Boston-based First Wind helps Utah jumpstart its wind energy potential through completion of Utah’s biggest wind energy project
The Milford Wind Corridor, a First Wind Milford project, is a 203.5 megawatt wind farm with a total investment of $86 million. The project paved the way for hundreds of job opportunities as well as energy security to Milford region. The First Wind farm is built with 97 First Wind turbines, and is primarily in charge of producing electricity for the Southern California Public Power Authority under a 20-year purchasing power agreement. The Milford wind farm has a capacity to power 45,000 homes annually and was able to generate 250 employment opportunities for residents in the area.
The project is just one among many renewable energy possibilities for Utah. Aside from the First Wind Milford project, the wind farm in Spanish Fork had jumpstarted the wind energy sector in Utah in 2008. Non-profit organization Utah Clean Energy assessed the effect of lessening energy use by 20 percent and sourcing the 20 percent remaining electricity requirement from renewable energy sources by year 2020.
According to the group, Utah can get as much as $310 million per year and generate 7,000 green collar jobs if the western state maximizes use of its renewable energy capacity, most especially its wind power.
In their report called Building the Clean Energy Economy, the group stated that a Utah’s renewable energy sources included in the 20 percent clean energy scenario represents 475 megawatts for wind energy production.
The same scenario proposed a 241 megawatt resource for geothermal production, 150 megawatts for concentrating solar power with storage, 84 megawatts for residential and commercial solar photovoltaic distributed electricity and 23 megawatts for the biomass sector.
An initial report stated that Utah did not have considerable capacities in terms of solar, wind and biomass energy, and that its renewable energy is based largely on hydropower alone.
Despite this, a study of Utah’s energy landscape shoed that there are 91 wind states in Utah. The Utah Renewable Energy Zone task force had found 51 wind areas which can potentially generate over 9,145 megawatts.
The task force said that 12 of the wind sites have a potential installed capacity of 1,830 megawatts. Wind resource is reported to be the greatest at a region near Milford, in a valley at the east of Beaver County.
The areas which together can generate a combined potential capacity of 2,500 megawatts include Black Mountains, Black Rock, Chipman Peak, Milford North, Milford South, Mineral Mountains, Sevier Desert, and Wah Wah Valley.
Through effective energy efficiency projects and compliant renewable energy policies, Utah can easily lower fuel prices, become energy independent, and become greener all a t the same time.
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