Agricultural News
Oklahoma- the Land of a $100 Billion Wind Power Opportunity
Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:32:49 CDT
Nearly 500 people gathered in Norman, Oklahoma last week for the Oklahoma Wind Commerce conference on the 23rd and 24th of June. "We were pleasantly surprised by the numbers," stated April Murelio, a marketing communications specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. "We expected, initially, about half this many people."
The Oklahoma Department of Commerce sponsored the conference, having decided that wind is one of the industries that Oklahoma is built for. Given that the state is in the midst of tornado alley, the idea that the fuel for this industry is readily available locally is certainly a given. So, the conference focused on other areas that can sweeten the pot beyond an available fuel source: pushing for tax incentives, creating a smoothly operating supply chain and offering well-trained employees for the picking.
One company that believes in Oklahoma and its potential in the wind energy arena is Acciona Energy, a 100-year-old company that is second in the world for owning and operating renewables, according to Tom Hiester, vice president with the company. He was the keynote speaker for the conference luncheon. Hiester had a simple premise for his speech, and that is wind is a huge business opportunity but that, like all opportunities, there are hurdles.
First and foremost with these hurdles is transmission.
"We need long-distance transmission. We need lots of it ... Wind is a fuel that must be used in place, unlike gas or coal," Hiester noted. This requires transmission lines. The building of transmission lines requires money. The bottom-line question is: Can Oklahoma bring in enough wind to offset the cost of the lines?
Hiester believes so. He quoted a DOE estimate that the state had the potential to harvest 725 billion kWh from wind. Hiester even noted that, perhaps, the DOE numbers were too high and that, for sake of argument, he'd give those numbers "a haircut" and shave it down by a factor of four. That's about 180 billion kWh a year, or approximately 30 percent of the current oil and gas business in the state.
"At $2 million per megawatt, Oklahoma is a $100 billion opportunity," Hiester added. "Clearly, wind is worth the fuss."
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