USA - Experts to speak at the Revolution 2009: Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference

Financing pressures may be up and fuel prices down, but the time is still right to take advantage of Oklahoma’s wind power potential, a state energy official said Monday. Deputy Secretary of Energy Brad Williams was touting next week’s Revolution 2009: Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference. The event runs Dec. 2-3 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.

Last year’s conference featured billionaire T. Boone Pickens and a fresh optimism about growing wind energy options in the state. This year’s gathering includes national figures, such as American Wind Energy Association director and former state Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode. Gone is Pickens’ star power, and the sector’s enthusiasm has been worn down by recession and falling prices for oil and natural gas.

Not so fast, Williams said. Wind energy investment is wounded by economic factors and outsized expectations, he said, but it can and should play a huge factor in the future.

“I don’t think it’s dissipated at all,” Williams said. “Wind can be very complementary; it’s the perfect partner with natural gas.”

Wind and natural gas, in other words, can be put into action quickly to turn turbines and are clearer environmentally than coal-fired generation plans. They are not cheap to build, but wind farms and gas facilities are not nearly as expensive, financially or politically, as nuclear power.

Oklahoma ranks No. 12 nationally in its deliverable wind power. The state had about 851 megawatts of installed capacity as of December, the American Wind Energy Association reported.

Oklahoma

residents also are positive about going with the flow, if a recent state survey is any indication. Forty percent would be willing to pay as much as $6 or more in additional monthly rates to help investment in wind power infrastructure, according to the Sooner Survey conducted by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates of Oklahoma City and funded by the nonprofit Wind Coalition.
Overall, 72 percent of the survey’s 600 respondents said they were willing to pay higher rates for electricity if it is generated by wind.

“Not only do Oklahomans support wind energy in theory, but they are also willing to put their money where their mouth is,” the Sooner Survey report reads.

AEP-PSO — American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma — and Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. also raised their wind profiles over the past few years. The state’s two major utilities would like their generation portfolios to include at least 10 percent or more in wind power, according to reports.

The danger, Williams noted, is in thinking of those western Oklahoma air currents as a primary source of electricity. The wind doesn’t always blow.

Natural gas plants fire up quickly and can be shut down when wind is available, he said.

“Nuclear and coal cannot fit that need,” Williams said.

Another key issue for next week’s conference is transmission capacity. The Southwest Power Pool has recommended construction of lengthy 345-kilovolt transmission lines connecting in Woodward at a combined cost of more than $300 million.

The SWPP, which oversees utility generation networks through the region, is not only pitching a transmission build-out to bring wind power to customers but also determining ways that those costs can be spread out over distance and ratepayers.

“The real key to unlocking wind is the transmission issue,” Williams said.

The conference also will feature former CIA Director and Oklahoman James Woolsey as its Dec. 2 luncheon keynote speaker. He is a venture capitalist helping fund some alternative energy investments.

At 10:30 a.m. Dec. 3, a panel of experts is scheduled to focus on the transmission challenges within the power grid. Among the panelists will be Les Dillahunty, vice president of regulatory policy with the Southwest Power Pool; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Marc Spitzer; and Texas energy consultant Julie Parsley.

Other conference topics will be landowner issues and environmental challenges.