By Maddy Lederman
Published by The Sun Runner Magazine, April/May 2008
With a history of so much scandal surrounding energy and the ongoing battle against the alleged profiteers proposing the ironically named “Green Path,” it’s easy to be suspicious of anything in the local energy industry.
At the same time, the benefits of an energy source that does not emit CO2 are numerous and obvious. Wind power is a fast growing industry, and we are likely to see more of it. In general, wind power gets pretty good press. If green energy is mentioned in an ad, you can expect to see a shot of a windmill. They have graphic appeal, an attractive motion, and they sell the hope that we’ll be able to clean up this planet. That said, when examining wind power beyond the sound bite and well-composed shot—which would rarely be done by the Average Joe except, for example, if someone asked him to write an article about the topic—a murky world emerges, disturbing as it illuminates that most people probably have absolutely no idea what’s going on while there is a lot at stake for those shaping this rising technology. How they do that, or how it’s decided that they will be allowed to do that, will most certainly have an ecological and economic impact on our region.
The Case of Cabazon Ridge
There are some people in the San Gorgonio Pass who are very unhappy. “Wind developers say wind farms make less of a footprint than a residential development. Well, do you consider the sky part of your footprint? If this [is] approved, you’re gonna have chain link fence everywhere; up there, you’re gonna have security lighting; you’re gonna have lighting on top of the windmills, trucks that go up and down those hills day and night.”
Les Starks lives in the small community of Snow Creek, nestled into the foothills of Mt. San Jacinto. He’s been fighting the development of a wind mill farm on Cabazon Ridge, which has been proposed on privately owned property adjacent to Snow Creek. The new turbines would tower over his and his neighbor Alexandra Weit’s property along the Cabazon Ridge on the north face of Mt. San Jacinto. Starks says the turbines would be “360 feet high…the blades are 295 feet, which will make it wider than the I-10 freeway.” He points out that the turbines would run “along the north face of Mt. San Jacinto and along the top of the Pacific Crest Trail…and the ones they have designed for the desert floor are much taller than the ones they have designed for the ridgeline; they’re 438 feet high …higher than the length of a football field. It’s really tall.”
On the same side of this issue is Jeff Morgan, Chair of the Tahquitz Group of the Sierra Club. While the Sierra Club supports the use of wind as a renewable energy source, he is opposed to this particular project. He’s shared his comments to the Riverside County Planning Department about the proposal for Cabazon Ridge for this article. This is a small portion:
“The proposed development is dependent on a right of way being granted across BLM lands that have protected status within a National Monument [the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument]….The whole of the project is within a major wildlife connectivity corridor from the San Jacinto Mountains to the San Bernardino Mountains that has been recognized as critical to the survival and diversity of wildlife. This could have severe negative effects on many species, some of which are endangered or threatened…. The National Monument was enacted in part for ‘the magnificent vistas.’ The project, if built, would certainly have irreversible impacts on this, particularly as the view of Mount San Jacinto is considered the entry portal to the National Monument.”
Brad Adams, the developer of the Cabazon Ridge project provided the following update via email: “The project is continuing to move forward as we complete our Environmental Impact Report….We are performing all of the environmental studies as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Any areas of impact will provide options of mitigation to lessen the impact (if any) to the area. We feel the project as a whole has a beneficial impact to the area due to the enormous amount of environmental benefits and economic activity that will be the result of producing clean renewable energy. Our project will increase the amount of energy generated by the entire San Gorgonio Pass wind resource area by nearly 24%, and all of this from just 50 wind turbines.”
Adams explains that newer technology used in this project will be more efficient than the industry’s older models. “This is a significant project because it uses the latest in wind technology with one of the most efficient designs of Class One turbines available on the market. Each turbine produces the same amount of energy annually as 60 of the smaller 1980s windmills…. We would preserve as open space close to 3 square miles of land in the Coachella Valley for the next 20-30 years. The turbines will only use approximately 2% of the land. The other 98% is available for habitat for the multiple plant and animal species in the Coachella Valley that have coexisted with wind energy for over a quarter of a century. The average annual wind speed at our site is 24.7 MPH, so if it is zero miles per hour today, it is 50 MPH tomorrow! Our project is in the middle of a wind tunnel.”
In spite of this, Les Starks has worked with his neighbor Alexandra Weit and the Snow Creek community to stop the development before Brad Adams was involved. “The first time we fought the battle was with the same landowner, only he was being represented by Enron…this is all on the web.…We sued because in order to accommodate Enron, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors had illegally changed the zoning of Snow Creek from rural/residential to wind energy, and they did that without having a public hearing or notifying anyone who owned property here. We sued them and, well, basically we won, but we didn’t really win. We got the Board of Supervisors to acknowledge that Snow Creek was part of the National Monument, and so they passed an ordinance to make Snow Creek a windmill–free zone. When they did that, in 2001, the windmill developers, with the attorneys that Enron had paid for, sued the Board of Supervisors and won the right to come back before the Board with a new proposal, and they set aside the amendment for Snow Creek, so it’s no longer valid.” Starks did not know why the amendment was able to be set aside.
The Numbers
The Renewable and Alternative Power Department of Southern California Edison states that “each wind project, consisting of many wind turbines, has a meter that records a total of energy (kilowatt-hours) every 15 minutes. These readings are totaled to create the monthly quantities.” But Les Starks warns, “I think it’s real hard to get any kind of real statistics on windmills because of their nature. They only work when the wind blows…and when you talk to Southern California Edison, they’re also on the receiving end of all these tax credits.”
Susan Williams Sloane, a Communications Specialist for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), reacted to that assertion by pointing out that all energy industries receive some tax incentives, not just the wind industry, and that statistics about wind are easily available online. It’s not surprising that there are differences in the facts depending on who you ask, but for an observer trying to decipher the facts, it’s just not that easy.
For example, when trying to understand how wind energy is measured, simple terms like “capacity factor” require a bit of a vocabulary lesson. Sloane directed me to the AWEA web site. Here is the (long) definition: “Capacity factor is one element in measuring the productivity of a wind turbine or any other power production facility. It compares the plant’s actual production over a given period of time with the amount of power the plant would have produced if it had run at full capacity for the same amount of time…” leaving an Average Joe to ask (in an imaginary interview with the real AWEA web site):
AJ: Why do we need to factor in what “would have been produced if it had run at full capacity”? I just want to know how much electricity’s produced.
AWEA site: “It is important to note that while capacity factor is almost entirely a matter of reliability for a fueled power plant, it is not for a wind plant—for a wind plant, it is a matter of economical turbine design—“
AJ: Matter of reliability or economical turbine design… I just want to know how long I could power, like, a light bulb. Something simple—
AWEA site: “Electricity production and consumption are most commonly measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt-hour means one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of electricity produced or consumed for one hour. One 50-watt light bulb left on for 20 hours consumes one kilowatt-hour of electricity (50 watts x 20 hours = 1,000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour).”
AJ: OK, 50-watt light bulb for 20 hours takes 1 kilowatt. Finally, I got something. But what about the windmill? How many, say, light bulbs can it power? For how long?
AWEA site: The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine’s size and the wind’s speed through the rotor. Wind turbines being manufactured now have power ratings ranging from 250 watts to 5 megawatts (MW). Example: A 10-kW wind turbine can generate about 10,000 kWh annually at a site with wind speeds averaging 12 miles per hour, or about enough to power a typical household. A 5-MW turbine can produce more than 15 million kWh in a year—enough to power more than 1,400 households. The average U.S. household consumes about 10,000 kWh of electricity each year.
AJ: Umm, I was almost getting that, but I already forgot the difference between a kilowatt and a megawatt. What about the capacity factor? We totally dropped that.
Accommodating, the AWEA site continues on capacity factor: “—with a very large rotor and a very small generator, a wind turbine would run at full capacity whenever the wind blew and would have a 60-80% capacity factor—but it would produce very little electricity.”
AJ: Very little…?
AWEA site: “The most electricity per dollar of investment is gained by using a larger generator and accepting the fact that the capacity factor will be lower as a result.”
AJ: Lower capacity factor. I still don’t know what it is, but that doesn’t sound good.
AWEA site: “A wind plant is ‘fueled’ by the wind, which blows steadily at times and not at all at other times. Although modern utility-scale wind turbines typically operate 65% to 90% of the time, they often run at less than full capacity. Therefore, a capacity factor of 25% to 40% is common, although they may achieve higher capacity factors during windy weeks or months.”
AJ: I think I got it. The wind doesn’t blow all the time….?
(Hey, AWEA, dumb it down for AJ! Thanks!)
Les Starks maintains that “that’s the biggest controversy about wind energy.… They say they make a certain amount of power…but they only make power when the wind blows. My neighbor (Alexandra Weit) has got production records from Edison which says they make 7 tenths of 1 percent of all the power that they use in their entire service area in the San Gorgonio Pass. That’s microscopic.”
According to The Renewable and Alternative Power Department of Southern California Edison, .9% (nine tenths of 1%) of Southern California’s energy is produced by the San Gorgonio wind farms. So Les and Alexandra and Southern California Edison are at a .2% discrepancy on this particular number.
Analyzing the situation turns into a bit of a “he said, she said,” but at any number, can Average Joe evaluate if that is even a lot or a little, or what that amount saves in terms of fossil fuel use and its subsequent pollution and then weigh that against the cost of developing and maintaining wind farms? Don’t worry, AJ, that’s just a rhetorical question.
The Unpredictability Factor
Alexandra Weit believes adamantly that “wind power is a duplication of power that the utilities already have to have ready to go online when the surge stops at any given moment. My question always has been—when the wind stops, then what? You will need the same amount of power that demand requires from stable, reliable sources.”
An example of what can happen when the wind stops was reported in an article from Reuters on February 27, 2008, about a power grid emergency. The article starts by explaining that “Texas produces the most wind power of any state and the number of wind farms is expected to increase dramatically as new transmission lines are built to transfer power from the western half of the state to more populated areas in the north.”
The article goes on to describe the incident in which a loss of wind caused a power grid emergency. “Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.” The article explains how operators had to switch to a second-degree emergency procedure and large industrial users’ power was temporarily cut.
Susan Williams Sloan explains that, while this was clearly an unwanted occurrence, wind power involves a lot of new technology, which is constantly evolving. Even Average Joe can understand that. The AWEA released a statement regarding the incident in Texas; this is a portion of it:
“The key to reliability is to have a balanced portfolio of generation sources and a well-equipped system operator that can predict system balancing needs and dispatch generation as needed.” Sloan also stated that as the industry evolves they will be able to better use weather forecasts to prevent further incidents like the one in Texas. Vanessa McGrady, a media contact for Southern California Edison, also commented on the incident. “The technology is not perfect yet, but intermittent resources are still valuable. It’s a marathon not a race.”
The Birds
Some people go nuts at the mention of this particular downside of wind power because of the assertion that the bird deaths are nothing compared to what global warming will do to all populations. It’s not that simple. Birds are a part of an eco-system and thinning out their populations has consequences. There are already anecdotes of mice infestations in the neighborhoods surrounding the San Gorgonio Pass, seemingly because birds that prey on the mice are increasingly scarce. Besides being a nuisance to people, what effect could so many mice (if there are so many) have on other plants and animals and so on?
The National Audubon Society’s mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity. The Audubon Society acknowledges the benefits of wind as a renewable energy source. In this portion of his Congressional Testimony on the Benefits of Wind Power in May 2007, Mike Daulton, Audubon’s Director of Conservation Policy, explained the following:
“Many new wind power projects will need to be constructed across the country as part of any serious nationwide effort to address global warming…. It is critical that this expansion be managed responsibly, because it is clear that wind facilities are capable of killing a large number of birds and other wildlife. Some early wind projects like Altamont in California are notorious for killing many raptors, including Golden Eagles. The lessons learned from Altamont still loom over the industry: if wind turbines are located in the wrong places, they can be hazardous and they can fragment critical habitat.”
Place & Time
Finally, with approximately 4,000 windmills, why is the San Gorgonio Pass providing a measely less than 1% of power for SCE’s entire service area? SCE says it gets 3% of all its energy from wind, but that includes 2.1% generated by the Tehachapi wind farm. San Gorgonio alone is at .9% (or .7% depending on who you believe).
Asked to name wind powers’ biggest drawback, The Renewable and Alternative Power Department of Southern California Edison replied, “The random timing of the wind…. In California, the wind blows at times that do not match the need for energy very well. The maximum wind generation usually occurs in the middle of the night when our customers’ energy needs are the lowest. The conditions that cause our highest demand for electricity (Santa Ana conditions where it is hot along the coast) generally cause the least wind in the wind generation areas…. California as a whole has only modestly good wind conditions. The strong winds are limited to a few relatively small areas, and the timing of the generation is less beneficial.”
Mike Daulton also stressed the importance of a wind farm’s placement in his testimony: “Each individual wind project has a unique set of circumstances and should be evaluated on its own merits. Our challenge is thus to help design and locate wind power projects that minimize the negative impacts…. All wind power projects should be fully evaluated on a case-by-case basis, prior to development, to ensure that site selection, design, and long-term monitoring and adaptive management plans avoid significant harm.”
To be continued……