April 27, 2008
Kansas

Wind progress at standstill

While there’s a flurry of activity going on around the coal-fired power plant and its companion ethanol plant, there’s virtually nothing happening on the wind farm proposed near Goodland.

And there’s little information being passed between the wind developer and the city of Goodland, which is all but on the hook to purchase power from Renewable Energy Resources.

The wind company has no connection to the Goodland Energy Center, which owns the land where the coal and ethanol plants are being constructed.

Goodland’s city commissioners have entered into a 20-year contract with RER to purchase power from the five wind turbines that are to be built.

But problems have developed since then that puts the arrangement in jeopardy, although virtually no work has been ongoing.

“At this point, I don’t know squat,” Goodland City Manager Wayne Hill recently said of the wind project.

Hill isn’t happy with the provisions of the contract, but he wasn’t in his current position when the contract was signed.

“It’s not that I’m against wind,” he said.

But there are provisions in the contract that could jeopardize Goodland’s power grid, notably power would go in at a lower voltage level than it is now.

That could create problems in handling the load.

There’s also a prohibition against purchasing power from competitors, even though Goodland would need extra power to supply its needs.

By Mike Corn