Everybody’s gabbing about the potential of renewable energy these days, but all that talk often seems to be in the future tense.
So, it’s worth noting when a concrete step is taken toward a more diversified energy supply, such as the new wind farm near Sterling. It will be built, start to finish, in just a year’s time.
It makes one wonder why Colorado didn’t make a bigger push to develop wind energy sooner.
The 400-megawatt Peetz Table project will power 120,000 homes through Xcel Energy, which will buy the entire electric output. Xcel also is purchasing energy from three other wind farms, enabling it to meet the state’s new renewable energy standards several years early. Those standards require power companies to generate 20 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2020.
Colorado is the 11th windiest state in the nation, by some measures, and wind is a commodity without a price tag, unlike coal, oil, uranium and other fuels. The wind farm also will provide a boost to the local economy, because the people on whose land the 267 windmills are located will be paid a fee and can still use their land for farming. And the farm will provide more than 300 jobs during the construction phase and 20 jobs once the project is completed.
Gov. Bill Ritter and the legislature deserve credit for helping move Colorado into the renewable energy age in a serious way. During his campaign for governor, Ritter vowed to create a new energy economy. He got a good start during this past legislative session. Lawmakers passed at least eight bills that will enhance renewable energy development in addition to another dozen efficiency and conservation laws.
The Peetz Table project is just one good sign. Vestas, the world’s leading maker of wind turbines, announced in March that it will build a turbine factory in Windsor that could employ more than 400 people. As the industry ramps up, there will be other trickle-down benefits, such as employment in businesses that serve the industry and increased sales tax revenues.
Renewable energy sources have great potential to protect the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But Coloradans should remember that one wind farm doesn’t change everything, and that future energy needs will have to be met with a combination of renewables, conservation and traditional energy sources.
