One of World's Largest Wind Farms Starts Up in Oregon

The Shepherds Flat wind farm, one of the largest in the world, is now operating in Oregon.
Credit: Energy Department

Caithness Energy announced on September 22 that its Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon—one of the largest in the world—is now operational and generating up to 845 megawatts of electricity. The Energy Department supported the project with a $1.3 billion partial loan guarantee through the Recovery Act in 2010. The company said the project in the northeastern part of the state will generate enough electricity to power 235,000 U.S. homes.

Sponsored by Caithness and General Electric (GE) Energy Financial Services, the project consists of 338 GE 2.5xl turbines, which are being deployed for the first time in North America. The project's output is contracted through 20-year power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison. The project will eliminate nearly1,216,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, an amount equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 212,000 passenger vehicles. See the Caithness press release and the October 13, 2010 edition of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy newsletter.

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FERC Awards license for Oregon wave power station

Ocean power technologies, which is planning a device for converting wave energy off the Hawaiian coast called, in the year of 2009 to tap wave power off the coast of Oregon.
Credit card: Ocean power technologies, Inc

Ocean power technologies (OPT) announced on 20 August that her daughter U.S. has approved Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) of a planned 1.5 megawatt power plant for wave off the coast of Oregon. This is exhibited in the United States the first FERC license for a wave power plant. The license provides enough power for about 1,000 homes, an authorisation for the use of up to 10 OPT devices.

Construction of the first 150 kilowatt device is nearing completion and the Reedsport, is expected to be approximately 2.5 miles to Oregon coast ready this year for providing. Extension is the wave energy converter from an open steel cylinder down into the ocean from a floating buoy. A piston is halfway down the cylinder and crime waves, the piston up and down moves the application of pressure to sea water along the cylinder, filled bags, the high pressure sea water into a turbine which drives a generator eject to produce electricity.

OPT is cooperative an Oregon-based electric power for this first system from the Department of energy makes Congressional delegation and PNGC with the support of the Oregon, financially. FERC has granted in particular, a 35-year license for grid-connected wave energy production. After the first device is deployed, OPT plans up to nine more devices and connection, network infrastructure, in receipt of additional funding and all necessary regulatory approvals. See press release OPT.

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Interior Department OKs Renewable Energy Projects in California, Oregon

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on December 29 the approval of two renewable energy projects—a solar plant in California and a wind farm in Oregon—that will be built on private lands and will use power lines that cross public lands to connect to their respective power grids. When built, the projects will deliver 379 megawatts of power, enough to power 112,500 homes.

In California, the Centinela Solar Energy Project is a 275-megawatt solar energy power plant that will be located on 2,067 acres of previously disturbed private land near El Centro, California. Interior approved the right-of-way for 19 acres for the power line on public land, and Imperial County gave a green light to the solar power plant on December 27, 2011. The project would support at least 367 jobs and deliver enough electricity to power about 82,500 homes. In Oregon, the North Steens Transmission Line Project is a 44-mile, 230-kilovolt power line that will carry power from a proposed wind power project. The wind project, proposed on private land near Diamond, Oregon, would generate 104 megawatts, enough to power about 30,000 homes.

Both projects underwent extensive environmental review, and they reflect strong efforts to mitigate potential environmental impacts, such as requiring funding for the acquisition of 80 acres of additional habitat for the flat-tailed horned lizard in California and implementing requirements that minimize audio and visual impacts from the Oregon project. See the DOI press release.

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