Pilot Rock and Boardman area public information meetings on alternative routes under consideration were held on August 6th and 7th.
New alternative route maps and public meeting information can be found at http://www.boardmantohemingway.com/documents/2012_0719_B2H_Newswire_FINAL.pdf?utm_source=Boardman+to+Hemingway+Transmission+Line+Project+List&utm_campaign=a384f76a45-B2H_Newswire_3_26_2012&utm_medium=email
The Ontario meeting will be held on Thursday, August 16th, from 6-8 p.m. in the Four Rivers Cultural Center, 676 SW 5th Ave, Ontario, Or. Four Rivers Cultural Center
Monday, August 6, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
100 employees at Idaho plant laid off
HONOLULU -- Honolulu-based commercial solar power company Hoku Corp. says its subsidiary is laying off about 100 employees at an Idaho manufacturing plant.
. . The Pocatello plant was to have made silicon for solar panels. All contractors stopped construction work at the facility last month.
Hoku says some lienholders have started foreclosure proceedings against the plant in Idaho courts.
. .
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Area farmer fears power line alternative route could hurt operation
April 27 by Larry Meyer
http://www.argusobserver.com/news/area-farmer-fears-power-line-alternative-route-could-hurt-operation/article_890c590a-9093-11e1-b1f5-0019bb2963f4.html
JAMIESON —As Idaho Power continues to prepare a draft proposal for the routing of its 500-kilovolt transmission line between northeast Oregon and southwest Idaho, it is also proposing alternative routes, and one of those has a Malheur County farmer saying it will negatively impact his operation.
Kenneth Jensen, who farms just north of Jamieson, said depending on where the towers are installed, they could interfere with the operation of his center pivots and also restrict aerial spraying of his fields.
Idaho Power’s proposed route goes west of Brogan and then heads east, north of Brogan. The Jamieson alternative route would head east sooner, cutting away from the proposed route several miles short of Brogan and would cross U.S. Highway 26 and irrigated farm ground about 1.5 miles north of Jamieson, Jensen said. About 1.5 miles of 2.5 miles of irrigated ground the line would cross would be on his farm, he added.
Farm operations would be limited in the proposed 250-foot right of way, Jensen said, as Occupational Safety and Health Agency rules say farm workers would not be allowed within 100 feet of the lines.
“It would make it impossible to do anything,” Jensen said of the line. He believes the line would also interfere with RTK GPS guidance tractors used in no-till farming, he said. “We, the farmers, would have to have our fields cut up by power lines,” Jensen said.
Also, one of the proposed towers for the Willow Creek Alternative would be at the end of his airstrip used by crop dusters and others, making it unusable, Jensen said.
Jensen said the Willow Creek alternative was offered because of concerns about a sage grouse lek the proposed route passes through near Huntington. A group of landowners have proposed their own alternative, which would cut off from the proposed route north of Brogan and skirt south around some leks, staying mostly on public land and joining the Jamieson alternative away from the irrigated farm ground.
In a letter to Jensen, which he shared, Keith Georgeson, Boardman to Hemingway Project leader, said “the proposed alternative route adds 8.1 miles to the 30-mile proposed route and 13.7 miles to the Willow Creek alternative route.” Noting that the landowners’ proposal would decrease the amount of irrigated crop land from 2 miles to 0.1 miles and reduce the amount of private land the line would cross in comparison to the proposed route and the Willow Creek alternative, Georgeson, said, “Idaho Power is not able to justify the proposed alternative because of the increased line length. The route increased the distance from the proposed route by almost 30 to 56 percent over the alternative route.”
Georgeson said Idaho Power continues to pursue the original route around Brogan as its proposed route, but, if permitting is denied, the company needs to have an alternative.
http://www.argusobserver.com/news/area-farmer-fears-power-line-alternative-route-could-hurt-operation/article_890c590a-9093-11e1-b1f5-0019bb2963f4.html
JAMIESON —As Idaho Power continues to prepare a draft proposal for the routing of its 500-kilovolt transmission line between northeast Oregon and southwest Idaho, it is also proposing alternative routes, and one of those has a Malheur County farmer saying it will negatively impact his operation.
Kenneth Jensen, who farms just north of Jamieson, said depending on where the towers are installed, they could interfere with the operation of his center pivots and also restrict aerial spraying of his fields.
Idaho Power’s proposed route goes west of Brogan and then heads east, north of Brogan. The Jamieson alternative route would head east sooner, cutting away from the proposed route several miles short of Brogan and would cross U.S. Highway 26 and irrigated farm ground about 1.5 miles north of Jamieson, Jensen said. About 1.5 miles of 2.5 miles of irrigated ground the line would cross would be on his farm, he added.
Farm operations would be limited in the proposed 250-foot right of way, Jensen said, as Occupational Safety and Health Agency rules say farm workers would not be allowed within 100 feet of the lines.
“It would make it impossible to do anything,” Jensen said of the line. He believes the line would also interfere with RTK GPS guidance tractors used in no-till farming, he said. “We, the farmers, would have to have our fields cut up by power lines,” Jensen said.
Also, one of the proposed towers for the Willow Creek Alternative would be at the end of his airstrip used by crop dusters and others, making it unusable, Jensen said.
Jensen said the Willow Creek alternative was offered because of concerns about a sage grouse lek the proposed route passes through near Huntington. A group of landowners have proposed their own alternative, which would cut off from the proposed route north of Brogan and skirt south around some leks, staying mostly on public land and joining the Jamieson alternative away from the irrigated farm ground.
In a letter to Jensen, which he shared, Keith Georgeson, Boardman to Hemingway Project leader, said “the proposed alternative route adds 8.1 miles to the 30-mile proposed route and 13.7 miles to the Willow Creek alternative route.” Noting that the landowners’ proposal would decrease the amount of irrigated crop land from 2 miles to 0.1 miles and reduce the amount of private land the line would cross in comparison to the proposed route and the Willow Creek alternative, Georgeson, said, “Idaho Power is not able to justify the proposed alternative because of the increased line length. The route increased the distance from the proposed route by almost 30 to 56 percent over the alternative route.”
Georgeson said Idaho Power continues to pursue the original route around Brogan as its proposed route, but, if permitting is denied, the company needs to have an alternative.
Ontario solar project set to move forward
Tuesday, April 3rd by Larry Meyer
http://www.argusobserver.com/news/ontario-solar-project-set-to-move-forward/article_349ea46a-7dae-11e1-92c2-0019bb2963f4.html
ONTARIO —The Ontario City Council Monday approved ground lease agreements that will allow a solar power project, to be installed at several sites around the city, with generated power to be sold to Idaho Power.
Idaho Power’s Oregon Solar Photovoltaic Pilot program is a pilot mandated by the Oregon Legislature to encourage the development of solar energy in the state, according to information provided by the city. Electrical utilities operating in Oregon are required to purchase electricity at above-market rates from a limited number of non-commercial participants.
Assisted by Site Based Energy, a solar energy developer, Ontario officials applied to participate in the program and received preliminary approval from Idaho Power for installation of 10 solar panels, but two of the sites were pulled from consideration.
Under current plan, the SBE will own the solar panels for the first eight years of the program with the city then taking ownership. In Monday’s action, the council also approved the Idaho Power sales agreement. . . .
http://www.argusobserver.com/news/ontario-solar-project-set-to-move-forward/article_349ea46a-7dae-11e1-92c2-0019bb2963f4.html
ONTARIO —The Ontario City Council Monday approved ground lease agreements that will allow a solar power project, to be installed at several sites around the city, with generated power to be sold to Idaho Power.
Idaho Power’s Oregon Solar Photovoltaic Pilot program is a pilot mandated by the Oregon Legislature to encourage the development of solar energy in the state, according to information provided by the city. Electrical utilities operating in Oregon are required to purchase electricity at above-market rates from a limited number of non-commercial participants.
Assisted by Site Based Energy, a solar energy developer, Ontario officials applied to participate in the program and received preliminary approval from Idaho Power for installation of 10 solar panels, but two of the sites were pulled from consideration.
Under current plan, the SBE will own the solar panels for the first eight years of the program with the city then taking ownership. In Monday’s action, the council also approved the Idaho Power sales agreement. . . .
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Hoku solar plant in Idaho may have power shut off
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/136444588.html?id=136444588
BOISE, Idaho Idaho Power Co. told a struggling southeastern Idaho solar-industry manufacturer that the utility could shut off its power by Jan. 3 if it doesn't pay its $1.9 million electricity bill from November.
Honolulu-based polysilicon maker Hoku Corp., which has survived so far with help from Chinese financiers, lodged a formal protest with Idaho Public Utilities Commission regulators after getting a termination of service notice on Dec. 22.
The company's Hoku Materials unit told Idaho Power that it can't pay its November power bill until January due to cash flow problems. Hoku says losing electricity would delay its Pocatello plant's commissioning and expose infrastructure to freezing just as winter sets in, causing "material harm." Southeastern Idaho's hopes that Hoku's $390 million plant will eventually add hundreds of green-energy jobs to the local economy have been replaced by uncertainty over whether the project will survive. . .
Hoku announced it had hooked up to Idaho Power's substation only in November, the same month it couldn't pay its power bill. "With the addition of permanent power, we are able to start-up the plant," Hoku Chief Executive Officer Scott Paul said on Nov. 21. Now, it wants Idaho Power to use some of the $4 million Hoku had previously deposited with the utility as security for its power bills to cover the November charges, according to its filing. . .
. . . The plant was originally supposed to be operational in 2008, but it struggled to raise funds to complete the facility as the economy soured. In March, Hoku received the second installment of a $50 million loan from majority owner Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co. of China that has helped keep the company afloat. As the company's share price has plunged to well below $1, from a 52-week high of $3.24, the company's management has been in turmoil, too. . .
(Note: Supplying electricity to the Hoku plant in Pocatello was one of the rationales for the Boardman to Hemingway line.)
BOISE, Idaho Idaho Power Co. told a struggling southeastern Idaho solar-industry manufacturer that the utility could shut off its power by Jan. 3 if it doesn't pay its $1.9 million electricity bill from November.
Honolulu-based polysilicon maker Hoku Corp., which has survived so far with help from Chinese financiers, lodged a formal protest with Idaho Public Utilities Commission regulators after getting a termination of service notice on Dec. 22.
The company's Hoku Materials unit told Idaho Power that it can't pay its November power bill until January due to cash flow problems. Hoku says losing electricity would delay its Pocatello plant's commissioning and expose infrastructure to freezing just as winter sets in, causing "material harm." Southeastern Idaho's hopes that Hoku's $390 million plant will eventually add hundreds of green-energy jobs to the local economy have been replaced by uncertainty over whether the project will survive. . .
Hoku announced it had hooked up to Idaho Power's substation only in November, the same month it couldn't pay its power bill. "With the addition of permanent power, we are able to start-up the plant," Hoku Chief Executive Officer Scott Paul said on Nov. 21. Now, it wants Idaho Power to use some of the $4 million Hoku had previously deposited with the utility as security for its power bills to cover the November charges, according to its filing. . .
. . . The plant was originally supposed to be operational in 2008, but it struggled to raise funds to complete the facility as the economy soured. In March, Hoku received the second installment of a $50 million loan from majority owner Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co. of China that has helped keep the company afloat. As the company's share price has plunged to well below $1, from a 52-week high of $3.24, the company's management has been in turmoil, too. . .
(Note: Supplying electricity to the Hoku plant in Pocatello was one of the rationales for the Boardman to Hemingway line.)
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