Bob Anderson West Wind Wires Siting and Policy Wind Power Plants* 119th Annual Convention Anaheim, CA November 16, 2007 NARUC *transmission, too

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 2 Wind is good idea  Great energy resource  Less valuable for capacity

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 3 The benefits  Environment  Energy resource, offsets fossil emissions  Nox,Sox  Particulates  Mercury  CO2  Climate  No water use  Customer savings  Hedges against fuel price & carbon risk  Energy security  Rural economic development  Public support

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 4 Vision 20% by 2030  Energy basis  Now 1%  AWEA-DOE-NREL roadmap

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 5 U.S. lags in wind penetration

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 6 20% Vision

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 7 20% Vision Costs and Benefits Incremental Costs$43 billion Emission reductions825 MM tons CO2 $98 billion Water savings8% total electric 17% in 2030 Jobs140,000 direct $450 billion Natural gas savings11% in 2030 $150 billion

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 8 The Wind Industry Knows it must be exemplary with siting to have a snowball’s chance

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 9 Siting issues  Wildlife  Birds  Bats  Visual  Noise  Property values  Radar  Military

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 10 Wildlife  Birds  Mortality  Of concern, but  <.003 of human-caused mortality  Worse are buildings, telecom towers, vehicles, cats  Much-improved turbine & tower design  Tall  No lattices for perching  Slow rotation  But the issue is serious  Burden is on wind to maintain support of bird lovers

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 11 It’s the law  Migratory bird treaty act of 1918  Bald eagle protection act of 1940  Endangered species act of 1973

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 12 Wildlife Addressing the issue  American Wind Wildlife Institute  NWCC Wildlife & Siting committees  US FWS developing guidelines  Audubon  Top threat to birds is climate change  Wind needed  Minimize impacts  Western Governors’ Association  Wildlife Corridors Initiative: Energy Working Group

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 13 Wildlife  Bats  West Virginia--large number of bats killed  Bats & Wind Energy Cooperative  AWEA  Bat Conservation International  NREL  US FWS

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 14 Visual  Beauty and blight are in the eye of the beholder

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 15 Property values  Concerns  “Industrialization of community”  Scenic degradation  Nuisance (e.g. noise, flicker, …)  Evidence  Wind can reduce property values, but  Not widespread  LBL research

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 16 Radar  Visibility = interference  Impact mission?  Small % do  FAA assessments  8,000 last year  Mitigation  Software & technology  Location & shielding  Stealth technology

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 17 Military Flight paths  Cooperation, but  Weak incentives

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 18 Transmission  Major expansion needed  Transmission planning under way  Projects are emerging  Siting  Controversial  Difficult  Significant impacts

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 19 Give 20% a chance  It’s needed  Climate change  Enormous challenges  Tech improvement and supply  Siting  Wind’s performance must be exemplary  Many siting issues  No show stoppers  Public confronts tradeoffs & choices  Wind also needs policy support

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 20 Policy needs  Generation planning  Transmission  Markets

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 21 Generation  RPS  Energy first planning  Low/no carbon sources  NO compromising reliability

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 22 Transmission  Wind only or wind first planning  Transmission to renewables zones  State transmission authority  Annual landowner payments  Tariffs for better use of existing grid

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 23 Markets  Procurement  Utility owership?  Shareholder incentives for good purchasing  Interstate coordination, e.g. IRP cycles  Regional  More efficient, liquid  RECs  All electricity products

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 24 Regional  Act locally, but think regionally  Spatial diversity of wind = better capacity factor  Markets  Real, virtual  Regional working groups

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 25 Wind  Will grow rapidly  Success will depend on  Good performance by wind industry  Good siting  Low impact wind farms  Transmission  Maintaining public support  Good public policy

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 26 A few useful urls      itle=jason-jones-180-%96-nantucket itle=jason-jones-180-%96-nantucket  

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 27 Contact Bob Anderson West Wind Wires

NARUC November 16, 2007 Bob Anderson West Wind Wires 28 Answers Harris hawk Townsend’s long-eared bat Kennedy compound Nantucket Sound