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Xcel Cancels New Wind Power Plant Near Lamar
September 19, 2005
Xcel Energy in Denver has cancelled its contract with developers of
a proposed wind power plant near Lamar according to September 19
report by the Associated Press. Prairie Wind Energy, a farmer-owned
company in Lamar that had contracted with Xcel earlier this year to
build the wind power plant rated at 69 megawatts (MW), said they
could not purchase the turbines cheaply enough this year to meet the
terms of the Xcel contract. Prairie Wind says they will continue to
attempt to build the plant and renegotiate a power purchase contract
with Xcel. Read the story posted on Penn Energy’s “Power News” at:
http://gee.pennnet.com/news/news_display.cfm?Section=PENEWS&ArticleID=237069
The run-up in turbine prices is due to a couple of factors,
according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), and
primary among these is supply and demand. This year will smash all
records for wind turbine installations in the United States, which
AWEA estimates at greater than 2,500 MW. Part of the problem is the
on-again off-again support for wind energy in Congress, which
allowed the wind energy incentive to lapse in 2004. This led many
developers to delay construction until the incentive was renewed
this year, and the concentration of orders has allowed suppliers to
bid up the price. See the April 26 press release from AWEA at:
http://www.awea.org/news/news050426qmk.html |
