Wind Power News: Arkansas
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Electric co-op enters wind power pact
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. announced an agreement with a Kansas firm Thursday to purchase wind energy for its Arkansas customers. AECC declined to disclose financial terms of the 20-year agreement but said the 66,000-acre Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm has begun full commercial operation, providing the Arkansas utility with 51 megawatts of potential wind energy. The electric co-op has 500,000 customers in Arkansas. Flat Ridge 2 is located across a four-county area in Kansas. The wind capacity . . .
Houston-based firm sets open house sessions in Mid-South to discuss $2 billion wind energy project
The Houston-based firm planning a $2 billion project to transmit wind energy into the Memphis area and the Southeast will host a series of open-house sessions early next month to explain the proposal to the public. Clean Line Energy has scheduled meetings for Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 in Osceola, Ark., and Munford and Atoka in Tipton County. All three towns lie along the prospective path of transmission lines that would carry wind power from the Oklahoma panhandle and adjacent . . .
Downfall of LM Wind Power is Beebe’s own Solyndra
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recently reported that LM Wind Power is laying off more than 230 workers. In the Obama economy, this isn’t startling news. Perhaps it wouldn’t even be news, except for the fact that LM Wind Power is a pet project of the Beebe administration — and, consequently, of the taxpayers. This may explain why Gov. Mike Beebe is so passionate about defending LM Wind Power’s goodies. In June, Beebe advocated for the renewal of federal . . .
Controversial eagle-take permits proposal
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering lengthening federal permits for the unintentional killing of eagles from 5 years to 30 years. The proposed action is in response to opening public land for wind farms and other types of renewable energy development. Rotating wind turbine blades inevitably kill birds, including eagles. Some bats also meet their demise as air pressure changes caused by spinning turbines result in lung hemorrhage. Some scientists and conservationists speculate that wind farms are established . . .
Plains and Eastern Clean Line seeks federal approval to sell capacity on proposed transmission line from Oklahoma Panhandle to Tennessee
A company that hopes to connect wind farms in the Oklahoma Panhandle with utility customers in Tennessee filed an application Friday with the federal government to establish rates for the project. Clean Line Energy Partners plans a $2 billion high-voltage, direct-current transmission line across Oklahoma, through Arkansas and into Memphis, Tenn. Its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asks for permission to negotiate rates and sell service for the 600-kilovolt transmission line, called the Plains and Eastern Clean Line. . . .
PSC hears arguments over net metering insurance clause
Sullivan told the PSC that the town’s wind turbine, acquired and installed with a $430,000 federal stimulus grant, is projected to save his city about $10,000 a year in utility costs.
Mitsubishi Heavy to suspend U.S. wind factory on sluggish demand
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011), a Japanese maker of heavy machinery, will suspend construction of its wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas because of sluggish demand in the U.S. The decision came after the company’s board of directors approved an inventory writedown and related measures regarding its onshore wind-turbine business on March 29, Hideo Ikuno, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy, said by phone today. “We are putting the factory on hold for now,” he said. The company may . . .
SWEPCO settles legal issue with wind power contracts
SWEPCO announced Wednesday that it will purchase additional wind power to supplement its energy portfolio and meet a renewable energy commitment, settling a legal issue surrounding the coal-fired John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant. On Dec. 22, SWEPCO announced it had settled a lawsuit brought against the company by the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society and Audubon Arkansas related to Turk Plant construction in southwest Arkansas. Those groups objected to the Turk Plant — a modern, coal-fired power plant . . .
TVA may pipe in wind power
TVA is considering a power-line “superhighway” that would zip wind-generated electricity from Oklahoma to Tennessee — providing clean energy equal to about three nuclear reactors. The Tennessee Valley Authority signed a nonbinding understanding last month to continue exploring the possibility of the 800-mile project that would funnel masses of electricity into the TVA transmission system. TVA could buy the power or send it on to other regions for a fee. East Tennessee has a few turbines, but winds in western . . .
Transmission line: State agency to weigh plan
A Houston company proposing to build a 550-mile-long, high-voltage electric transmission line starting in Ford County and stretching to Missouri – and likely passing through Reno County – now has its case before the Kansas Corporation Commission. The KCC already has received testimony on Clean Line’s request to be declared a Kansas public utility in order to build its “direct current” line, which the company is calling Grain Belt Express. The commission expects to issue a decision by Dec. 22, . . .
