The Biz Buzz - Northwest wind energy output surpasses 1,000 megawatts

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Friday, January 11th, 2008

Northwest wind energy output surpasses 1,000 megawatts

Posted by John Gillie @ 02:56:12 pm

Electrical power generated by the wind and transmitted over Bonneville Power Administration lines has surpassed 1,000 megawatts peak capacity, BPA said today.

A thousand megawatts is enough to power some 680,000 Northwest homes and is equivalent to a normally-sized coal-fired power plant.

The capacity to generate windpower started slowly in the '90s but has expanded sharply in the last three years.

Until the fall of 2005, the windpower generation capacity in the region was less than 250 megawatts. By December that year, the windpower generation had jumped to 475 megawatts. By 2006, the wind capacity had reached 775 megawatts. By November of 2007, the peak windpower capacity had surpassed 1,000 megawatts.

Northwest power planners see the region's windpower capacity growing to 5,000 megawatts over the next two decades, the BPA said.

Categories: Aerospace • 1 comment

COMMENTS:

Comment by knightdaddy @ 08:38 - Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

This is exactly the type of PNW business that is ideal for smaller ports like Olympia. With wind energy components arriving from around the world, this cargo can keep smaller ports, who cannot compete against container ports, alive.

Hi John, I hope you are doing well, I haven't spoken to you for quite some time. Jim

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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

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John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.