The headlines read, ‘Largest Wind Farm in the US will be built in Oregon’ but
behind the headlines it is all because of the requirement that all public utilities
including those in California need to source 25 percent of their energy from
renewable sources.

The proposed project, Shepard’s Flat is located in north-central Oregon in Marrow
and Gilliam counties located near the Columbia River.  The wind farm will cover 30
square miles and will provide 845 megawatts of power enough power to support
235,000 homes.  The wind farm will cost $2 billion to build.  It will employ over 400
during construction phase and then employ 35 during operation.

Again, as identified in the news articles, while in Oregon, the Shepherds Flat Wind
Farm will supply energy to California's Southern California Edison utility, and like all
utilities in the nation, it must secure 25% of its power from renewable sources by 2025.

The Shepherds Flat Wind Farm is being built by New York-based Caithness Energy.
Construction will begin next year. GE was selected and will be supplying 338 wind
turbines at a cost of $1.4 billion at its Florida manufacturing facility and will also
provide 10 years of operational and maintenance services to the project.

While this maybe a very exciting project, this energy will have to travel nearly 1,000
miles to get to its customers.  And given the previous experience with electrical
transmission deregulation in California, it was determined that there is not enough
space to transmit electricity across the grid specifically those long distances given
capacity.  While California is working to site new transmission lines, the decision on
the location(s) still remains unresolved.

But  even if there were the transmission lines, will this energy ever reach California or
is it simply an effort to fulfill the requirements? 

It appears it is the the requirements.  And unfortunately, while many of us read the main
stream news media articles, it makes us believe that this energy will be coming to us in
California.  But apparently, and unfortunately that is not the case.  Certainly it is a good idea
to utilize renewable energy, especially as indicated by the American Wind Energy Association
specifically that the industry can supply in the near future enough energy for nearly 7 million
homes. But not every project as identified in recent headlines is green for California.

In the meantime, it appears that the only people that will directly benefit from the Shepard
Flat project are Oregonians, New Yorkers and Floridians.



Tim Johnson
tjohnson@CaliforniaBusinessMinute.com