First Wind will apply for Naff Ridge wind farm

The first wind farm in Whitman County is just a permit process away.

Two years of collecting meteorological data have given wind farm company First Wind enough information to know Whitman County’s Naff Ridge is the site to develop a wind farm.

“We’re excited about the potential of bringing wind power to Whitman County,” said Ben Fairbanks, the Boston-based company’s director of development for the Northwest.

First Wind will submit an application to the county planning department later this month.

The plan is to install enough towers to generate 100 megawatts of electricity. Up to 45, 400-foot tall turbines could be sited to generate that much power, said Fairbanks, depending on the precise location and design of each turbine. Each turbine generates between one and three megawatts of electricity.

First Wind will unveil plans for the company’s Palouse Wind development in a meeting at the CETC building in Colfax next Wednesday, July 14. The meeting is a requirement of the county’s wind farm ordinance passed in November 2009.

Naff Ridge, which runs north to south along the east side of Highway 195 between Rosalia and Cashup, is situated perfectly to catch winds and is in close proximity to high-voltage Avista transmission lines.

“It’s just the perfect combination,” said Fairbanks. “If I was going to design a spot, it would be Naff Ridge.”

Fairbanks said powerful winds whip over the Palouse from the southwest out of the Columbia River Gorge. Naff Ridge is aligned perpendicular to prevailing wind patterns. The ridge’s 2,600-feet elevation also means it is high enough to prevent lower hills from obstructing those winds.

The site is listed as a potential wind farm site on a map of wind resources put out by the National Renewable Energies Laboratory, an agency under the federal Department of Energy.

While pointing to a map in First Wind’s Oakesdale office, Fairbanks noted most developers have focused development on areas that are marked as sure things on the laboratory’s map.

With most of those locations now developed, companies are turning to speculative sites like Naff Ridge. The map lists several other Whitman County locations as speculative spots.

Most of the tops of the Naff Ridge hills are barren, with vegetation growing on the northeast slopes. Fairbanks said those factors show the powerful force the wind has had in geologically shaping Naff Ridge.

Farmers along the ridge, said Fairbanks, have told him the tops of the hills, where turbines would be located, are the lowest yielding spots in their fields.

“We’ve got a group of very supportive landowners,” he said. “This is a natural fit with the farm landscape. It gives them another crop that can benefit the farm and keep it in the family for future generations.”

First Wind has been measuring wind on the ridge since putting up a pair of meteorological towers in 2008.

“We’ve been looking around this area for quite some time, making sure it will work before we make that couple hundred million dollar investment,” he said.

Adding to the allure of the site are the high capacity Avista transmission lines just three miles away. Avista upgraded the transmission lines from 115 kilovolts to 230 kilovolts in 2007.

Fairbanks said transmission of electricity from wind farms to the main grid is generally one of the higher costs of development.

First wind is a privately held company that finances and operates its own projects, selling energy to electric utilities like Avista and Inland Power and Light.

The 2007 Initiative 937 requires larger Washington utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from solar and wind power plants.

Founded in 2002, First Wind currently has six wind farms producing 504 megawatts of electricity throughout the United States.

The company is capitalized by investment firms Madison Dearborn Partners, Chicago, and D.E. Shaw, New York. Fairbanks said the company has a stable financial base that allowed it to withstand the financial collapse of 2008. Several other wind companies fell victim to the shrinking capital markets after the meltdown.

“If I was concerned about where the financing comes from, I’d be in a different job,” said Fairbanks.

First Wind also has other meteorological towers at locations in Spokane and Adams counties. Last month, the company erected two more met towers west of Oakesdale to gauge the potential of another farm there.

“I’ve put up a lot of met towers, and most of the towers I’ve put up have come down with nothing,” said Fairbanks.

In addition to next Wednesday’s Colfax meet, First Wind will hold an information session and barbecue at its offices in Oakesdale next Thursday, July 15.