Duke Energy To Build 51-Megawatt Windfarm in Eastern Colorado

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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) subsidiary will build, own, operate, and maintain a 51-megawatt windfarm in eastern Colorado, according to a July 6 media announcement. The Kit Carson Windpower Project, named for the county where it will be built, is located near Burlington, Colorado, about 100 miles east of Denver. Construction of the windfarm will begin next summer, and is scheduled to generate power by yearend 2010.

The electricity from the project will be purchased by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, an electric cooperative that supplies electricity to about one million customers served by 44 distribution co-ops and public power districts that operate in Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Tri-State is based in Westminster, Colorado.

The windfarm will cost "north of $100 million," according to Wouter Van Kempen, President of Duke Energy Generation Services, the Duke unit that will build and operate the facility. During peak construction period, the project will create about 150 construction jobs. Tri-State and Duke signed a 20-year power purchase deal, but terms were not disclosed

The project, which will consist of 34 GE turbines on 6,000 acres of land, was sited so that its electricity could be connected directly to an existing Tri-State 230-kilovolt transmission line. That will help accelerate its in-service date, officials said.

The Kit Carson project is Tri-State's first foray into wind power. Earlier this year it entered into its first contract to develop a 30-megawatt solar generating facility in Cimarron, New Mexico. Construction of that facility is scheduled to start next April 2010 and to become fully operational by late 2010.

When the wind and solar projects are operating, renewables will account for a little over 3% of Tri-State's generating capacity. About 70% of the utility's generation comes from coal.

Look for additional renewable energy projects to be announced by Tri-State and other Colorado utilities. Municipal and cooperative utilities operating in Colorado are required to have renewable electricity account for 10% of generation capacity by 2020, according to the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS). Renewable energy sources already account for 10% of Xcel Energy's generation, so that utility, the state's largest, is required to have renewable account for 20% of generation capacity by 2020.

The Kit Carson project "is an important part of our near-term strategy to diversify our portfolio with renewable resource that complements our fleet of base-load generation," says Ken Anderson, Tri-State's general manager. It's a "small step in the right direction," he notes at Monday's press conference.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who also spoke at the July 6 press conference, adds: "This is another important step forward for Colorado's New Energy Economy and will be a boon for [Colorado's] Eastern Plains, which are blessed with rich and abundant wind resources."

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