Tehachapi

Turbine Cowboys: Keeping it real 30 stories up

The new Weather Channel show  "Turbine Cowboys" is pretty compelling TV. Turbine technicians 300 feet up (click here) battle the elements to maintain the blades on these huge energy-producing machines. The episode I saw featured technicians attempting to safely climb a huge ice-covered tower in Alaska.

The four-episode show is part of a larger Weather Channel series called "Braving the Elements," which also features crews restoring lights during bad weather and iron workers on skyscrapers, bridges and other towering structures.

I'm not a big fan of reality TV - Boy, do I dislike those screaming housewives and the Jersey Shore bunch - but I watch this one, in part because it helps showcase an emerging clean-energy technology that diversifies the nation's energy supply.

The United States will never give up oil - it is practically woven into the country's DNA - but we need to balance things out. Oil prices are too volatile and unpredictable, which wreak havoc on businesses' ability to budget. And the military deems our dependence upon oil a security risk.


Wind and solar energy are ways to decrease that footprint. Yes, turbines don't turn when the wind doesn't blow, and solar energy isn't produced when it's dark, but researchers are quickly perfecting energy storage. It won't be long before  intermittency isn't a problem. And, yes, solar is more costly, but prices are falling as the industry builds heft and as technology advances.

The "Turbine Cowboys" episode I watched featured a safety expert from Tehachapi, a Kern County city that is home to one of the largest wind farms in the nation. Thousands of turbines dot the hills around a mountain pass, and the industry helps boost the local economy. Read more in this tehachapinews.com article.

Some people may debate the cultural significance of reality TV, but this show raises the profile of a rather obscure profession, and casts a spotlight on a small piece of the energy infrastructure. Maybe it will give a shot in the arm to the wind industry.

 Video by The Weather Channel

The winds of change power renewable energy growth in California

I drove through Tehachapi a few weeks ago as dawn was breaking. Snow flurries fluttered as I watched the sun rise over the thousands of turbines that line the hills along Highway 58, and I hearkened back to the 1980s when I was a newspaper reporter in Palm Springs.

The wind energy industry was one of my beats. The blustery pass along Interstate 10 was just beginning to sprout turbines, and I found them fascinating. Today, that pass near Palm Springs is one of the top three wind-energy sites in the state - along with Tehachapi in Kern County and Altamont Pass in Alameda County.




Wind energy accounts for about 5% of California's total electricity needs. Capacity has nearly doubled since 2002, with more than 900 megawatts installed in 2011 alone - more than in any other state. Most of those installations were near Tehachapi, according to the California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA).

All that wind will help California reach - and possibly exceed - its goal of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020. This story, which focuses on solar power, quotes an advisor to Gov. Brown saying the state could double that 33 percent mark.

(As a side note, the same article notes that Kern County also is becoming a leading solar center, thanks to large utility-scale projects proposed in the high deserts not far from Tehachapi.)

All this renewable power leads to other questions, like, how will it all be transmitted? The keeper of the grid has some thoughts about that here.

Whether the wind continues to blow at the back of the wind-energy industry in California remains to be seen. Projects in Kern, Solano, Riverside, Imperial and San Diego counties are expected to add 1,200 megawatts of power and create 1,000 construction jobs in 2012, but 2013 could see a slowdown if Congress fails to extend a tax credit that is before the Senate, says Nancy Rader, executive director of CalWEA.

"We need Congress to extend the wind energy production tax credit very soon to keep up that momentum," Rader said recently.

Nationally, things started slowing in 2010, when the number of new wind power fell 49% from 2009. "Clearly, the financial crisis crippled the U.S. economy and, along with it, the wind industry," PIKE Research says in a fourth-quarter 2011 report.

The United States is the second-largest wind market in the world. As a region, North America was third in the number of installations in 2009, and is expected to fall further behind Asia Pacific and Europe, PIKE reports.

Despite that, PIKE forecasts that about $145 billion worth of turbines will be installed offshore and onshore in North America by 2017. Moreover, wind energy has reached grid parity in some parts of the U.S. market – a trend that will continue.

Video from U.S. Department of Energy

Top 8 clean energy job sectors for Class of 2011

Listening to the graduation speeches made my mind wander.

In between a lot of "hopes," "follow your dreams" and reminisces that could have been read from an old Archies comic, I thought of the reality facing the class of 2011. It isn't pretty. High jobless rates, declining wages and an uncertain economy add up to a fast-food career. For all the pundits know, the United States is on track to follow Japan's 20 years of economic malaise.

Yeah, I'm a cynic. Twenty-four years of journalism can do that.

So I tried to imagine a better spin. Where are the bright spots?

For almost two years now, I've worked on the outskirts of clean energy and energy efficiency, consuming all the news I can find on the direction of this business. From what I can tell, it's about to take off on a number of fronts. But the rush just isn't there -- yet. And some technologies may go bust.

However, some clean energy sectors show promise for job growth. Here's a look at some that crossed my desk recently that may even give a philosophy major a chance at a job:

1. Electric cars -- The era of a fossil-fuel free automobile provides untold opportunity and likely a dump truck load of challenges for engineers, planners, mechanics and sales people. Here's a mode of transportation straight out of movie version of a Phillip K. Dick sci-fi novel. How it's really going to work nobody really knows. But many of us have high hopes. Planners will have to figure out how to install sufficient recharging stations. I foresee business owners getting into the picture. Imagine ads like this: "Low on power? Stop by the Sports Grill. Free charge with two draft beers. Micro brews extra." And tow truck drivers should be in an excellent position to retrieve vehicles with bone-dry batteries.

2. Energy storage -- Should renewable energy continue its expansion and even accelerate its development, a big push will be on finding ways to sequester that power for later use. Wind turbines generate energy when the wind blows and sit idle when it doesn't. Likewise, solar panels don't do a lick of good when the sun sets. With nuclear looking like a dim variable these days because of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi disaster, utilities are scrambling not only with electrical grid upgrades but for a power source that can complement these down times. Ucilia Wang of Earth2tech reports on a promising development from General Electric that incorporates natural gas-fueled power plants with renewable energy. The natural gas kicks in when power generation from the other slows. "This hybrid power plant strategy could be even more effective in promoting renewable electricity generation than any plan to sell stand-alone solar or wind farm equipment," Wang writes. There you go. Other ideas like water storage for later generation need to be refined by engineers and the solutions marketed to cities and power companies across the nation. And here's one that boggles the mind: A pilot project for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority would use lithium-ion battery technology to store captured energy from rail cars "through a regenerative braking process and then utilize the energy for accelerating trains," according to a statement. This would supply "megawatt level energy storage" and potentially 32 more projects. Jobs would materialize in construction and across the board as projects of all sorts crank up.

3. Wind -- From offshore on the East Coast to farm fields in Eastern Washington, this sector is gaining speed. California's Sierra Mountains offer great promise of continued development. Construction has started on a 120-megawatt wind turbine project near Tehachapi started early in 2011, and the Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project was recommended by the California Energy Commission for $1 million in Public Interest Energy Research Program funds. Meanwhile, Southern California Edison has invested heavily in its Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, which will deliver the energy to market. Construction on the project is now under way. And that's just a sliver of what's going on. Jobs in construction and maintenance are just the obvious ones. Development and innovation will continue, employing scientists, engineers and support teams.

4. Energy efficiency -- Long considered the "low-hanging fruit" of conservation efforts, energy efficiency is also the most cost-effective and simple to do. In fact, many solar installers ask homeowners to also get an energy audit. Auditors identify areas in a house where energy conservation measures can complement a new solar system. This sector extends to municipal buildings, commercial buildings and anything that uses power, like street lights. At the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization, we administer energy efficiency projects for 36 jurisdictions in two of our grants that will save 5.4 million kWh. Jobs in this sector aren't huge unless weatherization is factored in. I also expect a massive shift in design as lessons learned in the past few years are incorporated into future building plans. That will mean more jobs for those who can develop and market products that enhance energy efficiency. Insulation companies may expect to do a bang-up business, for instance.

5. Building information modeling -- This may be a sleeper. Building information systems are expected to become increasingly important and complex, enabling programmers to optimize environmental controls and save money. Cost savings in a building with such features can save a third or more over a conventional building in which each thermostat, light and utility system is operated by hand. While it sounds like something out of "2001: A Space Odyssey," this management practice is all the rage in high-rise towers and smaller commercial buildings. Homes may not be too far behind. Jobs would be in computer technology, development, installation and operation and maintenance -- all relatively high-tech and well paid. Of course, nobody wants to hear the mainframe say something like HAL 9000 told spaceman Dave: "I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."

6. Climate change -- This one may be contentious, but the data, melting polar ice and weird weather give even the biggest doubter pause. Nation magazine columnist Alexander Cockburn rightly points out the flaws in the technical arguments (read his "Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Farce" article for an blatant example of what opponents cite.) However, even if we're just experiencing a temporary warming trend similar to the "highly inconvenient Medieval Warm Period, running from 800 to 1300 AD, with temperatures in excess of the highest we saw in the 20th century," it will still mess with Bangladesh, New Orleans and any other seaside concentration of humanity. There will be huge challenges, leading to all sorts of suffering and economic disaster and, of course, opportunity for the forward-thinking municipal planners and entrepreneurs. Likewise, the air isn't getting any better and won't until we figure out a way to slow or stop pumping millions of tons of pollutants into the skies every minute. Jobs include scientists, movers, engineers and every level of medical practitioner.

7. Solar -- We came across a list of 93 solar projects representing 64,000 acres of panels planned for the San Joaquin Valley. These are the projects that have no problem passing state wildlife review. That's huge, and the scenario is likely being repeated elsewhere across the country where sunny days outnumber cloudy ones. I believe that once those Valley projects are built, others will follow. Analysts and people in the business agree that solar power will reach cost parity with fossil fuels in five years or less. That means solar will go nuts. Expect every rooftop in the Valley to have solar. At least owners will be scheduling installation or thinking about it after receiving the AC bill.

8. Biofuels -- This is one of my favorites. Advances in algae fuel are bringing the concept of farming pond scum for your car closer to reality. Isobutanol and cellulosic ethanol offer very real returns. And biodiesel from various crops shows increasing promise as crude oil prices creep up and show every indication of remaining high. Jobs? Who the heck knows? This is a big variable that could rattle the entire industry, shake up the Middle East and provide national energy security or go the way of cold fusion. I'm hoping for the former.

So there's hope. Jobs won't look like they did. But will evolve.

I often wonder what will become of journalism now that my beloved newsprint sector has dwindled to near extinction. Maybe the electronic newsroom will experience a resurgence and drag old veterans like myself back for another shot at daily news glory. Maybe not.

Whatever happens, I just hope clean energy offers our graduates opportunity. And decent pay.

Photo: My wife Peggy and son Calvin at Clovis High School graduation. That's me in the background with my granddaughter on my shoulders.

Construction begins on Tehachapi wind project

Construction has started on a 120-megawatt wind turbine project near Tehachapi.

Developer Western Wind Energy Corp. selected Madison, Wis.-based RMT Inc. to build its Windstar project near Tehachapi, Calif., and its 10 megawatt Kingman project in Mohave County, Ariz.

"Once completed, these two facilities will have the capacity to power approximately 35,000 homes annually," said David Kutcher, RMT Chief Commercial Officer, in a statement.

RMT is responsible for engineering, procurement and construction of Gamesa 2.0-MW wind turbines at both sites, officials said.

The Kingman facility is expected to begin commercial operation by summer, while the Tehachapi operation is scheduled to come online late this year.

Wind energy projects around Tehachapi have been busy lately.

For instance, the Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project was recommended by the California Energy Commission just before the new year for $1 million in Public Interest Energy Research Program funds. The amount is a fraction of about $25 million applied for by Southern California Edison but likely enough to get the project rolling. Its overall cost is a about $55 million, according to windpowerengineering.com.

The application to the National Energy Technology Laboratory says the project's "is to evaluate the performance of utility scale lithium-ion battery technology."

And Terra-Gen Power LLC this summer secured $1.2 billion in financing to build four wind-powered electrical generation projects near Tehachapi.

Officials estimated it will generate about 1,500 jobs.

The combined generating capacity is 570 megawatts, or enough electricity to supply 570,000 homes. The project would bolster the 3,000 megawatt Alta Wind Energy Center, which was started in the 1980s.

Terra-Gen officials said that combined with another project which received financing in March, this would put the New York-based company "well on its way to completing what is anticipated to be the largest wind energy farm in the nation."

Photo: RMT wind turbines in New Mexico.

Tehachapi wind batteries get stimulus money

A San Joaquin Valley project that banks wind energy in batteries and could change the course and perception of renewable power appears on track to receive some federal stimulus funds.

The concept is a big one. Should storage batteries prove successful even in a limited sense, renewable energy based on whims of Mother Nature would increase substantially in value and stature on Wall Street. This would mean even when the wind dies or the sun drops below the horizon, stored energy could be released to make up for the slack in production.

The Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project was recommended by the California Energy Commission just before the new year for $1 million in Public Interest Energy Research Program funds. The amount is a fraction of about $25 million applied for by Southern California Edison but likely enough to get the project rolling. Its overall cost is a about $55 million, according to windpowerengineering.com.

The application to the National Energy Technology Laboratory says the project's "is to evaluate the performance of utility scale lithium-ion battery technology."

Southern California Edison says big battery systems would improve grid performance by better integrating wind energy generation in improving grid performance with the results helping to "accelerate the advancement of reliable, clean, secure, renewable energy resources and technologies."

Study into the project began in 2008 between SCE, Quanta Technology and wind power developer Oak Creek Energy. The site resides in the windy Tehachapi Mountains and would tap into the 66 kilovolt Antelope-Bailey wind turbine system.

Also involved in the project is A123Systems, which opened the largest lithium-ion automotive battery plant this past fall in Livonia, Mich. In a past interview with my former co-worker Jeff St. John, Paul De Martini, SCE vice president of advanced technologies, said his employer wanted A123 to develop "a 32-megawatt-hour battery out of racks of smaller batteries."

The concept fits nicely with California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which seeks to cap greenhouse gas emissions at 1990s levels by 2020. Part of that effort includes requiring utilities to get a third of their power from renewable sources.

Already, SCE says it can deliver 2,700 megawatts of clean electricity for about 17 percent of its total portfolio.

Last year was a big for wind energy news, with offshore getting a lot of attention and its first approved project near Nantucket. And solar projects continue to make news.

In California, a variety of projects continue to make news. The Mount Diablo Unified School District in San Jose plans a solar system that covers 51 schools and generates 11.2 megawatts. In the San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District, a solar project covering 30,000 acres of privately owned farmland retired because of high soil salinity has been proposed.

Should more of these projects move into the construction phase -- like the 400-megawatt solar thermal Ivanpah project in eastern San Bernardino County, only a few miles from Nevada, which broke ground late last year -- storage systems will continue to gain interest.

And oil prices continue to climb. This week the fossil fuel hovered around the $90 per barrel mark and oil-price.net indicated a one-year forecast of $103. Of course, the media's been playing up $5 a gallon gas arriving in the United States by summer.

Gas prices can be a big motivator and may spur sales of electric cars, which could increase demand for electricity and potentially make more expensive renewables more appealing. But that's if planets align. And the public has proven fickle in its support for clean energy.

Such things just increase the stakes of the storage game. Success of the Tehachapi project could scale back or end the need for backup by fossil-fuel fired generating plants.

And that is a big deal.

Wind Turbines Mess Up Military Radar


The Southern California deserts are proving popular with developers of solar energy. That's not necessarily the case with wind projects.

As this article from the New York Times says, the blades of energy-generating wind turbines can resemble storm systems on the military's weather radar, confusing pilots and controllers. No serious incidents have been reported, but the military is beginning to oppose wind-energy projects in regions close to military bases.

That's kind of ironic because another agency within the federal government, the Department of Energy, has been pushing wind and other types of renewable energy.

Wind energy isn't a huge player in the San Joaquin Valley, although Tehachapi east of Bakersfield is home to 5,000 turbines. It remains to be seen how much of an impact this issue has on development of wind energy. Some experts expect new types of coatings and construction materials could be a solution.

The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region's quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley.

6 Key Findings About Wind Energy


Wind-powered energy - like that produced by 5,000 or so windmills in the Tehachapi region of Kern County - is growing, with 2009 a record year for investment and production, the U.S. Department of Energy reported.

The 10 gigawatts of capacity added last year represented a $21 billion investment - enough to power the equivalent of 2.4 million homes. Wind power accounted for 39% of all new electricity capacity, and delivers 2.5% of the nation's electrical supply, DOE said in its annual wind-market report.

Here are six other findings:


  • The percentage of wind-turbine components manufactured in the United States has increased from 50% to 60%;

  • Wind-power growth is distributed nationwide, with 28 stated getting turbines in 2009;

  • Seven of the 10 turbine makers with the largest share of the U.S. market last year have domestic manufacturing plants - and two of the remaining three have announced plans to open facilities in the U.S.;

  • Rising wind-power prices and lower wholesale electricity prices make the near-term economics of wind energy more challenging.

  • Financial constraints, electricity prices and energy demand suggest that 2010 will be a slower year for wind power;

  • The market is likely to rebound in 2011 and 2012 as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus money kicks in and financing restrictions ease.

The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region's quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley.


Big wind project secures financing near Tehachapi

Terra-Gen Power LLC says it has secured $1.2 billion in financing to build four wind-powered electrical generation projects near Tehachapi.

Officials estimate it will generate about 1,500 jobs.

The combined generating capacity is 570 megawatts, or enough electricity to supply 570,000 homes. The project would bolster the 3,000 megawatt Alta Wind Energy Center, which was started in the 1980s and "where former Governor Jerry Brown jump-started the US wind industry back in the early ’80s with 55% tax credits. Back then, because of those policies, California led the nation in wind and solar," wrote Susan Kraemer on Cleantechnica.com.

Terra-Gen officials said in a statement that combined with another project which received financing in March, this would put the New York-based company "well on its way to completing what is anticipated to be the largest wind energy farm in the nation."

John O’Connor, chief financial officer of Terra-Gen, said project financing is a first using a leveraged lease and a bond issuance under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 144A, which "are not required to be registered with the SEC and may not be resold to individual investors, but may be traded between qualified institutional buyers," according to an article by Miles Livingston and Lei Zhou on moneywatch.com.

"We are hopeful that these benchmarks will expand the capital base available to fund future growth in the renewables sector,” O'Connor said.

Jim Pagano, CEO of Terra-Gen said the project expands California's renewable energy base and helps achieve energy independence. “The Alta projects I-V will create more than 1,500 domestic manufacturing, construction and operation and maintenance jobs, and inject more than $600 million into the local economy," he said.
Construction is expected to begin immediately, and commercial energy production should start next year.

Power will be delivered to the Los Angeles Basin through Southern California Edison’s Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, which was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in March 2007. Construction on the project is now under way. SCE officials say it is the "first major energy transmission project in California being constructed specifically to access multiple renewable generators in a remote renewable-rich resource area."

Photo: Courtesy Southern California Edison.