USA Wind Power Grows To More Than 28,200 Megawatts

New Mexico Has One 100-Megawatt Wind Facility Due For Completion In 2009





















The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently issued its first-quarter report on wind energy installations in the USA.

The AWEA 1st Quarter Market Report April 2009 is a 9-page brief listing new wind power projects completed through the end of March 2009, wind power projects under construction as of April 2009, and a glossary of definitions of terms associated with wind projects.

Easily readable tables show state and project names, project capacity in megawatts (MW), number of wind turbines in each project, turbine rating in megawatts (MW), turbine manufacturer, project developer, and power purchaser.

A summary on the report cover says, "The U.S. wind industry installed over 2,800 MW of new wind capacity in the first quarter of the year, bringing the total installed capacity to over 28,200 MW overall. Some 3,400 MW more are under construction for completion this year (2009) or next year (2010)."


High Lonesome Wind Ranch, New Mexico

The AWEA report lists one project for New Mexico, the High Lonesome Wind Ranch being built on private land about 55 (fifty-five) miles southeast of Albuquerque. The wind power facility is located on Mesa de los Jumanos about 10 (ten) miles south-southeast of Willard, NM and west of NM State Highway 42 in Torrance County.

The High Lonesome Wind Ranch is expected to begin producing power in 2009. The project will contain 40 (forty) three-bladed wind turbines, each rated at 2.5 megawatts (MW), for a total of 100 (one hundred) megawatts (MW). The project was about 60 percent complete as of March, 2009.

The wind facility power is connected to an electrical substation at Willard, NM by a new 14-mile-long overhead transmission line.

The project is being developed by High Lonesome Wind Ranch LLC, a partnership of Foresight Wind, Karbon Zero, and Edison Mission Group. Primary contractors are Wind Energy Constructors, Inc. and the wind turbine manufacturer Clipper Windpower. Construction began in early July 2008 with a peak employment of 300 workers and 50 support staff.

APS Renewable Energy of Phoenix, Arizona has a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 100 megawatts (MW) of power from the High Lonesome Wind Ranch. This power is estimated to serve the electrical demands of up to 30,000 residences.


New Mexico Wind Energy Center, Eastern New Mexico


















Wind Turbines, New Mexico Wind Energy Center (NMWEC).

The NMWEC facility went online October 1, 2003. There are 136 turbines that can produce up to 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power about 94,000 average-sized New Mexico homes. Florida-based NextEra Energy (formerly FPL Energy) owns and manages the facility, and PNM, a New Mexico public utility, purchases all of its output.







Wind Turbines, Road and Vehicle, New Mexico Wind Energy Center (NMWEC). The NMWEC is located 170 miles southeast of Albuquerque and 20 miles northeast of Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

New Solar Photovoltaic Power Facilities Planned For Colorado & New Mexico

New CO & NM Solar PV Plants Have Small Power Output Compared With Solar Thermal Plants

Xcel/SunPower Solar PV Project in Southern Colorado

Xcel Energy of Minneapolis, Minnesota and SunPower Corporation of San Jose, California on April 7, 2009 announced an agreement to build a 17-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant near Alamosa, Colorado. The facility will use Sunpower® Tracker systems that generate up to more than 30 percent more energy per land area than conventional systems.

The new solar PV power is an expansion of the existing 8.24-megawatt (MW) Xcel/SunEdison solar PV power plant located west of Colorado State Highway 17 about one mile north of Mosca, Colorado. See the post of March 26, 2009 below for photographs of the existing Xcel/SunEdison facility's solar PV heliostats and panel arrays.

In the announcement, SunPower CEO Tom Werner says, “Today, high-efficiency solar PV technology is competitively proceed for power plant applications. It’s fast to install, and reliably delivers clean power, particularly during peak demand hours.”




SunPower Trackers are arrays of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels mounted on axles aligned in a north-south orientation. The panels rotate on the axles allowing the panels to track the sun from east to west throughout daylight hours.

Cimarrón I Solar Project in Northern New Mexico

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association of Westminster, Colorado, and First Solar of Tempe, Arizona, on March 24, 2009 announced an agreement to build a 30-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant between Cimarrón and Springer, New Mexico. Click on the box below to bring up and enlarge an artist's depiction of the solar PV facility.


Cimarrón I Solar Project Visualization Still Frame 3. The view is from east to west on the high plains of New Mexico just northwest of Springer, NM and west of U.S Interstate Highway 25. The eastern foothills and peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are on the horizon, and include snow-covered Baldy Mountain in the upper right which is on Philmont Scout Ranch property. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association provides outstanding visualizations, animations, and still photographs of the site.

The Cimarrón I Solar Project will use 500,000 (five hundred thousand) solar PV panels, each 2 (two) by 4 (four) feet, installed on 250 (two hundred fifty) acres of land. Construction is to begin in April 2010, and the first part of the system should be producing power by August 2010. Click on the box below to bring up and enlarge an artist's depiction of the solar PV facility.


Cimarrón I Solar Project Visualization Still Frame 6. The view is from west to east on the high plains of New Mexico east of Cimarrón and northwest of Springer. The hills south of Raton, NM are on the horizon, the tallest of which is Laughlin Peak which is about 20 miles southeast of Raton. Note the transmission facilities in the foreground. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association provides outstanding visualizations, animations, and still photographs of the site.

Solar Photovoltaic & Concentrating Solar Power Production Numbers In Perspective

The announcements for the two solar PV power plants indicate they are among the largest of their type in the world. Although these projects may indeed be large in comparison with other power plants relying exclusively on solar photovoltaic panels, the two NM and CO facilities together will produce only about 47 (forty-seven) megawatts (MW) of power. This amounts to about 13 (thirteen) percent of the power now being generated, for example, by the 354-megawatt (three hundred fifty-four MW) concentrating solar thermal power (CSTP or CSP) facilities at Kramer Junction, Harper Lake and Daggett, California.

The facilities at Daggett, Kramer Junction, and Harper Lake, CA were built from 1984 through 1990 and are known as Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) I through IX. The nine SEGS concentrating solar power plants generate from 14 (fourteen) to 80 (eighty) megawatts (MW) of power. The SEGS solar thermal power plants have operated continuously and have been commercially successful for the past 20 to 25 years.

The Solar Electric Industries Association (SEIA) in its US Solar Industry Year in Review 2008 report notes that no new concentrating solar thermal power (CSTP or CSP) plants came online in the USA in 2008. However, CSTP/CSP projects in the planning or construction stages currently total more than six gigawatts (GW; 6 GW = 6,000 megawatts).

Among these are projects planned for California's Mojave Desert, Arizona and Florida. The Arizona projects include the Abengoa 280-megawatt (MW) solar CSTP/CSP plant near Gila Bend, AZ, and the Albasia 200-MW Solar CSTP/CSP plant near Kingman, AZ.

Xcel Energy also issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on January 9, 2009 for installing 600 (six hundred) megawatts (MW) of solar CSTP/CSP in southern Colorado.

The Xcel/SunPower and Tri-State/First Solar PV power plants and other similar plants of relatively small electrical output produce power appropriate for a portion of local demand. The Tri-State/First Solar PV plant output is estimated to serve about 9,000 residences, for example. Such plants could serve as models for distributed generation (DG) solar PV power with short transmission distances that could be installed almost anywhere in the USA or the world where the sun shines.

Reegle Launches A Map Of The Clean Energy World

The Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) announced on April 27, 2009 that it now provides a global map to assist researchers with information on clean energy topics by country.

The “Reegle Maps” application provides a visual entry point to clean energy news and projects by countries and regions. The map allows searches by sectors under the major headings of:

• Climate Protection
• Cogeneration
• District Heating Systems
• Energy Efficiency
• Renewable Energy
• Rural Electrification,
  
• ...and many subheadings under these major headings.

“Reegle acts as a unique state-of-the-art search engine, targeting specific stakeholders including governments, project developers, businesses, financiers, NGOs, academia, international organizations and civil society.”

“Reegle’s information gateway provides information and data on all the various sub-sectors within sustainable energy at a global level including:

• Jurisdiction and laws
• News and announcements
• Political declarations and discussion papers
• Project activity and financial reports
• Statistical data
• Studies, manuals and reports
• Tenders, grants and bids”

The REEEP was launched at the Johannesburg, South Africa World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002. The REEEP’s goal is to accelerate the global marketplace for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The partner organizations actively facilitate financing mechanisms for sustainable energy projects, and structure policy initiatives for clean energy markets.

The REEEP lists of partners, international organizations, MOU organizations, governments, and international processes offers an impressive overview of global attention to creating a new energy economy.