Crook County Considers Rural Renewable Energy Development Zone

Crook County Considers Rural Renewable Energy Development Zone
The Bulletin - March 13, 2008:

With housing projects in a slump and unemployment on the rise Crook County is looking to renewable energy as an industry that can provide a boost to its economy.

Proposed location of Crook County Wind Farm

The Crook County Court is considering a proposal that would make the entire county an Oregon rural renewable energy development zone. The designation, which would give wind, solar, biomass and other alternative energy-producing companies the chance to apply for up to five years of property tax exemptions, would be just the sixth in the state and the first in Central Oregon.

Prineville-Crook County Economic Development Manager Jason Carr, who brought, the idea to the Crook County Court at its regular meeting last week, said the proposal was prompted in part by interest from two businesses – Ochoco Power LLC (a division of La Pine-based Sylvan Power), which has plans to build a $40 million biomass power plant, and Pacific Wind Power, a California energy company looking into building a large wind farm – are seriously considering building in Crook County.

That interest, he said, is part of a larger, statewide movement to boost the economy and the environment with renewable energy projects. The Oregon Renewable Energy Act passed by the state Legislature last year will require large utility companies like Pacific Power, which operates locally, to provide at least 5 percent of their electricity generation from renewable sources by 2011 and 25 percent by 2025.

Central Oregon Utilities Face Mandated Renewable Energy Requirements

Three electric utility companies serve Central Oregon: Pacific Power, a large regional corporation and two very small electric cooperatives – Central Electric and Midstate Electric.   Each utility is working towards meeting the requirements of the Oregon Renewable Energy Act that mandate that each of these companies to produce a certain percentage of their power from new renewable sources by 2025.  The following article explores how each company is approaching this task.

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How will utilities green up portfolios?
The Bulletin – February 25, 2008

Eight months after the Oregon Renewable Energy Act was signed into law, Pacific Power — the utility with the most customers in Central Oregon — is already working to meet the state’s mandate to deliver 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025.

The utility, which provides power to 29 percent of the state, is building wind farms throughout the Northwest and hopes to generate 3,400 megawatts of energy by 2013.

Redmond-based Central Electric Cooperative, the utility with the second-most accounts in Central Oregon, is thinking about the goal, according to spokesman Alan Guggenheim, but doesn’t have any current plans to build new generating facilities. Because of its size — the utility makes up less than 1.5 percent of the state’s electric load — CEC only needs to deliver 5 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025.

La Pine-based MidState Electric Cooperative, which serves less than 1 percent of the state’s electric load, also is mandated to deliver 5 percent renewable power by 2025.