Blades arrive for wind turbines

Nine turbine blades arrived at Naff Ridge Monday as the $170 million Palouse Wind farm continues to take shape.

Workers at the construction headquarters on Baird Road south of Rosalia said the nine blades were set to go into nacelles of the project’s three turbines that sit near Highway 195 on the wind farm’s extreme west side. Strong winds, however, prevented them from lifting the blades up to the nacelles.

“Too windy to build a wind farm,” said Cole Shook with First Wind.

The 49-meter blades were trucked to Naff Ridge from Pasco where they arrived via train from the Vestas manufacturing plant in Windsor, Colo.

A Vestas worker told Shook inside one of the trailer offices that make up the Baird Road headquarters that his firm’s crews could have the blades installed on the first three towers in a day-and-a-half. After Shook offered to eat his University of Texas hat, the time estimate went to two days.

Fourteen of the project’s 58 towers have been erected with all three segments and the nacelles.

Lance Ginn with lead contractor RMT, based out of Madison, Wis., said his crews should finish erecting towers in the north loop by the end of next week. Bases for the others should be finished next week.

Ginn reported there were more than 200 workers from RMT, Vestas and First Wind on site.

Shook said they plan to bring in a helicopter today, Thursday, to string the electrical transmission lines through poles which will run six miles west from the substation on Naff Ridge to Avista’s Benewah-Shawnee transmission line. A line of towers with pully wheels has been installed in advance of the aerial stringing job.

Shook said the Highway 195 will be closed while the chopper flies the line overhead.

Avista last year signed a deal to buy electricity from the Palouse Wind turbines. First Wind will provide Avista about 40 average megawatts of renewable energy, and as much as 100 megawatts. The agreement is set to last for 30 years, beginning at the end of the year.

The wind farm is expected to generate enough power for about 30,000 homes of Avista customers.