A much-needed breath of fresh air- The Colorado economy benefits from the riches of the wind

Not a whisper of breeze is blowing across the parched Prowers County landscape. On a recent December afternoon that’s ironically good news at the wind farm.

By Steve Raabe
Denver Post Business Writer

In a region where persistent stiff winds promise a badly needed economic boost, still air is a temporary blessing.

An army of 300 workers and a squadron of cranes are racing the clock to complete the nation’s fifth-largest wind farm by the end of the year, when a federal tax credit on wind generation expires.

When the air is calm, the 262-foot towers go up easier and faster. But come early January, let it blow.

That’s when the Colorado Green wind farm is expected to start a chain reaction that will place wind turbines in motion, pump new tax revenue into depressed Prowers County, and send electricity into the power-hungry Front Range.

"This is a fantastic project," said Brad Semmens, owner of the Country Acres Motel and RV Park in Lamar. "The effect has been pretty dramatic on this community."

While only about a dozen permanent jobs will remain when construction ends, building the wind farm has brought a short-term economic boom and lifted spirits in the community. Government and industry leaders say wind could spark more diversification of the agrarian Prowers County economy.

Here’s how the Colorado Green wind farm works:

On a sprawling, windswept cattle ranch 25 miles south of Lamar, 108 wind turbines are being built under a joint venture of GE Wind Energy, PPM Energy and Shell WindEnergy.

At brisk wind speeds, the turbines will produce up to 162 megawatts of electricity, enough to power the city of Lakewood.

But because wind is intermittent, the project on average will operate at 35 percent capacity, making electricity for about 57,000 households. Xcel Energy will buy the farm’s entire output and through a series of high-voltage transmission lines, ship it to metro Denver. Xcel will pay about $16 million a year for the power.

Turbines begin producing power when the wind blows 9 mph. As wind speed increases, power production rises, up to 1.5 megawatts per turbine maximum if the wind hits at least 27 mph.

If winds top 56 mph, the turbines shut down to prevent damaging gears and electrical components.

The project will nearly quadruple Colorado’s wind generation, making the state the nation’s eighth-largest wind producer.

Unlike Xcel Energy’s Windsource program, in which customers voluntarily can pay a premium price for power from two northern Colorado wind farms, the Colorado Green project will be part of Xcel’s standard power supply.

The Lamar wind farm’s electricity will go into the grid that supplies all Front Range customers, and be sold at the same price as Xcel’s conventional electric power generated from coal- and natural-gas-fired plants.

Xcel initially resisted the idea of placing a major wind farm in its portfolio, arguing to state regulators that wind is unreliable and would require backup generation from gas-fired plants.

But the Colorado Public Utilities Commission ruled in 2001 that wind power was cost-effective compared with coal and natural gas and that Xcel should buy the wind farm’s output.

Xcel still has concerns about wind’s intermittence, but is finding ways to compensate by tweaking the output from other power plants.

"The project now is cost-efficient, and we believe it actually reduces costs for our customers," said David Eves, Xcel’s vice president for resource planning.

When the utility files a new long-term power plan next year with the utilities commission, "it definitely looks like wind could be a significant part of that mix," Eves said.

While the new wind power from Colorado Green is targeted to serve growth in Xcel’s population centers along the Front Range, its biggest economic impact will be felt in Prowers County.

Three years of drought and a depressed farm economy have taken a toll on the 14,000 residents of Prowers, a flat and arid county whose eastern edge abuts Kansas.

Population and jobs have fallen since 2000, retail sales are down and oil and gas production has dropped sharply.

But help is on the way.

Prowers County Assessor Andy Wyatt said the 11,840-acre wind farm by itself will increase assessed valuation in the county by 30 percent. The wind farm’s owners will pay the property taxes on their operation.

"It’ll be such a boon to the economy from a tax standpoint," Wyatt said.

Property tax revenue to Prowers County, which has remained flat at about $2.5 million over the past several years, will jump by an estimated $770,000 a year based on current mill levies when the wind farm begins paying taxes in 2005.

Even before the project’s anticipated start next month, the wind farm has helped induce new activity in a revolving loan fund administered by Southeast Colorado Enterprise Development, a Lamar- based economic development group.

Jan Anderson, the group’s executive director, said business relocation inquiries have begun increasing from small manufacturers and oil-field services firms, which she attributes in part to construction of the wind farm.

Since the project broke ground in July, county seat Lamar has become a mini-boomtown.

Motels have been booked virtually solid thanks to a construction workforce that peaked at 390 last month.

"It’s definitely improved our business," said James Emrie, assistant manager of Lamar’s Days Inn. "It’s really good for us because this normally is a slow time of the year."

Occupancy at the motel normally would run about 20 percent in mid-December. Now it hovers from 50 percent to completely full on some nights.

Grocers, fast-food restaurants and liquor stores have seen similar increases.

"We’ve seen some impact," said Natalie Lang, who with husband Ed operates Ed’s Liquors on Main and Hickory in Lamar. "It hasn’t been huge, but it’s welcome."

The wind has blown especially favorably for one Prowers County ranch family: Most of the turbines are being built on their land.

Bob Emick’s ancestors settled the property in 1916. The cattle business has had ups and downs, but the wind has been a constant.

Emick, 73, his wife Helen, eight children and 24 grandchildren will share in royalty payments based on the amount of power generated.

Wind farm developers won’t disclose royalty payments, but the American Wind Energy Association estimates that across the nation, landowners collect an average of $3,000 a year for each large wind turbine.

"I remember my uncles always saying that this country ought to be good for something other than raising cows or a little feed," said Bob Emick, who will continue cattle ranching on the property.

"They thought it might be gas or oil wells," he said. "Never in their wildest dreams would they have thought that it’s the wind."

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