558 N. Main St., Prineville, OR 97754 | (541) 447-6205
The greater-sage grouse. Public land access. Renewable energy tax credits.
These are just a few of the hurdles West Butte Wind Power, LLC, the company building a wind farm in southwest Crook County, has faced on the road to construction.
However, with review of the project being "fast-tracked" by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), company officials are optimistic ground will be broken by this summer or fall. Project Manager Sarah Rankin said the company is very close to publishing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to gain right-of-way through BLM land.
"That will probably be in the next few weeks," she said.
The EIS details the potential environmental and wildlife impacts the project could have on public land and will be available for public review. West Butte Wind Power will need to build an 8-mile transmission line to hook into the power grid, but only 3 miles of the line will be on BLM land. The company will also have to widen a 3.8-mile access road so it will be able to handle trucks carrying large turbines during construction.
"It's our last big hurdle," Rankin said.
Once a right-of-way permit is granted, West Butte Wind Power will need to have a final wildlife mitigation plan approved by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the county. West Butte can then begin pre-construction procedures, including engineering surveys and applying for building permits.
According to Rankin, time is of the essence.
If the wind farm is up and running by the end of 2011, it will qualify for a federal tax credit that could pay up to 30 percent of the cost of the project. The total cost of the project is estimated at $225 million.
"This project would be eligible if 20 percent of it is built this year and then the rest is completed the following year," she said.
Changes to the Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) by the Oregon Legislature during its special session last month could affect the project, but Rankin says the company is more interested in federal funding at this point. The legislature voted to cap the amount of tax incentives companies can claim under BETC to $450 million.
"It still could potentially impact the project in terms of if there's less state funding available," Rankin said. "We're not pursuing any state money right now, but you never know."
The wind farm received attention from state and federal agencies last year due to its proximity to a sage grouse breeding area, known as a lek. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently decided to not list the birds as threatened or endangered, even though they meet the criteria, because other species are a higher priority. The impact of this decision on renewable energy projects, however, is unclear.
Most likely, the decision will not affect the West Butte project because it applies only to new projects, not those in the approval process, Rankin says.
"We already have our permit from Crook County, so it wouldn't apply to us," she said.
West Butte Wind Power is proposing to install 34 to 52 turbines, all of which will be in Crook County. An operations and maintenance building will be built in Deschutes County. The turbines would produce approximately 104 megawatts, enough electricity to power about 5,000 homes.
The 8-mile transmission line from the project will hook into an existing Bonneville Power Authority (BPA) transmission line and the power generated will be distributed into the grid. According to Pacific Power Spokesman Tom Gauntt, 104 megawatts is the wind farm's capacity, or what it could produce at any given time.
"It is kind of like saying, `I have bath tub that can hold 50 gallons. How often does it hold 50 gal?'" Gauntt explained. "In general, a wind development is considered pretty good if it is operating 33 percent of the time. Actual production is measured in megawatt hours. How many hours was this operating at what level of capacity?"
According to Rankin, the first steps of construction should begin this summer. If all goes well, the turbines will be spinning by the end of 2011.
"We'd like to start breaking ground this construction season, so realistically it would be summer or fall," Rankin said. "The first that will happen will be things like roads and the infrastructure that we need to get the trucks and the turbines up there."
