Edison Mission Energy, Crosswind will sell its nameplate 21 megawatts of power to the Cornbelt Electric Co-operative, based in Humboldt, Iowa. Because turbines typically operate at about 35 percent of capacity due to fluctuating wind, the 10 Crosswind turbines are expected to generate enough power to supply the electrical needs of approximately 6,000 homes, according to American Wind Energy Association calculations.
Edison Mission Energy is the unregulated power-generating arm of Edison International. EI's regulated company, Southern California Edison, is one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric utilities, serving more than 13 million people in 50,000 square miles in central, coastal and southern California.
Many years of planning
The Crosswind project -- named to reflect the Christian faith of its 10 Iowa owners (nine grew up in the same church) -- has been more than three years in planning and construction. Sundblad says the group attended many Farm Bureau meetings on the possibilities of wind energy years ago. Ground was broken on the 10 sites last summer. And the towers were erected beginning in January.
Part of the delay, Sundblad says, was a similarly-structured seven turbine Hardin project, near Jefferson in Greene County, which took priority. It, too, is an Edison effort shared with local investors.
According to EMG's Dave Clement, a Canadian who has worked on wind projects for more than a decade, and supervised the installations at Jefferson, Ruthven and other sites, it would take at least one year to get turbines delivered if they were ordered today, due to demand.
Randy Mann, EMG vice president for wind energy, says a "significant increase in demand has strained the supply" of wind turbines. And, after several years of price decline, the cost per megawatt hour of capacity is now about where it was 10 years ago, due not only to that demand, but to the increase in the cost of raw materials and transportation, as well. The supply-versus-demand problem is a global situation, he adds.
While turbine company Suzlon, which built Ruthven's units, is based in Europe, blades for this project were manufactured in Minnesota.
Local grads a part
Suzlon personnel will monitor the units and provide maintenance for the first five years of operation under a warranty agreement, employing several people, including Kevin VerMeys and Ian McDonald, both recent graduates of the wind turbine program at Iowa Lakes Community College.
McDonald says the ILCC program under Al Zeitz "trained me far and above what I need to know," for his position in operations and maintenance for the Hardin-Jefferson and Crosswind sites he's still working to commission with VerMeys and their supervisor Hans Schroeder and lead tech Adam Richey.
His work to get the towers on-line began in March when he wasn't in class at ILCC. "That's the difficult work -- getting them on-line," McDonald says. Once they're up and running they should be easier to maintain than the older turbines, he predicts.
There are lots of job opportunities, Mann says, "as the field is growing quite dramatically, because people want clean, renewable energy." Those opportunities are not only in the construction of the project, but in manufacturing and maintenance.
"Maintenance is a tough job requiring physical fitness, with lots of climbing and outdoor work. It requires a pretty extensive training program," Mann says.
Local investment important, too
Legislation that made local investment desirable began in Minnesota and carried over into Iowa, says Mann. And, that same legislation made it better to have 10 different ownership situations for the Crosswind project, even though that's not what local investors had in mind when they considered the concept.
Iowa investors include Chris Archer, Varina; Chad Bjork, Laurens, Ken DeYoung, Laurens, Jeff Grossnickle, Laurens; Kin Kischer, Albert City; Mike Hopkins, Havelock; Gary, Mick and Phil Sundblad, all Albert City; and Ed Woolsey, Proele (near Indianola), who was also involved with the Hardin project. Ten farmers are involved in the leased property for the wind farm.
DeYoung says local investments came about partly because "we can't rely on farming any more." At 52, DeYoung is one of the older members of the group. "Anything we can do to keep small towns going is good," he says.
Real estate taxes will be a considerable boost to Palo Alto County, DeYoung explains, with a construction cost of more than $2.5 million per tower.
"We made the concrete company very happy," he says. "They just pulled the trucks up and emptied them out to fill up the hole," which was 8-feet deep, including 40 tons of re-bar for each of the 10 towers.
Sundblad explains the difference between the Crosswind project and those run by companies such as FPL, formerly Florida Power and Light, which has several projects in Iowa, is that local money stays in the communities -- just like locally-owned ethanol and bio-diesel facilities. The Albert City farmer, who is 44, adds that he "grew up on the farm and was destined to become a steward of the soil."
After 10 years, Edison's involvement will be phased out. The investors anticipate close to a 25-year lifespan for the turbines.
Each of the 10 towers occupies about 1 1/2 acres of ground that is at least in-part "double-cropped." The American Wind Energy Association estimates a single, utility-scale turbine provides an average of about $3,000 per year, per megawatt, in income to a landowner leasing his wind rights. And, the AWEA report notes, "Farmers continue to grow crops up to the base of the turbines."
Capacity per turbine is growing. At a nameplate capacity of 2.1 megawatts of production, EMG's Mann explains each of the Crosswind turbines produces more than twice the energy as the units built near Alta in the last decade. And Clements notes that a consortium of international companies is building even more efficient 3-megawatt units in the North Sea.
Iowa is No. 3
Iowa ranks third in the nation for wind generation of electrical power. American Wind Energy Association figures as of Dec. 31, 2006 show the top-five are:
1. Texas, 2,768 MW
2. California, 2,361 MW
3. Iowa, 936 MW
4. Minnesota, 895 MW
5. Washington, 818 MW
The nation's largest wind farm is near Horse Hollow, Texas, with 735 MW of generating capacity. Texas also has two of the other four top-five sites, with New York and the Stateline farm in Washington and Oregon taking the other two top-five positions.
The AWEA says the wind energy industry is on track to install over 3,000 megawatts of wind power generating capacity nationwide this year. The AWEA cites Pacific Northwest University figures showing wind energy potential at 10.777 billion kWh annually -- more than twice the electricity generated in the U.S. today.
A report from the electric Reliability Council of Texas suggests that 2,000 MW of wind power would avoid over 3 million tons of carbon dioxide.
"When we came up with the idea, we thought we'd have the turbines on our farms," in Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, explains Ken DeYoung of Laurens, Iowa, one of the 10 Iowa owners. But that didn't work out, he adds.
Sufficient wind was only part of the equation, according to another partner, Phil Sundblad, of nearby Albert City, who is president of the Crosswind project. Being on or near a transmission line was a big obstacle, Sundblad notes. While there is obviously a line near Alta, Iowa, there was no opportunity to connect to that grid.
Now, partnering with the California-based Edison Mission Energy, Crosswind will sell its nameplate 21 megawatts of power to the Cornbelt Electric Co-operative, based in Humboldt, Iowa. Because turbines typically operate at about 35 percent of capacity due to fluctuating wind, the 10 Crosswind turbines are expected to generate enough power to supply the electrical needs of approximately 6,000 homes, according to American Wind Energy Association calculations.
Edison Mission Energy is the unregulated power-generating arm of Edison International. EI's regulated company, Southern California Edison, is one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric utilities, serving more than 13 million people in 50,000 square miles in central, coastal and southern California.
Many years of planning
The Crosswind project -- named to reflect the Christian faith of its 10 Iowa owners (nine grew up in the same church) -- has been more than three years in planning and construction. Sundblad says the group attended many Farm Bureau meetings on the possibilities of wind energy years ago. Ground was broken on the 10 sites last summer. And the towers were erected beginning in January.
Part of the delay, Sundblad says, was a similarly-structured seven turbine Hardin project, near Jefferson in Greene County, which took priority. It, too, is an Edison effort shared with local investors.
According to EMG's Dave Clement, a Canadian who has worked on wind projects for more than a decade, and supervised the installations at Jefferson, Ruthven and other sites, it would take at least one year to get turbines delivered if they were ordered today, due to demand.
Randy Mann, EMG vice president for wind energy, says a "significant increase in demand has strained the supply" of wind turbines. And, after several years of price decline, the cost per megawatt hour of capacity is now about where it was 10 years ago, due not only to that demand, but to the increase in the cost of raw materials and transportation, as well. The supply-versus-demand problem is a global situation, he adds.
While turbine company Suzlon, which built Ruthven's units, is based in Europe, blades for this project were manufactured in Minnesota.
Local grads a part
Suzlon personnel will monitor the units and provide maintenance for the first five years of operation under a warranty agreement, employing several people, including Kevin VerMeys and Ian McDonald, both recent graduates of the wind turbine program at Iowa Lakes Community College.
McDonald says the ILCC program under Al Zeitz "trained me far and above what I need to know," for his position in operations and maintenance for the Hardin-Jefferson and Crosswind sites he's still working to commission with VerMeys and their supervisor Hans Schroeder and lead tech Adam Richey.
His work to get the towers on-line began in March when he wasn't in class at ILCC. "That's the difficult work -- getting them on-line," McDonald says. Once they're up and running they should be easier to maintain than the older turbines, he predicts.
There are lots of job opportunities, Mann says, "as the field is growing quite dramatically, because people want clean, renewable energy." Those opportunities are not only in the construction of the project, but in manufacturing and maintenance.
"Maintenance is a tough job requiring physical fitness, with lots of climbing and outdoor work. It requires a pretty extensive training program," Mann says.
Local investment important, too
Legislation that made local investment desirable began in Minnesota and carried over into Iowa, says Mann. And, that same legislation made it better to have 10 different ownership situations for the Crosswind project, even though that's not what local investors had in mind when they considered the concept.
Iowa investors include Chris Archer, Varina; Chad Bjork, Laurens, Ken DeYoung, Laurens, Jeff Grossnickle, Laurens; Kin Kischer, Albert City; Mike Hopkins, Havelock; Gary, Mick and Phil Sundblad, all Albert City; and Ed Woolsey, Proele (near Indianola), who was also involved with the Hardin project. Ten farmers are involved in the leased property for the wind farm.
DeYoung says local investments came about partly because "we can't rely on farming any more." At 52, DeYoung is one of the older members of the group. "Anything we can do to keep small towns going is good," he says.
Real estate taxes will be a considerable boost to Palo Alto County, DeYoung explains, with a construction cost of more than $2.5 million per tower.
"We made the concrete company very happy," he says. "They just pulled the trucks up and emptied them out to fill up the hole," which was 8-feet deep, including 40 tons of re-bar for each of the 10 towers.
Sundblad explains the difference between the Crosswind project and those run by companies such as FPL, formerly Florida Power and Light, which has several projects in Iowa, is that local money stays in the communities -- just like locally-owned ethanol and bio-diesel facilities. The Albert City farmer, who is 44, adds that he "grew up on the farm and was destined to become a steward of the soil."
After 10 years, Edison's involvement will be phased out. The investors anticipate close to a 25-year lifespan for the turbines.
Each of the 10 towers occupies about 1 1/2 acres of ground that is at least in-part "double-cropped." The American Wind Energy Association estimates a single, utility-scale turbine provides an average of about $3,000 per year, per megawatt, in income to a landowner leasing his wind rights. And, the AWEA report notes, "Farmers continue to grow crops up to the base of the turbines."
Capacity per turbine is growing. At a nameplate capacity of 2.1 megawatts of production, EMG's Mann explains each of the Crosswind turbines produces more than twice the energy as the units built near Alta in the last decade. And Clements notes that a consortium of international companies is building even more efficient 3-megawatt units in the North Sea.
Iowa is No. 3
Iowa ranks third in the nation for wind generation of electrical power. American Wind Energy Association figures as of Dec. 31, 2006 show the top-five are:
1. Texas, 2,768 MW
2. California, 2,361 MW
3. Iowa, 936 MW
4. Minnesota, 895 MW
5. Washington, 818 MW
The nation's largest wind farm is near Horse Hollow, Texas, with 735 MW of generating capacity. Texas also has two of the other four top-five sites, with New York and the Stateline farm in Washington and Oregon taking the other two top-five positions.
The AWEA says the wind energy industry is on track to install over 3,000 megawatts of wind power generating capacity nationwide this year. The AWEA cites Pacific Northwest University figures showing wind energy potential at 10.777 billion kWh annually -- more than twice the electricity generated in the U.S. today.
A report from the electric Reliability Council of Texas suggests that 2,000 MW of wind power would avoid over 3 million tons of carbon dioxide.
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