Bellingham-based Cascade Community Wind Co. on Tuesday is expected to hoist the first of three 115-foot community wind turbines and towers into the sky near Thorp, marking the company's ongoing effort to establish the first local distributive wind power system in Kittitas County, according to a news release.
The site of the first turbine to go up is on the Del Knudson property about 10 miles west of Ellensburg off Joe Watt Canyon Road.
Groundbreaking ceremonies at the site were conducted last September with more than 50 people in attendance.
Terry Meyer, engineer, manager and owner of Cascade Community Wind Co., on Friday said the goal is to have the 100-kilowatt turbine operating Wednesday or as soon as possible after all electrical connections are finalized.
Soft ground may delay final connecting work a few days. Once operating, power from the Knudson turbine will go into the surrounding Puget Sound Energy electrical system, the utility purchasing its power, the release said.
Sections of the turbine were delivered to the site March 14.
The Alger, Wash., firm of Highland Energy Systems constructed the tower foundation and is expected to use a crane to lift the tower up Tuesday morning, Meyer said.
Second project
Parts of a second turbine assembly also were delivered March 14 to another project site farther west on Thorp Prairie land owned by farmer Frank Gregerich.
The Gregerich turbine is expected to go up in one or two months when surrounding ground is dry.
Both turbines are remanufactured Vestas V20s units; each tower is 80 feet from rotor hub to the ground, and each of the turbine's three blades is about 35 feet long.
This makes the towers' tip heights — from the tip of a vertically extended blade to the ground — 115 feet.
Halus Power Systems of San Leandro, Calif., supplied the turbines.
The cost to purchase, transport and put the turbines up, and to make all electrical connections, is more than $350,000 each, Meyer said.
A third turbine site, still in development, is on property owned by Kittitas Valley dairy operators Mike and Pam Scott, and Mike's brother Kenny Scott, on Killmore Road northwest of Ellensburg.
Feasibility testing on the Scott land will occur this year and is expected to start soon (see related story).
Cascade Community Wind also this year received recovery act funds through the Washington Department of Commerce in the amount of $1 million.
Bill in Legislature
Cascade Community Wind is seeking to use the shorter, community wind towers in Kittitas County at this time because a county ordinance that would have allowed taller, industrial-sized towers (up to 400 feet in tip height) was not approved by county commissioners last year, Meyer said.
Meyer said he supports a bill now in the Legislature that will allow the state Energy Site Evaluation Council to grant permits for community wind projects on rural lands after a county government allows the state council to be the entity to decide.
The state council would decide on the projects if a county government doesn't have an ordinance overseeing such projects or if it hasn't updated its ordinance in 10 years.
Kittitas County commissioners are opposed to the bill because they say it gives too much authority to the state to make land-use decisions that should be made by local governments.
County governments would still have some control, Meyer said, and the proposed bill would give farmers a reasonable path for projects involving larger towers and turbines.
More interest
Another Kittitas Valley farmer interested in a community wind project on his land is Jack Wheatley of Level Best Farm near Thorp, according to the release.
