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Renewable Energy May Ease Region's Crisis by Jim Lynch, Associated Press The Oregonian, February 4, 2001

"Green Power" sources such as wind and garbage could help
diversify and stabilize the region's struggling power base

Portland's future nightscape may be electrified with power created by wind, garbage and cow poop.

Don't laugh. One of the world's biggest wind power projects is about to sprout on hilltops near Walla Walla. The region's largest landfill converts trash into electricity in south-central Washington. And the dairies for a new Tillamook cheese factory in Northeast Oregon plan to turn the methane gas released by 20,000 cows into power that can be dumped back into the grid.

The ongoing energy crunch is hitting the Northwest just as it's trying to expand its power portfolio. And while the region's traditional reliance on hydropower dams and a smattering of coal and natural gas plants will likely continue, "Green Power" may soon play a significant role in diversifying and stabilizing the power supply.

Alternative energy proposals have been swirling for decades, but until recently they've been widely discarded as either too expensive or inefficient to make a difference in a region flush with cheap hydropower.

Not anymore. With river-spun turbines no longer fulfilling the Northwest's energy appetite, pricier options had to be considered. And while wind, solar, methane and other renewable sources still provide less than 5 percent of the region's power, their popularity is growing.

A mob of 300 farmers, ranchers, environmentalists and bureaucrats flooded a two-day "Clean Energy" conference in Spokane last week.

"If this conference had happened last year, we probably would have had 40 people show up, and we all would have known each other," said Tony Usibelli, a Washington state renewable energy specialist.

But even without an energy crisis spurring interest, the falling cost and improving technology of wind power was getting hard to resist in the Northwest, especially along gusty corridors of Eastern Oregon and Washington, and throughout Montana, which may be to wind what Saudi Arabia is to oil.

Wind The Northwest's first big fling with wind came in late 1998 when the Vansycle Ridge project near Pendleton put up enough turbines to generate enough electricity to light about 7,000 homes annually.

That project will soon to be dwarfed by the Stateline Wind Generating Project, located on private farming and grazing lands on both sides of the Washington-Oregon border near Walla Walla. The wind farm is expected to kick out enough energy to power a third of Portland's households. Each of the 450 turbines will generate power at winds from 7 mph to 56 mphand stand 242-feet tall with bladespans broader than the wingspans on Boeing 737s.

FPL Energy, a Florida company, will own and operate the plant while a subsidiary of Portland-based PacifiCorp will buy and market the power. Output will vary with the weather, but is expected to average about a third of its annual 300 megawatt capacity. The project is expected to come on line by the end of this year.

But it, too, may just be the beginning.

Regional power officials estimate there are about 1,600 megawatts -- an average annual sustained output -- of untapped wind power in Oregon and another 1,200 megawatts in Washington. And Montana's wind, theoretically, could create more than 35,000 megawatts. For perspective, the region's hydropower giant, the Grand Coulee Dam, generates about 6,500 megawatts.

Northwest tribes are tempted by wind, too. The Blackfeet Reservation in Northwest Montana, for example, is pursuing a project about the size of Oregon's Vansycle Ridge project.

Helix farmer Glen Brogoitti encourages rural Northwest farmers to explore their wind-power options.

FPL Energy erected 10 turbines on Brogoitti's property near the Washington border. Brogoitti said the turbines don't take up much crop space and deliver a handy side revenue in lease and royalty payments. "It's not an oil well, but it helps out," he said, noting the turbines generate about 5 percent to 7 percent of his income. "We're just tickled to death they want to put more" turbines on our land.

Methane and algae Harlan Keener, a retired Pennsylvania hog farmer, captivated the Spokane energy crowd with his story about how he saved the family farm. Keener finally got out of the red when he figured out how to turn pig manure into electricity.

A similar approach, on an industrial level, is planned for the dairies feeding Tillamook's new cheese manufacturing plant at a port near Boardman in Northeast Oregon. The new dairies will include a "digester project" that is expected to generate enough power to light about 4,000 homes.

At the Roosevelt Regional Landfill, in Washington's Klickitat County, a power plant built into the dump is also harnessing methane, a byproduct of decomposing garbage.

The plant generates 8.4 megawatts, enough juice to power 8,000 homes, and plans to eventually increase that output to about 60 megawatts. Two Oregon dumps, the Short Mountain Landfill in Lane County, and the Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County, also are turning methane into power.

Jeff Keto, of the Oregon Office of Energy, said the most encouraging development from his perspective is the sudden teamwork among politicians, residents and utilities.

He points to Ashland's recent solar power project, which benefited from broad resident support to install solar panels on city, Shakespeare and university buildings. "Not that it's putting out a lot of power," Keto said, "but it's a showcase of how to work together."

Where the renewable energy crusade heads next is unclear.

There's a budding national movement to run diesel trucks on soybean oil. And Bill Isbister of Aloha leads the effort in Oregon.

Isbister sees the usage of oil seed crops as diesel supplements and replacements as a way to clean the air along Interstate 5 and support U.S. farmers. His booth at the Northwest Agriculture Show in Portland last week included a petition drive to persuade Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to use his clout to advocate biodiesel as "a clean and renewable energy source."

Meanwhile, scientists at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., are most excited about pond scum. They're working on mastering the creation of algae rich in hydrogen that they suggest may ultimately be used in power cells that run homes and businesses.