World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

August 3, 2003 – Vol.8 No.19

WORLD WIND WATCH.

What is believed will be the largest locally-owned wind farm in the U.S. should be online in 2005. TRIMONT Area Wind Farm (TRIMONT WIND), a coalition of local citizens in the project area, will build a 100-megawatt facilty in Martin and Jackson counties in the southwestern part in the state of Minnesota.

TRIMONT owners will also be customers for the wind generated power. All of it will be purchased by Great River Energy to be distributed through the South Central Electric Association, a cooperative of Great River, which all TRIMONT owners are members of. Visit Great River at http://www.greatriverenergy.com/ .

Soon to be under construction will be a 41- megawatt wind farm in Umatilla County, Oregon. To be known as Combine Hills Turbine Ranch I, the facility, built with the help of a one-time payment of $3.9 million from the Energy Trust of Oregon, should be complete by the end of October. The Energy Trust distributes funds collected from PacificCorp and Portland General Electric from a 3-percent surcharge earmarked for energy conservation and renewable energy projects.

The developer for the project is Eurus Energy America, and Mitsubishi will provide the 41, one-megawatt turbines. Phase II of Combine Hills, now in the planning stages, could have another 63 megawatts of green power. Visit the Energy Trust at http://www.energytrust.org/, and Mitsubishi at http://www.mhi.co.jp/power/e-power/product/idx_nature_wind.html .

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made available $2.2 million for the support of wind and other renewable energy projects on Tribal land. The Assinibone and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana will receive more than $300,000 towards the installation of a 660-kilowatt turbine to generate power to be used on the reservation. The Rosebud Sioux will receive more than $450,000 to begin development of a 30-megawatt wind energy project. Others include cost-shared funding for pre-development and feasibility studies for wind, solar and biomass energy projects. Visit the DOE http://www.doe.gov/ .

At least one of five windy sites surrounding monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church will have operating wind farms operating by the end of this year. While wind supplies only one percent of the electricity generated in Greece, wind resources in the nation are considered good because of its long shoreline and hilly terrain. The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) thinks that six percent is attainable. Visit CRES at http://www.cres.gr/ .