Pickens seeks to help Nebraska increase wind power

Texas oilman-turned-wind power advocate T. Boone Pickens brought his alternative energy campaign to Lincoln Tuesday. (Editor’s note: Pickens has invested $10 billion in his own wind power project in the Texas panhandle.) Nebraska ranks sixth nationally in wind potential but only 20th in using wind to generate electricity. Gov. Dave Heineman and others involved in the development of wind energy said Nebraska is beginning to overcome some of the hurdles that have kept it out of the top 10.

In fact, the governor said Nebraska could climb into the top 10 within the next decade — an ambitious goal that would require more than a seven-fold increase in the state’s wind-generating capacity. Representatives from the state’s two largest utilities, OPPD and the Nebraska Public Power District, said there are substantial obstacles to wind power — including the fact that the ideal sites for wind farms are in north-central and western areas of Nebraska, far from the state’s population centers.

Also, they said, the need for electricity peaks in summer, when winds are calmest in Nebraska. There also are reliability concerns — NPPD’s 60 megawatt wind farm at Ainsworth, which went online in 2005, has been troubled by cracked blades and turbine problems in recent months. Other obstacles are building enough transmission lines to transfer electricity to customers and adapting the nation’s energy grid to handle the unstable stream of power generated by the wind.

Not everyone likes the big transmission lines, the represenatives noted, and more and more people are beginning to dislike the wind towers. Because Nebraska’s utilities are publicly owned and pay no taxes, federal tax incentives provided to develop wind farms are not available to them. Other federal incentive programs for public utilities are underfunded, those interviewed said. Under the Community Based Energy Act passed by the Nebraska Legislature last spring, private utility firms may develop wind farms with local farmers and farm groups and qualify for tax credits.

In the Hills of Nebraska, Change is on the Horizon

Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, Neb., you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Six renewable energy technicians share in tending this strange garden, including Jered Saar and Devin Painter, neither of whom could be described as chatty.

Wearing sunglasses and hard hats, they drive the undulating hills in a white pickup truck emblazoned with the name of their employer, the Nebraska Public Power District, often stopping to check a turbine’s control panel, or to climb dozens of feet up its spine to the gear box. Years ago, after setting up wind monitors at nine spots around the state, energy officials discovered that Ainsworth and its surrounding areas had wonderful prevailing winds flowing down from Canada and up from Mexico: winds that carried the Goldilocks charm of being neither too hard nor too soft, but just right.

By the fall of 2005, the $81.3 million project was complete. Nebraska Public created a viewing area near the main road, where visitors could consider the larger meaning of these gargantuan, color-changing flowers of steel. They soon became a source of state pride, as did the very wind. In its first two years of operation, the Ainsworth wind project has sent enough energy to a national grid to power about 19,000 homes a year — or about 1% of the state’s needs, which are satisfied mostly by coal-burning and nuclear plants. NPPD hopes that within a decade or so, 10% of its energy will be produced by wind.

Wind farm blows benefits to Ainsworth, Nebraska

Sid Salzman counts himself among the lucky ones. After spending more than a year studying wind patterns, NPPD offered the group a 20-year contract to erect 36 wind turbines across about 11,000 acres, the majority of which Salzman owns. The Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility, which began operation in September 2005, has been a boon for the north-central Nebraska community, Salzman said.

The turbines have sparked tourism interest, providing some business for local hotels and restaurants. On an average year, the facility produces enough to power about 19,000 homes. Turbine towers are also rising on a wind farm under construction near Bloomfield, Neb. Rich Walters, general manager of KBR Rural Public Power District, said the wind facility has also presented a new set of challenges. “The problem is, as a utility person, we want to supply power all the time and our customers demand it,” Walters said.

“With wind, you don’t have that.” In an eight-minute span on a normal July morning, production dipped from 30.4 megawatts to 12 at the Ainsworth site, according to NPPD. The fickle nature of wind coupled with the inability to store its energy for later use limits it as a source of energy, Walters said. “(P)ower providers better have another coal plant sitting around somewhere that they can turn off and on pretty quick.”

NPPD, private developers team up to add more wind energy

The Nebraska Public Power District plans to add more than 400 megawatts of wind power — roughly equal to a mid-sized coal-fired plant — to its energy portfolio over the coming decade. NPPD, the state’s largest electric utility, would not own the turbines but would work with private developers on a number of projects, said Dave Rich, the utility’s renewable energy development manager.

The investment in wind energy could exceed $1 billion, Rich said, and would take place over the next 12 years. NPPD wants to add the wind turbines as part of a long-term goal to generate 10% of its electricity from renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar, biomass and methane.

Oil drilling permits in Nebraska are at 20-year high

With a barrel of oil nearly $140 and natural gas prices doubling in five years, western Nebraska is seeing its biggest spurt in oil and gas well drilling since the early 1980s. The number of drilling permits issued by Nebraska is at its highest level in 20 years. Bill Sydow, director of the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in Sidney, said Nebraska has issued more than 40 new well permits a month for the past two months. “The last time that ever happened, there were over 600 wells drilled, in 1981. We’re not going to get to 600 this year, but we have to go back more than 20 years to see any activity levels like that on a monthly basis,” Sydow said.

Nebraska showed small increases in both oil and gas production last year. It also issued 238 permits for new oil and gas wells, about two-thirds of them for natural gas. So far this year, 108 permits have been issued and an additional 16 requested. The wells are being drilled on land owned by area farmers and ranchers by relatively small independent drilling companies who lease oil and gas rights from the landowners. Nebraska ranks in the mid-20s among the states in both oil and natural gas production.

Nebraska oil production peaked in 1962 at nearly 25 million barrels. It had declined to 2.31 million barrels in 2006. But in 2007, oil production rose slightly — to 2.33 million barrels — the first increase since 1989. The state now produces about 6,000 barrels of oil a day, Carlson said. Bruce Evertson, a Kimball, Neb., “wildcatter” who explores for oil and gas, said there’s a good supply of high-quality sweet crude oil beneath the Panhandle and southwest Nebraska — but dense rock formations make it difficult to recover because there is not enough pressure to force it through the rock. He said it likely would cost millions to drill a high-tech well that would recover only about 20 barrels a day because of the low pressure. Evertson Operating Inc., a 24-year-old company, has been the largest oil producer in Nebraska for the past four or five years.

Evertson said his company pumps 1,500 barrels a day in Nebraska. While Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have more oil than Nebraska, they also have more regulatory requirements, Evertson said. He said an industry-friendly attitude from Nebraska regulators, combined with rising oil prices, have increased interest in Nebraska oil.

TransCanada moving forward with second pipeline with Nebraska ties

Representatives of TransCanada will brief Fillmore County commissioners Tuesday on the possibility of building part of a proposed $7 billion oil pipeline through the Geneva area. The project is meant to connect with a $5.2 billion Keystone pipeline already under construction from the oil sands region of Alberta through eastern Nebraska to delivery points in Illinois and Oklahoma. Company spokesman Jeff Rauh stressed Monday that the second project, originating in the same area in Canada and joining with the first one in Jefferson County, does not have the green light yet from TransCanada management.

However, “we do believe that this is a project that is likely to go forward. And, if it were not, we would not be taking these steps,” Rauh said. The latest proposal to bring more Canadian oil to the U.S. could offer some encouraging news to drivers confronting $4 per gallon gasoline. According to the most optimistic estimates, the Canadian oil sands are believed to contain oil deposits comparable to those in Saudi Arabia, but the resource must be separated from sand deposits and is more difficult to refine.

As another preliminary step in Nebraska, open houses have been scheduled in five Nebraska communities, including York and Fairbury, in early July.

AAA Nebraska: Expect $4 gas within the month

A Journal Star reporter asked Rose White, the eminent public affairs director of AAA Nebraska, to answer some questions regarding fuel supplies and prices. White predicted $4 regular-grade gasoline will be here soon. “Crude closed in the U.S. futures market above $133 a barrel (Wednesday) and processed unleaded closed at $3.40 a gallon,” White said in an e-mail.

“Add to that price state fuel taxes and federal gasoline taxes, plus retail operating costs and profit margins, and we are looking at averages that are expected to be near or above the $4 level for unleaded fuel.” When asked if the $4 gasoline would affect the driving habits of Americans, White said many motorists are already making minimal changes by combining errands and using alternate transportation if available. “Small car sales are up and large vehicle sales are down.

Some companies are allowing employees to work four 10-hour days. Doing so allows employees to save 15-20% of their fuel.” White said we are paying these prices due to an increase in global demand. “It is not the result of hurricanes in the Gulf, or an explosion at a refinery, or an increase in political tensions. If any of these issues occur, it could cause immediate spikes that would send prices soaring another 10-20 cents.”

10 meteorological towers to assess state’s wind potential

Ten tall meteorological towers will be erected throughout northeast Nebraska to gauge which areas have the strongest winds. Nebraska Public Power District requested proposals from several wind assessment companies earlier this year, and awarded National Wind Assessments of Minneapolis, Minn., the contract to install the nearly 200-foot-tall towers.

Nebraska ranks sixth in the country in wind power potential, but ranks 19th in installed capacity, with 73 megawatts of existing projects. NPPD owns the state’s largest wind farm near Ainsworth and has partnered with private companies to buy electricity generated by their wind turbines.

NPPD official: Media release warning of a shortage untrue

A national electric association’s media release warning of skyrocketing bills and rolling blackouts across Nebraska within the next few years prompted a correction from the Nebraska Public Power District. The release was issued by Ogilvy Public Relations on behalf of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and warned of a capacity shortage in Nebraska by 2011.

“At the current rate of consumption, citizens of Nebraska can see their electricity bills skyrocket and experience regular rolling blackouts by 2011,” the alert stated. It added although NPPD added wind development to its energy portfolio, “increasing wind generation and increasing efficiency will not be enough to meet Nebraska’s growing power needs.

Starting in 2009, planned power generation for the upper Midwest will fall below recommended targets for ensuring reliable power.” Ron Asche, CEO and president of NPPD, said although this information may be true for some parts of the country, it is not representative of Nebraska. Beth Boesch, corporate communications and public relations manager for NPPD, said it has a diverse mix of generation resources to meet customers’ needs, including coal, nuclear, natural gas, diesel, hydro and wind, and growth and development is scheduled to meet the growing needs of its customers.

During a recent NPPD meeting, Asche also discussed the potential for further utilization of nuclear energy in the future, but a “nuclear renaissance” could be on the horizon

TransCanada Plans Another Pipeline; Would Run Through Western Neb.

At its annual meeting in Calgary, Alberta, TransCanada Corp. officials said they are planning another crude oil pipeline that would bring need oil supplies from Alberta to the Gulf Coast — and a possible route would go through western Nebraska. Hal Kvisle, president and CEO of TransCanada, said Keystone Phase II, a 36-inch pipe, would go from Alberta to Nebraska and then turn south to Port Arthur, Texas.

“This would not just be a modest expansion of Keystone,” he said. “It would, in fact, be a larger project than the original Keystone that we’re building over the next two summers.”

As for the original Keystone pipeline, South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission has approved a construction permit for the portion of the $5.2 billion pipeline that will run through the eastern part of that state, as well as Nebraska.