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Wind power blows into Illinois
Catching up with Europe and some other states will take time, but a field of turbines in Mendota will be a step into an environmental trend
By Robert Gutsche Jr
Special to the Tribune
August 26, 2003
This winter, fields near Mendota, Ill.--already dotted with four towering, somewhat eerie wind turbines--will become the state's first operational commercial wind farm.
Minneapolis-based Navitas Energy Corp. and parent Gamesa Energia in Spain plan to spend $56 million to develop and build the wind farm about 100 miles west of Chicago.
There, 63 turbines will turn on 2,600 acres and generate 50 megawatts of power. When up and running, it is expected to supply power for more than 12,500 homes.
Illinois has a few projects like this in development, but the state is actually a latecomer to the nationwide surge in the development of this form of alternative energy--a push that has been receiving more attention after the recent East Coast blackout left 50 million in the dark.
At least 30 states are already home to dozens of wind farms, popular both with environmentalists wanting clean energy production and businesses wanting to capitalize on the growing industry--though they are sometimes unpopular with people living near them.
"This is the only sector in the energy industry that is growing at a 20- to 25-percent rate," said Greg Jaunich, president of Navitas Energy. "[Wind farms] are springing up like weeds on the prairie."
By next year, the United States will have the capacity to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity through windpower, enough to power 6 million households, the American Wind Energy Association said recently. The association expects 1,400 to 1,600 megawatts to be added in the next year through projects like the one Navitas Energy is opening near Mendota.
A majority of funding for the Mendota project was private, but Navitas did receive a $2.75 million renewable-energy grant last year from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. The amount has been secured in state budget plans and protected from cuts, according to a release from the state.
Navitas, with approximately 20 employees, has developed wind farms in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota during the last 11 years. Wisconsin-based WE Energies has hired the company to develop two 80-megawatt wind farms near Milwaukee.
The mass blackout in August has drawn attention to struggling power grids and transmission lines--problems industry experts say almost every state has. While wind farms, such as Mendota Hills, will not necessarily be able to stop power failures from happening, it could add another avenue of energy production and may help ease aging power grids, some experts say.
"You can't have a 21st Century economy running on a 1960 power grid, and that's what we have here," Jaunich said. "Wind energy is a dispersed energy resource, and to have more power generation on the lines creates a better grid system, adding more capacity to prevent blackout situations."
In Illinois, additional wind farms have been proposed near Champaign, Princeton and Compton.
While the Mendota wind farm is expected to be the first to come online, a project of Illinois Wind Energy LLC and Tomen Power Corp. is following closely.
The two companies are developing Crescent Ridge, a 34-turbine wind farm in Bureau County, estimated to cost $55 million.
Commonwealth Edison Co. has agreed to buy the electricity from the project. With it, company officials expect to power 20,000 homes in northern Illinois.
Stefan Noe, president of Illinois Wind Energy, said the project is ready to begin construction but is being slowed by legal battles, local opposition to the project and the specter that a federal tax credit for such projects might be allowed to expire at the end of the year.
Some living near the project in Tiskilwa, near Peoria, do not want to see the towering turbines along their horizons, and they also take issue with the legalities of how the project was approved by the local government, he said.
In addition to Crescent, ComEd has agreed to buy and disperse the energy from other proposed projects as well, but remains skeptical about its reliability.
"The real drive behind a lot of alternative energy and renewable energy is the environmental benefit," said ComEd spokesman Tim Lindberg. "While wind farms will be significant in its renewable energy, its capacity is not as predictable as coal or gas or nuclear power."
More wind farms have powered up this year than first expected, according to the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C., of which Navitas' Jaunich is a board member. This year, enough new wind-farm capacity to power roughly 2 million homes came online.
Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the association, said Illinois is on its way to reducing strain on the state's grid, which could ultimately ease tension on regional energy grids.
"This project will put Illinois on the map" for producing wind energy, she said. "Illinois isn't one of the windiest states, but it does have a good resource."
The state is No. 16 on a list of states producing wind energy, now topped by California and Texas.
Less than 1 percent of the nation's power comes from wind, Real de Azua said.
Some European countries, which have been investing in wind power for nearly a decade, produce anywhere from 4 percent to 20 percent of power from wind.
Expansion of wind power in the United States could slow in 2004 if a federal wind power tax credit is allowed to expire at the end of the year. In fact, the Crescent Ridge project likely will not move into construction without the renewal, according to Noe.
"The project won't go forward without the tax credit," Noe said. He said he believes, though, that the credit will be renewed as it has every few years since it was enacted. "It is a substantial part of financing."
The wind energy association is lobbying for broad energy legislation that contains an extension of the credit that provides a tax write-off for companies that produce wind energy, based on the amount of energy produced.
The credit has been in place since 1992 and is due to expire Dec. 31 unless renewed this fall, Real de Azua said.
The organization also wants legislation to require energy utilities to produce 10 percent of their power from renewable resources, such as wind, by 2020.
Right now most utilities produce between 2 and 3 percent, not including hydro-electrical production, she said.
Locally, ComEd buys less than 1 percent of its energy from alternative energy production, according to Lindberg. The alternative energy it does buy comes primarily from landfills, where methane gas produced by the landfill can be used to generate electricity.
He said while alternative energy production such as wind will not be a savior for stressed power grids, ComEd buys energy from the projects to encourage alternative production.
"The reason for these projects is the environmental benefits, and it is a process that takes place without any emissions or byproducts," Lindberg said.
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