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Michael Vickerman
Executive Director, RENEW Wisconsin
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
Renewable energy advocates welcomed yesterday’s decision of Wisconsin’s largest utility to take over development of a large wind power installation in Fond du Lac County.
“We Energies’ commitment to build and operate a wind farm of this magnitude is a powerful demonstration that the economics of wind power are too good to pass up,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a Madison-based state-wide nonprofit promoter of renewable electricity generation.
We Energies, Milwaukee, assumed the ownership, as well as construction and operation responsibilities, of the two 80 megawatt (MW) wind farms from Navitas Energy, Inc., a Minneapolis wind farm developer.
At 160 MW, the Fond du Lac County projects will constitute the second largest utility-owned wind power installation in the United States. Des Moines-based Mid-American Energy owns and operates the largest group of turbines all located in Iowa.
“With this decision, utility shareholders will reap some of the benefits that are usually reserved for customers,” Vickerman added.
“What better way for a utility to capture the multiple benefits of wind power,” Vickerman continued, “than to build and own the project itself. Unlike We Energies’ other generators, which are fueled by coal, natural gas, and uranium, these wind turbines will produce clean power at a stable and predictable price over their entire operating life.”
“We at RENEW are confident that We Energies, being a local company and a stakeholder in Wisconsin’s economic future, will make every effort to involve state-based businesses and manufacturers in the construction and operation of the Fond du Lac County installation,” Vickerman said.
We Energies first contracted with Navitas in the summer of 2003 to purchase the wind farm’s electricity, leaving ownership and development to Navitas. Interruptions in federal tax credits and the dollar’s decline versus the Euro delayed the project, even though the developer obtained all necessary siting permits.
“We commend We Energies for stepping up and placing this on a strong financial platform and firm construction timetable, with a completion date in 2007.”
Vickerman estimated that the project’s capital costs will range between $200 million and $220 million. “A utility wouldn’t invest a sum that large unless it believed in the economic value of the project,” Vickerman added.
Once it’s up and running, the project would allow We Energies to ramp down more expensive generating units fueled by natural gas, according to Vickerman.
“Relative to this project’s costs, which are almost entirely fixed, power produced by coal and natural gas will become increasingly expensive as fuel prices continue to climb.”
“This investment in wind power will anchor We Energies’ plans to derive at least 5% of its electricity from renewables by 2011, and could be applied to a new renewable energy standard recommended by Wisconsin’s Task Force on Energy Efficiency and Renewables last November,” added Vickerman who co-chaired the task force subcommittee on renewables.
After months of study and deliberation, the 25-member Task Force made specific policy recommendations to raise the current renewable electricity production standard on utilities to 10% by 2015, and require state government to source 20% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2010.
We Energies posted its announcement on its Web site.
RENEW Wisconsin
RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives. RENEW is a member of the Wisconsin Renewable Energy Network, a subcontractor to Focus on Energy. Visit RENEW at www.renewwisconsin.org or e-mail Michael Vickerman at: mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org.
