Luke Judge

Posted: 3:30 pm Mon, January 17, 2011 By Bob Geiger

Mortenson Construction has declared the wind energy industry “challenging and uncertain” after developing 100 wind farms in the United States and Canada.

The assessment by Mortenson, based in Golden Valley, is in its new 20-page report titled “Facing the Wind” (available at mortenson.com), which cites difficulty negotiating power purchase agreements, a lack of a federal renewable energy standard and undeveloped transmission lines as key issues. thirty wind energy project owners or developers gave feedback for the report.

Minnesota is ranked No. 7 nationwide in wind energy capacity, with 1,818 megawatts of construction – or the equivalent of 1,212 General Electric 1.5-megawatt turbines.

As of Sept. 30, Minnesota listed 677 megawatts of wind farms under construction – far better than the zero listed by No. 2 wind energy state Iowa.

And there is plenty of real estate left to develop in the windy segments of Minnesota, which form an “L” spanning the state’s borders with Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Minnesota’s under-construction figure is far higher than in early 2010, when protesters delayed construction of Goodhue Wind, a 78-megawatt wind farm near Red Wing.

That development appears headed for a lengthy contested hearing process in 2011.

In the meantime, “I think challenging and uncertain are good words,” Peter Mastic, president and chief executive of Minneapolis-based National Wind, said of Mortenson’s characterization. National Wind is behind the Goodhue project.

The report describes problems including financing, assessing the long-term competitiveness of wind energy, finding locations and dealing with complaints from neighbors as inhibiting development of wind farms.

“I’m less worried about the long-term competitiveness of wind,” Mastic said. “the thing that many people forget is that once you commit to a wind project there is very little cost. if you look at the full life-cycle cost of wind farm versus the full life-cycle cost of a natural gas plant, wind is very competitive.”

The low price of natural gas, which led several Minnesota utilities to refurbish old coal-fired power plants to cleaner-burning natural gas, was cited by 70 percent of respondents as diminishing the growth of renewable energy. An additional 9 percent said natural gas will have a “significant impact” on the development of renewable energy.

One key inhibitor to building new projects mentioned in the Mortenson survey – the lack of a federal renewable energy standard, or RES – could give evidence to developers and banks financing renewable energy projects that the industry is viable.

In 2007, Minnesota lawmakers passed RES legislation that required electric utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2025. Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, must generate 30 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020 under that law.

A Jan. 7 compliance report issued by the Minnesota Office of Energy Security said Xcel Energy has sufficient renewable generation or renewable energy credits to meet the 2010 requirement of 15 percent renewable energy.

Other state utilities will not need to file until the end of 2012, when they are required to generate 12 percent of their power from renewable energy sources.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the amount of wind energy installed nationwide plunged 71 percent in the first nine months of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009.

Even so, conditions seem to be improving.

One key factor was the $18 billion, one-year extension of tax credits for renewable energy projects passed Dec. 17 by Congress. That vote gave industry executives until the end of 2011 to finish projects and receive a 30 percent investment tax credit.

“It’s been a very challenged industry, but there are some indications that things might get a little bit better,” said Jeff Wright, the former president of Minneapolis-based Midwest Wind Energy Finance.

Wright, principal and founder of GreenWright Partners, a Minneapolis renewable energy consultancy, expects that financing and development of energy projects should be by-products of increased demand for electricity since the recession.

Cameron Snyder, a spokesman for Mortenson Construction, said his company maintains a sense of optimism despite a lackluster 2010.

“Our business is growing,” said Snyder, noting that Mortenson plans to open a new office in Toronto on Jan. 19.

Unknowns at this time are the long-term impact of groups objecting to wind farms. Those groups have focused primarily on the effects of low-frequency noise, shadow flicker from spinning turbine blades and electric emissions related in underground wiring.

By the numbers

7

Minnesota’s rank in wind energy capacity

Source: American Wind Energy Association

this entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Energy, Top Story. you can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. you can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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By Sharon Short, Contributing Columnist 8:18 PM Sunday, December 12, 2010

My husband has been singing barbershop music with choruses, groups and quartets since our children were toddlers.

It’s a wonderful avocation that he loves. besides creating wonderful vocal music, he gets to be part of a great community.

And the barbershop singing community always seems to be giving back to the greater community. for example, my husband sings with the Southern Gateway Chorus in Cincinnati. this holiday season, the chorus decided to hold a fundraiser for the nonprofit Cincinnati organization Neediest Kids of All. (Those of you who are Reds fans have probably heard of it.) since 1952, the organization has provided to kids in the Greater Cincinnati area hats, coats, shoes, clothing, eyeglasses and, beyond these necessities, opportunities for field trips, camp experiences and other educational opportunities.

Of course, being a bunch of creative guys, these barbershoppers couldn’t just pass a straw hat to collect donations. Instead, they came up with a competition that played on the all-in-good-fun natural rivalry among the four barbershop singing sections — tenor, lead, baritones and bass, setting up a “penny wars” game.

Each section had its own jar. Coins counted as a positive point, but bills counted as a negative point. So, the idea was to put coins in one’s own section’s jar to drive up its count, and bills in other sections’ jars to drive down its count. The winning section would simply get bragging rights; the chorus would collect a nice donation to give to Neediest Kids of All.

Now, my husband (a baritone) was pretty sure the bass section would win. “Bass singers are known for doing everything in a big way,” he said.

“Shouldn’t the leads, well, take the lead?” I wondered.

That cute little quip just earned me a flat look. (Barbershoppers are fine with jokes about their avocation … from other barbershoppers.)

Tenors are known for working hard (all those top notes), but they are also the smallest section, so my husband didn’t think they had a chance against the much larger bass section.

“what about your section?” I asked.

My husband, who likes to joke that “baritones sing all the leftover notes,” didn’t think his section really had a chance because (a) it’s the second smallest section and (b) it’s used to doing just what it has to (those leftover notes.)

At some point after this friendly game commenced, my baritone-singing baby wondered if I had a few quarters — one of our car’s tires needed air.

“Check the change jar,” I said.

He looked a little sheepish. Turned out that besides helping drive down points for the bass section with bills, he’d decided to drive up the points for his baritone section with coins.

He’d dumped the contents of our family change jar — a good 3 months worth of coins — AND his work change jar — probably a half-year’s worth of coins — into the baritone jar.

What could I do? All that change vanished for a good cause. So I dug into my coin purse and offered up the quarters for tire air.

The next day, my husband was gloating.

The baritone section had won — beating those beastly basses, leading leads, and tenuous tenors — by a whopping … quarter.

Of course, what matters most is not that my husband’s baritone section won the “penny wars” competition, but that the overall chorus found a fun way to undoubtedly drive up donations to Neediest Kids of All.

On the other hand, I really liked my husband’s comment at the end of all this.

“looks like every person’s contribution does matter.”

Something to ponder this holiday season.

Sharon Short’s column runs Monday in Life. Send e-mail to sharonshort@sharonshort.com.

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