UTILITY CO-OP CONNECTION
Advanced
technology
enables Illinois
electric co-op
to tap into wind
power
By Anne Mayberry
USDA Rural Development
Rural Utilities Programs
riving across rural
Illinois in December,
the landscape is one of
pale gold crop residue
set against rich brown
soil. But in one part of rural Pike
County, Illinois, the landscape has
changed dramatically. Now, towering
365 feet above the fields is a wind
turbine erected by Illinois Rural
Electric Cooperative (Illinois REC).
Since it was installed in May, 2005,
the turbine — Illinois’ first — has been
producing power at full capacity 30
percent of the time, depending on wind
speed and frequency. This is in keeping
with projections in the project
feasibility study.
Many parts of the nation, including
much of Illinois, were previously
thought to lack the wind resources
necessary for wind power. But wind
turbine technology has improved
greatly in recent years, with utility-scale
turbines generating electricity at wind
speeds as low as six miles per hour.
“The new technology allows the
turbines to operate at a lower wind
speed, and that changes the equation of
where they can be located,” says Sean
Middleton, the co-op’s manager of
engineering.
States such as North and South
Dakota still have an advantage because
the wind blows so much more there.
“In the Dakotas, the 30 percent full
capacity we see in Illinois would likely
be closer to 40, 50 or even 60 percent
capacity,” Middleton says.
But variability of wind can pose
problems. Wind power is not classified
as base-load power because it cannot be
relied upon 24/7 to provide enough
electric power to meet member needs.
USDA loan aids project
Wind power is among the fastest
growing forms of renewable energy in
the United States. It is also one of the
lowest-cost, non-hydro sources of
renewable power. Once a turbine is paid
for, wind is essentially free fuel that
produces no greenhouse gas emissions.
With the increasing cost of fossil fuels
and the low environmental impact of
wind turbines, wind power is “the right
thing to do,” Middleton says.
Illinois REC’s wind project was
boosted by a $1.3 million loan from
USDA Rural Development’s Utilities
Program. The wind project earned the
co-op the Wind Cooperative of the
Year honor from the U.S. Department
of Energy in 2006.
The initial thrust for the wind
project began with the co-op’s
members. “We do annual surveys of our
members, and one question asked
whether we should explore involvement
in alternative sources of energy,”
Middleton says. “The answer was an
overwhelming ‘Yes!’”
“Our next step was to see how we
could make alternative energy sources
work for us,” Middleton continues.
“Cooperatives are good at managing
debt and have good relations with their
communities and their members; these
relations were assets that helped.”
As part of its feasibility study of
wind power, co-op representatives
attended a conference sponsored by the
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, part of the U.S.
Department of Energy. “We discovered
that we had utility-grade wind right in
our back yard,” Middleton recalls.
The next steps seemed to happen
simultaneously. “All of this — member
reaction to the survey, the wind
conference and available funding
resources — converged, and the result
was the Pike County Wind Turbine
Project.”
Reducing purchased
power costs
“Wind power accomplishes two
goals,” Middleton says. “First,
integrating it into the power grid means
Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative has
to buy less power. It is also causing the
co-op to look at the feasibility of power
storage, which ultimately could result in
another renewable energy project.”
Currently, the turbine generates 1.65
megawatts of power, enough to provide
electricity to 500 homes. Wind levels in
central Illinois could support as many as
100 turbines, Middleton says, which
could add as much as $7 million to the
local tax base.
The co-op is looking at adding a few
more turbines, but Middleton says any
large project would require contracts to
sell the wind-generated power. Can it
happen? Yes, he says, but there are no
current plans to expand the co-op’s
wind project.
The lack of transmission capacity is a
major obstacle to increasing wind
power. Utilities in the surrounding
parts of the state are “not excited about
wind farms, in part, because of the cost
of moving this new power load around,”
Middleton explains. Nonetheless, about
150 electric cooperative utilities across
the country own wind facilities or have
agreements in place to purchase wind
power.
Another constraint to wind power is
that some of the best wind sites are
found in mountains and coastal areas,
where turbine placement can cause
scenic-impact concerns.
In Pike County, the overall
community has always been supportive
of the wind project, Middleton says.
For the most part, the co-op managed
to avoid the negative issues that
sometimes arise from constituencies
with conflicting goals. However,
initially there were some critics,
Middleton says. “The concerns focused
on possible harm to birds and the noise
issues. But those concerns did not
materialize.”
The co-op’s wind turbine produces
less sound than does an average
household, in large part because newmodel
rotors now turn much more
slowly than did rotors on older model
turbines. The slower rotational speeds
also reduce the risk to birds.
Since the turbine was installed,
community support has been
overwhelming. “People see the turbine
up close, and that makes a difference,”
Middleton says. “They love it. We’ve
put in a small community park by it.
We don’t have picnic tables yet, but we
get families coming out to play, take
pictures — just to visit. That might be
the difference between people in cities
and rural areas.”
