USA - Shell subsidiary to buy West Virginia Wind Power Project

Shell WindEnergy Inc., a subsidiary of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC, on Friday announced an agreement to buy an uncompleted West Virginia wind power project from NedPower Mount Storm LLC. The Grant County project is permitted for 300 megawatts, which would involve up to 150 wind towers, and is near another 166-turbine project proposed by US Wind Force LLC. Both projects would dwarf the state’s lone existing wind farm, Exelon Corp.’s 44-tower Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in neighboring Tucker County. Houston-based Shell WindEnergy owns a 50 percent stake in seven U.S. wind generation facilities, with a total capacity of 634 megawatts, according to a filing with the state Public Service Commission. Terms of the deal were not released.

If approved by regulators, the NedPower acquisition would be Shell’s first wind project east of the Mississippi, said spokesman Tim O’Leary. Construction at the site could begin in November, he said. “Shell WindEnergy is looking forward to becoming a productive corporate citizen in West Virginia,’’ Milton Hernandez, chairman of Shell WindEnergy, said in a release. “The Mount Storm project will help to further diversify the Appalachian economy and bring the region clean, renewable energy.’’ Some citizens groups have protested wind projects in the state, arguing that the turbines would harm the environment in the scenic Allegheny Highlands. The groups cite bat kills, impacts on birds, harm to animal habitats and noise pollution.
A study of the Mountaineer wind farm estimates that at least 1,364 bats were killed there during a six-week period last year. The June study was conducted by the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative, which includes the wind power industry, Bat Conservation International and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Citizens for Responsible Wind Power last year asked the PSC to stop wind projects, a few days after President Bush signed a tax bill in October that renewed lucrative federal production tax credits for wind energy projects. The PSC rejected the proposal in January, allowing the two Grant County projects to move forward.


A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded last month that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind power plants, leaving decision-making at the state and local levels, and that those regulators sometimes lack expertise in weighing the impact of wind power farms on bird and bat deaths. As a result, the GAO found, “no one is considering the impacts of wind power on a regional or ‘ecosystem’ scale — a scale that often spans governmental jurisdictions.’’ The GAO urged the Fish and Wildlife Service to work with state and local officials to alert them about proposed wind farms’ impacts on wildlife.