CU experiments with renewable energies

When Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress last week that short supplies and sharply rising costs of natural gas could cause further erosion to the U.S. economy, lawmakers' eyes turned toward alternative energy sources.

One such source is wind power.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the U.S. wind industry is on track to grow more than 25 percent in 2003 and reach approximately 6,000 megawatts of wind power capacity. That's enough energy to power 1.5 million homes.

Wind power for homes or businesses is available in Springfield through City Utilities' WindCurrent program. There are 145 subscribers, all of them residential, according to Cara Shaefer, energy management specialist with CU. Blocks of 100-kilowatts of power can be purchased for $5, which is about twice the cost of traditional power.

The wind energy is available through a purchase agreement with Westar Energy, a Topeka, Kan., company.

CU is experimenting with wind energy generation itself, and June 9 installed a wind turbine at the Blackman Water Treatment Plant. The week before, solar panels also were installed.

CU General Manager John Twitty said the utility hopes to learn more about these alternatives.

The experiments are costing $150,000: $88,000 for the wind turbine and $41,200 for the solar panels, plus other technical and electrical costs.

"We're using that as a pilot project to see what we're able to produce from it," Shaefer said.

Later this month, CU's Web site will show how much wind and solar energy is produced daily.

While there is environmental value in utilizing such power, these renewable energies are not cost-effective for customers, Twitty said.

"Today the facts are that you cannot depend upon wind and solar energy to be low-cost resources for electricity," Twitty said. "Whether or not that changes in the future as technology advances remains to be seen."

Still, it's wise to have different means of energy generation, electric industry officials say.

"It's important to have a balance ... of supply for our future energy needs," said Brad Beecher of Empire District Electric.

CU generates electric power with coal, gas and oil, and buys some wind energy.

"I do think it is positive to have a diverse portfolio," Twitty said.

Empire District Electric does not offer wind-generated power, but it does own the 16-megawatt Ozark Beach Hydro-Electric plant on Lake Taneycomo.

"We're investigating some wind energy options at the present time," Beecher said.

The U.S. Department of Energy is helping utilities get hands-on experience with wind energy through the Wind Turbine Verification Program. The program helps utilities understand the benefits and challenges of using wind power by giving them the opportunity to operate wind power plants.

There are seven facilities participating: two projects in Texas, and one each in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Vermont and Alaska. The largest is a 34.3-megawatt project in Big Spring, Texas.

More information can be found at www.eren.doe.gov/wind/.