Potential Wind Power Acres Mapped
 
Twin Falls, Idaho - Jan. 18, 2002
 
A new map identifies 1.3 million acres in southern Idaho as having the potential to produce commercially viable wind power.
 
Commercial wind power is nonexistent in Idaho, said Dick Larsen, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Water Resources' Energy Division. But an industry is forming rapidly.
 
"We're on the move. That's what really is refreshing about it," Larsen said.
 
Wind power used by utilities that serve Idaho is bought from projects in neighboring states.
 
A new map developed by the U.S. Department of Energy identifies areas in the state that have the wind needed for potential commercial wind power development. Class 3 winds -- winds an average of 14 mph or higher -- are needed for commercially viable wind production.
 
The map shows that an 800,000-acre area in Owyhee and southern Elmore counties provides the largest wind power potential in southern Idaho, the state energy division says.
 
Five other areas larger than 100,000 acres have been identified by the map as having Class 3 winds. They span portions of Bingham, Blaine, Bonneville, Butte, Camas, Cassia, Clark, Custer, Gooding, Jefferson, Lemhi, Lincoln and Power counties. Twenty other areas of the state have more than 1,000 acres of windy land.
 
More than half a dozen wind power development agreements have been reached with southern Idaho land owners, enXco, an international wind power development company, said in a joint news release with the Idaho Energy Division.
 
The agreements signed between enXco and Idaho landowners are the first step in development for an actual commercial wind power industry in the state.
 
"If the projects actually reach fruition, we envision a series of modest-sized projects in the 25 to 50 megawatts range," said Dave Luck, enXco's Idaho business development person.
 
enXco already has installed wind measuring devices at its Notch Butte project north of Jerome. That project could eventually lead to more than two dozen wind turbines spread across 1,000 acres of ranchland and produce up to 30 megawatts of power.
 
Besides developing wind power megawatts, Idaho also must work on wind power policy. The Idaho Wind Power Working Group has been developed and holds its next meeting at the end of the month. The group of government and private sector representatives is headed by the Idaho Energy Division.
 
enXco has been the first wind power developer to tap Idaho, Larsen said. Other developers are showing interest as well, he said.