New wind farms take state's wind capacity past 1,000 megawatts a year

Two new wind farms in Kansas will make the state one of the few in the country with more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity generated every year by wind power.

Government and industry officials say the state is beginning to take advantage of its windy conditions, but much work remains to make wind energy a profitable industry in Kansas.

Flat Ridge Wind Farm recently began operating in Nashville, about 60 miles southwest of Wichita, and will generate about 100 megawatts of power a year. Central Plains Wind Farm in Marienthal, just east of Leoti, has begun partial operation and will eventually produce 99 megawatts a year.

Combined with existing wind farms, Kansas can now produce 1,012 megawatts of commercial, wind-generated electricity. The new plants, both owned by Westar Energy Inc., means Kansas ranks eighth among states in the amount of commercial wind power produced, still far behind Texas' 7,407 megawatts.

The development comes amid an ongoing political dispute over energy policy between Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Sebelius has said the state's energy future lies in wind and other renewable resources.

But GOP legislative leaders are attempting to override her administration's decision to block two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. House and Senate negotiators are working on the final version of a bill to do that and planned to meet Friday.

Kansas has enough wind to become a player in the wind energy market. The U.S. Department of Energy ranks Kansas as the third windiest state, after North Dakota and Texas.

But economic development experts say making wind power a profitable business requires building a large manufacturing and research base to supply the wind farms.

Kansas has started taking steps to meet that goal by reworking incentives to lure wind energy companies.

"Kansas needs to get in gear," said Allen Simmons, wind site manager for Westar. "We're right in the center of everything."

Wind farms alone are not particularly profitable. Flat Ridge cost $196 million to build, or about $2 million per megawatt, Simmons said. The 275 specialized construction workers mostly came from out of state, and only nine people are required to operate it.

The main economic benefit of wind farms is manufacturing the turbine parts, which currently come mostly from overseas.

But many cities and states are working to attract turbine manufacturing. Alternative energy manufacturing is one of the few sectors that are actively searching for new plant locations, said Darin Buelow, a principal of Deloitte Consulting.

Texas and Iowa are ahead after aggressively using incentives, he said. But Kansas could develop a wind manufacturing industry because the high cost of transporting the large components tends to give windy states an advantage.

"Those places with a natural advantage have a preponderance of wind potential and proximity to a suitable electric grid," Buelow said.

Wichita could be particularly competitive because of its aircraft manufacturing, which is similar in many ways to turbine manufacturing, said Randi Tveitaraas Jack, who oversees the Kansas Department of Commerce's effort to build the wind industry.

Electromech Technologies, which specializes in electromechanical motors and products for the aircraft and defense industries, is exploring how to get into the turbine market.

"It could be huge for our company," said Ed Wagner, the company's director of engineering.

As competition for the wind energy industry builds, Wichita and Kansas are working to become a bigger part of the industry, said Vicki Pratt Gerbino, president of the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition.

"My gut reaction," she said, "is that progress is being made just because we are talking about it with this vigor and this interest."