Front Page  AED

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

N.M. Doing Good Job of Tapping Wind Energy, According to Report

By Jack King
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writers
    You could call the Land of Enchantment "the little state that could."
    At 496 megawatts of wind generation capacity, New Mexico ranks 10th among U.S. states in its "developed" ability to generate power from clean, wind-powered turbines, according to a report by the American Wind Energy Association.
    "Developed" means the power is generated from projects already built or under construction, said Christine Real de Azua, the association's assistant director of communications.
    New Mexico may be only 10th, but it's doing an excellent job with what it has. According to the association, New Mexico ranks 12th on another list showing wind energy potential, Azua said.
    New Mexico's wind development rankings put it behind Texas— the top state with 4,356 megawatts— as well as California, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois and Oklahoma.
    On the other hand, it ranked ahead of North Dakota, the No. 1 ranked state in terms of potential to generate wind energy, as well as other top-ranked states: Kansas, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska. Texas is the No. 2 ranked state in terms of wind potential.
    Real de Azua said a 1991 study by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy ranked the states in terms of available windy land and how much energy recorded wind speeds could theoretically generate from a turbine.
    "This says New Mexico is not lagging in the way it is tapping its potential," she said.
    State Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources spokeswoman Jodi Porter suggested that New Mexico's wind energy potential is much bigger than reported.
    "New Mexico's potential for electricity from wind is enormous; we have some of the best individual sites in the country, especially on the eastern plains. Our state could produce many more times its own electrical consumption, putting us in a position to export wind power," she said.
    Data for the report comes primarily from companies that are members of the wind energy association and is revised quarterly, according to the AWEA Web site.
    Potential Wind Power Capacity (Megawatts)
    Rank/state Capacity
    1. North Dakota 138,400
    2. Texas 136,100
    3. Kansas 121,900
    4. South Dakota 117,200
    5. Montana 116,000
    6. Nebraska 99,100
    7. Wyoming 85,200
    8. Oklahoma 82,700
    9. Minnesota 75,000
    10. Iowa 62,900
    11. Colorado 54,900
    12. New Mexico 49,700
    Existing Wind Power Capacity (Megawatts)
    Rank/state Existing Under
    construction
    1. Texas 4,356 1,238
    2. California 2,439 165
    3. Minnesota 1,300 46
    4. Iowa 1,273 117
    5. Washington 1,163 126
    6. Colorado 1,067 0
    7. Oregon 885 108
    8. Illinois 699 108
    9. Oklahoma 689 0
    10. New Mexico 496 0
    Source: American Wind Energy Association