| It’s Getting Windy in Kittitas County |
| Tuesday, 11 August 2009 14:20 | |||
 Bellevue, Washington, August 2009 – Slender turbine blades as long as a semi, 80-ton generator nacelles and 221-foot, steel-tube towers are now coming together at Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility to increase the utility’s capacity to produce electricity from the wind.
The 22 new turbines now being installed will add to the 127 turbines that entered service at Wild Horse in December 2006, and will increase the facility’s impact on jobs, added tax revenues and tourism in Central Washington. “The new turbines at Wild Horse build on the success of the project, and on the support we’ve had from the community in Ellensburg and the Kittitas Valley,” said Brian Lenz, community relations manager for Kittitas County. “Wild Horse is a proven producer of clean, renewable energy, and a great example of the benefits that wind power brings to the community.” In 2008, Wild Horse paid more than $1.3 million in taxes to Kittitas County, a figure that is expected to increase following the expansion, and has created jobs for 25 permanent full-time employees for facility operations and maintenance, in addition to more than 150 temporary jobs during both the initial construction and again during the current expansion. The site also includes the Renewable Energy Center, a visitor’s facility that offers a unique, first-hand look at wind and solar technology. More than 30,000 people have toured the center to date, including visitors from across the U.S., Asia, Africa and Europe. The $100 million Wild Horse expansion project was first announced in early 2008 and is expected to enter service by late 2009. The planned expansion will result in 149 turbines and a capacity of 273 megawatts (MW) at Wild Horse, compared to the 127 turbines and 229 MW of capacity now. PSE is recognized as the second-largest utility owner of wind power in the nation by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), having 157 MW of capacity at its Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility, which opened in 2005 in Columbia County, Wash., making for a total capacity of 386 MW when combined with the existing Wild Horse facility’s 229 MW – and rising to 430 MW when the Wild Horse expansion is completed. According to AWEA, 1 MW of wind capacity is equal to the energy needs of 225 to 300 average U.S. homes. Initial construction on the Wild Horse expansion, including work on support roads, turbine foundations and underground cabling, began in April, with turbine installation expected to be completed by mid-August. The expansion is taking place on 960 acres of undeveloped land PSE purchased in 2008 immediately to the north of the existing 9,150-acre Wild Horse site. The permanent footprint of new turbines, roads, and support facilities will be approximately 2-3 percent of the total site area. In building Wild Horse, PSE voluntarily created a conservation easement that was formally accepted by the State of Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in November 2008. The conservation easement secures the preservation of almost 12 square-miles of unique shrub-steppe habitat. Other preservation efforts include voluntarily replanting more than 1,000 cacti in an extensive restoration effort to safeguard the area’s shrub-steppe habitat and planting 6,500 sagebrush plugs in sensitive sage-grouse habitat. The Wild Horse site also includes a 500-kilowatt solar project, one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest. More information on PSE’s wind facilities and the expansion project can be found at www.PSE.com. SOURCE: PSE
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