Hawaii
Energy Policy Forum > 2002
Articles
Local Non-Profits Launch "Our Wind Co-op" to
Promote Energy Independence for the Northwest
Farmers, Utilities, Consumers and Investors Invited to Participate
Olympia, WA (April 11) - A collaborative of non-profit organizations
and utilities have announced plans to form a new wind power
co-op in the Pacific Northwest with opportunities for rural
landowners, urban consumers, investors, and wind turbine
dealers.
The NW Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC) and
NW Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (NWSEED) are
in final negotiations
with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for
funding to help launch "Our Wind Co-op," which
will coordinate the installation of at least 10 small wind
systems on farms, ranches and rural facilities over the next
18 months. "With Earth Day around the corner, people
across the Northwest are asking what they can do for a cleaner,
healthier Northwest," said Jim Perich-Anderson, Director
of the Earth Day Network's NW Climate Campaign. "By
purchasing efficient, earth-friendly Green Power, either
through this new Our Wind Co-op, the Bonneville Environmental
Foundation, or their own utility, consumers can show their
commitment to energy resources that benefit both the region's
economy and the global climate," he added. The initial
goal of Our Wind Co-op is to demonstrate that distributed,
locally owned wind turbines producing power to meet local
loads are feasible and cost-effective throughout the Northwest.
The wind turbine model that will be installed on most host
sites, the 10-kilowatt Bergey Excel, generates enough electricity
(approximately 1200-1600 kWh per month) to offset a considerable
portion of the electricity load of a farm or ranch. "Ultimately
Our Wind Co-op will help remove barriers to widespread distributed,
locally-owned wind energy development in the Pacific Northwest
through innovative partnerships, technical support, outreach,
and informed dialogue with motivated farmers and consumers," explained
NWSEED executive director Heather Rhoads-Weaver.
To date more
than 50 interested landowners, investors, installers, and
host utilities have responded to the co-op interest survey.
NWSEED encourages anyone interested in participating at any
level to submit a pre-application form, downloadable from
www.nwseed.org, by April 30. "We'd love to see these
initial 100 kilowatts grow to at least a Megawatt of dispersed,
clean generation - with hundreds of farms powered by small
wind turbines throughout the region - by 2005," noted
Rob Harmon, Vice President of the Bonneville Environmental
Foundation (BEF), a major project sponsor.
The farm-scale
wind systems distributed across the Northwest will be linked
in part through the sale of "Green Co-op
Tags" to BEF. Green Tags, representing the pollution
offsets of clean energy generation, are a new way to support
renewable facilities that are independently reviewed and
endorsed by leading environmental groups.
Purchasing Green
Tags through Our Wind "Buyer's Co-op" will
support economic growth in rural economies in the Northwest
as well as an environmentally friendly energy source. These
sales will provide a significant revenue stream for the project,
which is particularly important here in the Northwest where
retail electricity costs are still well below the national
average. Earlier this week, BEF also announced a new partnership
to kick-start customer-owned solar installations with Green
Tags through a co-op. As many as 30 solar systems on homes
and businesses will be included in the first phase of this
new NW Renewable Energy Cooperative project. Our Wind turbines'
energy production will be monitored and reported and a project
web site will allow Co-op members and the general public
to observe how well each turbine is performing. Wind turbine
host sites will be selected through an application process,
which will involve screening sites based on the recently
released high-resolution wind maps of the Pacific Northwest,
guidance from the project advisory committee, and public
visibility. The project will include hands-on trainings on
wind turbine siting, installation and ongoing maintenance,
with the first tower-raising session planned for April 30-May
2 near Wenatchee, WA.
In addition to NWCDC, NWSEED, BEF, and
NREL, Our Wind collaborators include the Next Generation
Energy Coop, Climate Solutions,
Renewable Northwest Project, members of the Last Mile Electric
Cooperative, Bergey Windpower Company, and numerous other
project partners. Most of the project sponsors, including
Northwest SEED, are part of a wave of new organizations fostering
wind and other renewable energy development in the region,
which have formed since Earth Day 2000 when climate change
and renewable energy was the worldwide theme.
In the US, wind
power and other renewables are now gaining more attention
with rising energy costs and national security
concerns. "A diverse supply of energy resources is critical
to stabilize domestic energy prices and protect national
security," advised Rhoads-Weaver. "Due to their
distributed nature, renewable energy resources are less vulnerable
to market forces and terrorist attacks."
The emerging
prominence of clean energy - energy efficiency, wind, solar,
and other renewable energy sources - is welcome
news to energy activists who are preparing upcoming Earth
Day events. Various Earth Day events will have a clean
energy focus - including a Solar, Wind and Renewable Energy
Exposition
in Pasco, Washington, hosted by Franklin County PUD on
April 20; a Renewable Energy Fair at Earth Day Puget Sound
Event
in Seattle on April 21; and the April 28 Earth Day Expo
and Race to Stop Global Warming in Portland, Oregon.
Earth Day Network was founded to carry on the spirit and
actions of the very first Earth Day in 1970. Today, Earth
Day Network includes more than 5,000 organizations in 184
nations and more than 90,000 K-12 educators in the United
States. Our mission is to promote a healthy environment
and a peaceful, just, sustainable world by spreading environmental
awareness through educational materials and publications,
and by organizing events, activities, and annual campaigns.
Our goal is to build broad-based citizen support for sound,
workable, and effective environmental policies.
Pre-application
forms for interested turbine hosts, utilities, installation
contractors, investors and Green Tag Buyer's
Co-op members can be downloaded at: www.nwseed.org/nwswtc.asp
Green Tags to support new renewable energy projects can
be purchased through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation
at: www.greentagsusa.org
New wind power maps showing wind power potential throughout
the Northwest can be found at: www.windpowermaps.org
Press Contacts: Heather Rhoads-Weaver, NWSEED
(206) 328-2441, info@nwseed.org
Jim Perich-Anderson
(206) 876-2013, jim@earthday.net
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