Huge wind farm planned for NTS

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

One of the largest wind farms in the nation could be operating 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas in a year, Nevada Test Site Development Corp. officials say.

The group, which is attracting alternative projects to the former nuclear weapons proving ground, on Wednesday received an easement to designate areas of the Test Site available for wind-power generation, according to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"This clean, green energy project will put Nevada on the map in the alternative and renewable energy world," Reid said.

When it is fully built, the wind farm would generate enough electricity to supply a city of 85,000 people, Test Site corporation Director Tim Carlson said.

As natural gas prices soar and California suffers from energy shortages, the idea of a wind farm at the Test Site offers an attractive, clean source of electricity, Carlson said.

Since the United States stopped experimenting with underground nuclear weapons at the Test Site in 1992, the Department of Energy has sought ways to harness alternative energy such as wind and sun at the site, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island, Carlson said.

Shoshone Mountain, Pahute Mesa and Skull Mountain are the three potential areas for developing wind power.

If environmental studies find no endangered or threatened species at the sites, Carlson said, the first phase of 120 turbines could be operating in a year. Eventually 500 turbines will churn power from winds that sweep the Test Site.

"The Nevada Test Site is the perfect place for siting a wind farm," corporation Chairman Joe W. Brown said. "The power infrastructure is in place and the technologies that supported our nation's defense can be utilized to support this emerging industry, one that creates high-value jobs."

Up to 200 construction jobs will be created with about 30 maintenance and operating positions in the future, according to Kathleen Carlson, manager of the Department of Energy's Nevada Operations Office. The Test Site once boasted 12,000 employees during the Cold War years.

"This project enables DOE to reduce operating costs, improve the infrastructure at the NTS and increase electric reliability," Carlson said of the proposed wind farm. "At the same time, DOE's dependence on external power generation will be reduced."

MNS, a partnership between M&N Wind Power and Siemens, will build and manage the facility. M&N Wind Power is a joint venture between a Japanese holding company, Nichimen, and NEG Micon, a Danish wind turbine manufacturer.

The wind farm is similar to those operating near Palm Springs, Calif., which use three-bladed turbines slicing the air from atop 175-foot steel towers.

Up to 500 generators would feed power to underground cables, then to transformers located near the base of each tower.

The project will add new transmission lines that will interconnect with existing lines at the Test Site.

M&N Wind Power manages and operates more than 2,500 wind turbines in the United States and Canada.

"This will expand our capabilities in the southwest region," John Johansen, president of M&N, said.