Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has once again challenged Kansas to utilize alternative energy sources.

The voluntary initiative encourages Kansas to have 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy installed by 2015.

But if some experts are right, that increased reliance on renewable energy will mean Kansas will also have higher utility bills. And because of a lack of transmission lines, there may be no place for the energy to go.

The Kansas Corporation Commission recently created a study based on the initiative, which is primarily focused on using wind energy to meet Sebelius’ recommendations.

The governor's office was quick to praise the study. “Governor Sebelius, and Kansas’ energy producers, have focused primarily on wind because of its incredible abundance and rapidly decreasing costs,” Nicole Corcoran, press secretary for Sebelius told Kansas Liberty.

“Kansas is the third windiest state in America. A study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that our state has the potential to generate between 7,000 – 10,000 megawatts of wind,” she said.

Corcoran said Kansas would have 1,000 megawatts of wind energy online by the end of the year which would put Kansas ahead of the Sebelius goal.

Even wind isn't free

Earl Watkins, president and CEO of the Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, told Kansas Liberty that he thought the governor’s goal was possible to reach - but it may come at a high cost.

“We certainly can reach that number but the question is will it have an adverse impact on system reliability and what will the cost be,” he said.

The KCC Wind Report outlines both advantages and disadvantages involved with implementing the recommendation. The report said the average retail rate of wind energy is likely to be higher than more conventional energy sources but that the reduction in emissions occurs when you exchange wind energy for conventional energy sources could reduce expected health-related costs for Kansans by $20 per megawatt hour of generated wind energy. There is no scientific basis for associating emissions with public health risks, however.

Watkins said the Sunflower Electric system runs on approximately 48 percent natural gas, 42 percent coal and 10 percent wind. Watkins said that while Sunflower Electric had already met an earlier Sebelius goal of having ten percent renewable energy by 2010 he does not have an issue with expanding Sunflower’s wind resources as long as it makes economic sense.

In a statement issued in response to Sebelius' challenge, Steve Miller, Sunflower's Manager of External Affairs, said, "Because wind energy is more costly than the conventional alternatives, if external benefits are ignored, when the utility pursues either wind option, its rates will be higher than if it had not added wind to its portfolio of assets. In other words, meeting the Challenge is likely to increase the average retail price of electricity in Kansas."

Unpredictable source

However Watkins did point out there are several obstacles to utilizing wind farms such as a lack of transmission lines, and the unpredictable nature of using wind energy.

“It is unfortunate that the best wind we have in Kansas is in the winter because we need that energy least in the winter,” he said. “Wind energy is generated next to the most in the fall and then is generated the least in the summer when energy is needed most."

Reliability is important to an energy producer, Watkins said. "Because of this unpredictability Sunflower electric uses wind energy as a supplement to coal and natural gas."

Said Miller, "Indeed, in a word, uncertain is perhaps the simplest and most direct characterization of the expected results of the challenge."

Rising costs

Another issue with expanding wind energy is the rising costs associated with building the wind turbines.

According to the Kansas Corporation Commission Wind Study the cost of installing wind capacity has risen from $1 million per megawatt of wind capacity to $2 million per megawatt in the last five years.

Watkins said these rising costs are also affecting other types of generators because of the rising costs of concrete, steel and copper, which are all materials used in building wind, natural gas and coal generators.

Watkins said wind turbines that are capable of generating two megawatts of energy cost about $4 million.

More transmission lines needed

Despite rising costs Watkins said he did think there would be future substantial wind farm developments in Kansas for export to other states if the necessary transmission lines are built.

Watkins said a lack of transmission lines is a problem as Kansas’ current transmission lines are operating at full capacity.  Watkins said it generally costs $1 million to build one mile of high voltage transmission.

“Today you could not drop a 200 megawatt wind farm and then deliver the energy anywhere because there is inadequate transmission capacity so you would have to build substantial transmission lines,” he said. “And then you have to factor in the economic and environmental issues and also how people will react to those.”

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, wind energy is not more widely used in Kansas and elsewhere because of a lack of transmission lines. The article listed problems with installing the transmission lines that ranged from environmental groups protesting proposed transmission line sites to laws and regulations that make it difficult to proceed with building the lines.

“It’s kind of schizophrenic behavior,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the paper. “They say that we want renewable energy, but we don’t want you to put it anywhere.”

Watkins said Sunflower will be building the transmission lines for the Holcomb Station Expansion project. The lines will run east from Holcomb to Wichita and into Oklahoma and also west from Holcomb into Colorado Springs and Denver. Watkins said building transmission lines to the west will also create export opportunities because that energy can be marketed at a higher price.

'Greenhouse gasses' part of nature

Tom Mullikin, environmental author, lawyer and speaker explained in a presentation last week sponsored by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce that society may have the wrong idea when it comes to the source of "greenhouse gasses."

Mullikin said the majority of GHGs are naturally occurring, with only approximately 5.5 percent of GHGs made by man. He cited organic decay, forest fires, volcanoes and bacteria as natural sources of GHG’s.

According to Mullikin, the United States produces a smaller percentage of carbon emissions from industry than China, Europe, Japan, India, and Russia.

Kansas’ highest greenhouse gas emissions currently come from electricity consumption (34 percent), industry fuel usage (22.5 percent), transportation (17.5 percent), and agriculture (16.5 percent).

Political posturing

According to National Review, T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oilman, wants to replace the approximately 20 percent of natural-gas electricity currently generated with wind energy.

Pickens told the magazine this transition could lower oil imports by 38 percent and cites the federal governments 20% Wind Energy by 2030 as his proof. 

However, Lisa Linowes, executive director of the Industrial Wind Action Group told Kansas Liberty when looking at the federal government’s report, the key lies within the statement, "wind is an energy resource, not a capacity resource."

“In other words," Linowes said, "while utilities are obligated to provide electricity instantaneously, when customers demand it, wind does not, nor can it ever, do that.”

Linowes said these types of wind energy initiatives are missing the point.

“Challenges, such as that posed by Governor Sebelius, are symbolic, political tools, that do little more than push the building of wind turbines for the sake of building wind turbines,” Linowes said. “There is no plan that substantiates the 1000 MW figure, and no assurances the turbines, if erected, will supply electricity at the time of day and year when we most need it.”

Linowes said society should focus on other renewable energy such as biomass, landfill gas, geothermal and hydro.

“Let's focus on those renewables that can actually deliver electricity when we need it and not just throw energy on the grid at 3 a.m. when we don’t need it,” she said.

Not in my back yard

Former state senator Nick Jordan, currently the GOP nominee for the Third Congressional District, told Kansas Liberty he thought the focus should be on a variety of renewable energy sources instead of wind energy alone.

“While wind is a piece of the solution I really believe in an all-of-the-above approach,” he said. “I just don’t think we can focus on just one source it needs to be a broad-based approach.”

Jordan, who said he was planning on introducing renewable-energy friendly legislation if elected to Congress, said location is a key issue with wind energy. In fact, one of the main arguments against wind energy is that wind turbines are loud, disruptive, and unattractive for those who must live close to them.

Pickens has already taken that into consideration. When asked by Fast Company if he was going to build a wind farm on his 68,000-acre ranch Pickens replied, “I'm not going to have the windmills on my ranch. They're ugly.”

The Week in Review