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Wind projects on verge of booming |
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Monday, 24 December 2007 |
Wind, once thought to be a grand nuisance, is now being looked at fondly as a source of renewable energy.
Mark Jacobson, the director of business development for Invenergy of Chicago told a large gathering at the Pachyderm meeting on Tuesday that the company is planning on constructing between four and six more wind farms in Montana.
Of those, he noted, three of the preferred sites are between Great Falls and Canada. He also noted that Invenergy had hired Aaron Jones of Conrad to oversee the development of the Montana projects.
Invenergy has recently purchased 2,100 megawatts of wind turbines, a one billion dollar investment, for planned project in the U.S., which includes Montana.
In addition, the company is going to expand, by 53-megawatts, their 135-megawatt Judith Gap facility once it finds a buyer for the additional electrical energy.
Also talking before the group were Johan van’t Hoff, the president of Tonbrdge Power Inc., and Bob Williams of Montana Alberta Tie Ltd.
Tonbridge owns Montana Alberta Tie, which is in the process of developing a 210-mile $150 million transmission line from Canada to Great Falls.
Tonbridge Power is planning to begin construction on the MATL line in April 2008. He told the crowd at the meeting there is a shortage of transmission in both the U.S. and Canada and, “You have an extraordinary asset, which you should turn into an export industry.”
There have been complaints from farmers about the location and positioning of the line and the Montana Department of Environmental quality as well as the U.S. Department of Energy are doing addition reviews of the proposed transmission line.
According to Tom Ring of the DEQ, the reviews are almost finished.
Similar studies in Canada have been completed and their board, Alberta Energy and Utilities, will make a decision on approving the transmission line project in the near future.
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