Enabling the creation of wind energy cooperatives can contribute
to the development of locally financed, operated and owned cluster
wind projects. DeBoer (S4) examined the feasibility of
the cooperative model in counties along the Buffalo Ridge in Minnesota.
While local ownership does not have the same impact in the U.S. as it might in Europe due to the much lower cost of energy
here, DeBoer identifies scenarios in which cluster development
can be attractive. For instance, direct participation of the co-op
members in a wind project may give them confidence to accept a
rate of return that makes a project feasible.
Regardless of the ownership model, wind energy has an impact on
the owners of windy land. The Izaak Walton League developed an
excellent guide for land owners (S11) that not only gives advice
on owning a wind system, but counsels the land owner on how to
avoid potential pitfalls of leasing land to others for wind development.
The economics of locally-owned wind cluster development continues
to be widely debated. While conventional wisdom holds that larger
projects can be built at lower costs than clusters of wind turbines,
smaller projects avoid many of the legal and permitting problems
that seem to plague mega-scale wind farms. Gipe (S5) reports that
in the Netherlands, many farms or agriculture cooperatives already
have in place much of the infrastructure -- roads and distribution
lines in particular -- to support a cluster wind project. This
actually results in a lower installed cost for wind clusters
than larger projects. Gipe contends that the same conditions
may exist in many areas of the Great Plains.
Conover (S3) qualitatively summarizes many of the impacts on the
local economy in her 1996 report to the National Wind Coordinating
Committee, including indirect economic impacts. Economic impacts
will be further analyzed in two additional studies underway.
The Southwest Regional Development Commission has contracted for
an analysis of the impact of wind development in southwestern
Minnesota (S14), due to be released this year. The Izaak Walton
League also anticipates investigating this issue, focusing on
combined utility and community financing (S9).
Clusters of wind projects appear to have an advantage over large,
centrally-located wind power plants because they are dispersed
throughout a utility's power transmission and distribution system.
Some utility and transmission reliability planners contend that
small cluster wind projects may actually relieve strain on a transmission
or distribution line near its capacity. Gosselin (S6) reports
that supporting or refuting this contention is difficult since
transmission capacity and load data is considered proprietary
by utilities. He also reports that assumptions in the capacity
analysis can dramatically impact results, such as using worst
case scenarios -- hottest day of the year and no wind -- to estimate
the maximum capacity of a line. Obviously, a transmission line
will not be driven over capacity by a wind power plant on a still
day. Other technical issues, such as voltage flicker, harmonics
and power quality, will be handled no differently than
in larger wind power plants.
One of the finest analyses of utility-owned cluster windfarms
was conducted by utility consultant Tom Wind (S16). Wind addresses
many of the issues of particular importance (or concern) to municipally-owned
utilities and analyzes the economics of a small wind power project.
He estimates that the net cost of energy from a cluster wind
project for a locally owned and controlled municipal utility,
with their low cost of financing, could be as low as 3.2¢/kWh.
The bottom line, according to Wind, is that while a wind
project is not going to save the utility a lot of money, it is
not going to cost a lot of money either. Also, there is relatively
little risk. He concludes that municipal utilities should build
small cluster projects for one major reason -- customers want them.
Brakken (S2) conducted a survey of consumer-owned utilities (COUs)5
and attitudes about wind energy. In some cases, these
attitudes are greatly influenced by existing contractual
power purchase agreements, such as agreements between distribution
cooperatives and generation and transmission cooperatives. However,
he also discovered that COUs tend to be more sensitive to local
opinions than investor-owned utilities, since COUs are managed
by utility owners.
Other studies have presented the cluster development model to
utilities (S13) and raised issues which may be important during
the utility restructuring debate (S10). For example, cluster projects
can be added in smaller increments than large windfarms, reducing
the impact of each project on the host utility. The dispersed
nature of cluster projects also may benefit the existing transmission
grid, since new transmission lines may be more difficult to build
in a more competitive industry. The Minnesota Department of Public
Service will examine the benefits of cluster wind development
for utilities (S12) under a new grant from the Department of Energy.
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