As Colorado moves toward the renewable-energy requirements mandated by voters in 2004, bottlenecks are developing. Fortunately, the teething problems seem eminently solvable, given enough money and political will.
The hitches evident in the fast-growing wind-power sector are no reason to backslide on Amendment 37, which requires large utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable-energy sources by 2015. Few reputable scientists now dispute that there is a global warming trend and that human activities contribute to that warming. An operating wind generator produces no carbon dioxide emissions and protects consumers against soaring fossil fuel costs. No corporation or cartel has yet figured a way to quadruple the price of wind.
Wind energy’s allure is so great that, for a while, manufacturers couldn’t build turbines fast enough to keep up with the demand. That shortage is easing as foreign and domestic producers step up production.
As wind power goes from a curiosity to commercial reality, the next bottleneck is transmission capacity. As The Post’s Steve Raabe reported July 19, producers in Colorado and other Western states are finding it hard to get their power to market. The Western Governors Association, representing 18 states, has urged installing at least 30,000 megawatts of clean-energy generation by 2015 and also ensuring adequate electricity transmission for the next 25 years.
The transmission problem is simple. Nature put the best wind sites in locations that tend to be removed from big cities. Thus, transmission lines have to be built, at prices of $300,000 to $1 million a mile, to bring the power to urban customers.
New fossil-fuel plants also need transmission lines, but they can often cut costs by expanding on existing rights of way. Xcel is more than doubling the Comanche power plant in Pueblo by adding 750 megawatts to its existing 650 megawatts. Xcel is also expanding its existing transmission lines paralleling Interstate 25 that have existed since the 1950s – upgrading two existing 230,000-volt lines to 345,000 volts each.
In contrast, proposed new lines from the Eastern Plains may encounter regulatory delays. Additionally, because wind-power plants usually have far more downtime than fossil-fuel plants, the cost of the transmission lines serving them must be pro-rated over fewer kilowatt-hours.
That doesn’t mean the trend to greener power should stop. It does mean regulatory agencies should be willing to allow the costs of transmission lines to be passed on in overall electricity rates. Also, where necessary, regulators should slice through red tape to get the new green energy to market.
