State tries to avoid crisis

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 11:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's energy problems could be answered at least in small part by a wind farm constructed at the Nevada Test Site, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced today.

The plant, which is expected to produce more than 300 megawatts a year, would be Nevada's first wind farm, the second-largest wind-generated power facility in the United States.

The proposal had been previously announced when officials outlined the project last month. But Reid and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson held a press conference and signing ceremony on Capitol Hill today to celebrate the agreement, formally launching a three-phase effort to build the renewable energy facility. Gen. John Gordon of the National Nuclear Security Administration took part.

Reid and Richardson touted the project as neighboring California is in the grips of an energy crisis and Nevada Power Co. is seeking to raise electricity costs in Clark County to cover rising fuel costs.

Reid has called the wind farm a "clean, green energy project."

Wind farms create little to no pollution, are relatively easy to construct and tap a "nondepletable" energy source, advocates say. The federal government also is offering tax breaks for wind-generated power.

Disadvantages include disturbing wildlife habitats, noise, bird deaths and desert erosion, problems that could be less critical at the Nevada Test Site, formerly the nation's nuclear bomb testing grounds, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Test Site is the "perfect place" to construct a wind farm, Nevada Test Site Development Corp. Chairman Joe W. Brown said last month.

The proposed wind farm would be paid for by private interests: a consortium of the Test Site corporation, Western Renewable Energy Network, El Paso Merchant Energy Co., Duke Solar Energy, M&N Wind Power and the Siemens Corp.

The corporation has been seeking alternative projects for the Test Site, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island. Underground nuclear testing was stopped in 1992.

When fully built with 500 or so turbines, the wind farm could generate enough electricity to supply a city of 85,000 people, corporation Director Tim Carlson said. Nevada's population is about 2 million. The first phase of 120 turbines could be operating in a year, Carlson has said.

The Department of Energy has set a goal of wind powering at least 5 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020.