Renewable Idaho

Idaho has the cheapest electricity in the nation.  A key reason for this is that nearly three-quarters of its generating capacity is hydroelectric.  And when it comes to what's actually generated, in 2006 (latest available) 84 percent of Idaho's power was hydro and another 5.3 percent came from other renewables--wood and wind.  In other words, Idaho leads the nation in the percentage of its power that comes from renewable sources.  But, the reporter in the following article either didn't know that or didn't care. 

At a time when Idaho trails others in harnessing wind resources, the Office of Energy Resources has disbanded the state's wind-power think tank and reassigned a staff member who had focused on wind projects to work on energy efficiency instead.

The staffer, Gerald Fleischman, told the Idaho Wind Power Working Group he "will no longer be able to respond to requests about wind issues and wind projects," according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Fleischman said the working group was "concluded," with some of its tasks to be assumed by the Idaho Strategic Energy Alliance, a panel created by Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to plan for the state's energy needs.

Energy office director Paul Kjellander said he made the changes to better coordinate renewable energy development, including biogas from dairies, solar and geothermal, under Otter's new alliance.

Still, wind industry proponents contend Kjellander's shift will hamstring efforts to develop wind power in Idaho, which ranks 13th among states in the amount of wind power it potentially could generate.

Idaho ranks 18th in installed wind energy capacity.  Buried over a dozen paragraphs down in the AP article were a couple of reasons why Idaho's wind energy initiatives have been stalled in recent years.

Washington state and Oregon have renewable energy portfolio standards that require large utilities to increase their renewable energy sources.

Consequently, Washington now has 1,367 megawatts of wind capacity; Oregon has 964 megawatts, with 353 under construction. Idaho, with no renewable portfolio standard, had just 75 megawatts of capacity in November, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a Washington, D.C.-based industry group.

Idaho wind development was also slowed by a three-year regulatory fight between small wind power developers and utilities including Idaho Power that was resolved only last February. In addition, projects are now delayed because turbine costs have risen, making them less viable at current electricity prices. 

Let's see...Washington's renewable portfolio standard mandates that its larger utilities get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources--excluding large hydro--by 2020.  Oregon's standard, which also excludes large hydro, is for its larger utilities to get 25 percent their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. 

Meanwhile if one excludes hydro, Idaho still got 32.5 percent of the rest of its electricity in 2006 from renewable sources. 

John Steiner, an Oreana, Idaho-based wind-energy developer, is nearing completion of two 21-megawatt wind farms near Mountain Home, Idaho. But he's looking elsewhere to build future projects, like his 38-turbine, 64-megawatt wind farm in Oregon's Umatilla County.

Kjellander's move to end Idaho's working group won't make this state more attractive, Steiner said.

But the lack of the working group won't make Idaho less attractive either.  Meanwhile, no mention that both Oregon and Washington offer more robust wind energy subsidies than Idaho. 

I sure wish that Oregon had a specific budgetary line item for the cost of the energy subsidies that we taxpayers are footing.