by Matthew Preusch 10/29/2009 The Oregonian
The rows of white turbines spinning over wheat fields and ridgelines in eastern Oregon are ample evidence that renewable energy from wind is real and growing.
So much so that the aging network of transmission lines and power stations that carries energy around the region is loaded to its limits.
But wind developers are just getting started. And thousands of miles of new power lines carried by skyscraper-sized steel towers will need to be laid across deserts, farms and forests as more wind farms rise in farther-flung corners of Oregon and the West.
It won't be cheap, or without controversy.
More than half of Oregon is public land that Oregonians value for recreation, unobstructed vistas and habitat for sensitive species. And the cleared corridors that accommodate such transmission lines cut a wide swath. . .
Oregon ranks fifth among states for wind power capacity. It now gets 7 percent of its power from wind, versus 1 percent a few years ago. And the state will require large utilities to source a quarter of the power they sell from renewable resources such as wind by 2025. . .
Northwest projects
PGE proposes building a 200-mile, 500-kilovolt line from near Boardman in northeast Oregon, across the Cascade Mountains and into the Willamette Valley, one of a half-dozen or so proposed transmission projects in the Northwest. . .
PGE hopes to break ground in 2013 and have the line up and running two years later.
But building a transmission line is complicated. Terrain varies. Transmission towers are up to 190 feet tall, and they are built in corridors 125 to 250 feet wide that have to be kept clear of trees.
"These corridors have a long-term environmental impact in that they are permitted clear-cuts. Most of the time they are hundreds of feet wide, and that impacts wildlife habitat and clean water," said Erik Fernandez, wilderness coordinator for the group Oregon Wild. . .
New lines often mean new rights of way, and across the American West, there are about 10,000 miles of new high-voltage lines -- those exceeding 200 kilovolts -- being considered in the next 10 years, according to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. At a meeting of Western governors in June, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal lamented that transmission lines could make his state look like a jumbled plate of spaghetti.
"We are talking about in a very short time span having a massive build-out of the power infrastructure. And if we do this the wrong way, there's going to be a large price tag environmentally," Fernandez said. . .
