Wind Power News: Oklahoma
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.
Storm chasers capture video of tornado striking Oklahoma wind farm
Southwestern Oklahoma was the site of an unusual November outbreak of tornadoes yesterday where as many as six twisters raked the countryside. Storm chasers tracked many of the tornadoes including one group of chasers that captured amazing video of a twister striking the Blue Canyon Wind Farm. Thunderstorms began brewing in northern Texas near the panhandle late Monday morning. By the early afternoon the storms had migrated to the northeast and into Oklahoma where they began their rampage. Dozens of . . .
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 . . .
Second company plans power lines near Alva
There may be an opportunity for wind energy transmission lines to go through Woods County after last week’s Corporation Commission (OCC) approval of the Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission project. Routes for OG&E’s transmission line, unrelated to the Plains & Eastern Clean Line, were announced last month running from wind farms southwest of Mooreland to near Avard then due north curving around Alva and joining a Kansas system near Hardtner. The route for Clean Line’s project has not been . . .
Osage Nation sues to block wind farm
The Osage Nation has filed a lawsuit to block a proposed wind farm on land west of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, near the town of Burbank. In August, the Osage County Board of Adjustment voted unanimously to allow the project, which comprises 94 wind turbines, each about 400 feet in height, but now the tribe is saying that their construction would interfere with its plans to extract and sell oil and natural gas that has been discovered beneath the same land, to . . .
Delay could spell death of wind project
The Osage Nation intends to invoke an endangered carrion-eating beetle as well as the tribal mineral estate to halt Wind Capital Group’s planned wind farm on the tallgrass prairie, a move that had the energy company’s lawyer aghast in U.S. District Court last Wednesday. Wind Capital’s entire project hinges on starting construction by its “drop-dead” date of Dec. 15, and it wanted to start building its 94-turbine wind farm on 8,300 acres near Burbank on Nov. 19. Any delay beyond . . .
Clean Line wins public utility status in Oklahoma
An 800-mile power line project expected to spur $14 billion in clean energy development in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas is one step closer to reality. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission on Friday granted public utility status to Clean Line Energy, which plans to build a $3.5 billion transmission line across the state to carry wind power to Tennessee. Commissioners said the investor-financed project will be a boon to the state. “Oklahoma’s abundant wind resources provide the possibility of additional income from . . .
Tribe sues to stop Wind Capital
The tribe has not been the only detractor of the proposed wind farm, on which construction is supposed to begin soon. A group of ranchers has also formed a coalition to stop the development, claiming it will cause property values to diminish, cause the spread of noxious weeds by hindering aerial spraying, damage the ecology of the tallgrass prairie, and other harm.
The suit by the tribe is the first legal action taken to stop the wind factory, as the ranchers have called the development. A delay caused by the court action could prove devastating: Construction is expected to take about 10 months and the wind facility has to be operating by the end of 2012 to take advantage of lucrative federal wind tax credits that are set to expire but could be extended by Congress.
Osage Nation files injunction against Wind Capital Group
On Tuesday, the Osage Minerals Council filed a complaint against Wind Capital Group, Osage Wind and WC Wind Capital Investment Group in an effort to halt construction of the Osage County Wind Project. The Osage Nation is filing their case based on concerns over the “massive industrial network of wind turbines, high voltage underground electric transmission lines, met towers, a substation, roads, and storage yards” that will be constructed “over and upon the Osage Nation Mineral estate.” Construction of the . . .
Clean Line signs agreement with Tennessee Valley Authority
Clean Line Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tennessee Valley Authority on the benefits of a proposal to build a direct current transmission line to move wind power from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Memphis, Tenn., the Houston-based company announced Tuesday. The Plains & Eastern Clean Line project is a proposed $3.5 billion transmission line across Oklahoma and Arkansas to provide wind power to southeastern states. Clean Line is awaiting an Oklahoma Corporation Commission decision on its application . . .
Hearing set in Osage Nation’s wind farm lawsuit
With construction on a massive wind farm scheduled to begin in Osage County in less than a month, a federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday in the lawsuit the Osage Nation filed in an effort to stop the construction. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell set the Tulsa hearing after a joint motion was filed disclosing that construction of the wind farm is slated to begin Nov. 19. “It is in the interest of both parties to confer with . . .
