Seven CA Wind Projects Receive Funding

source: Wapa news 2001.10.22

The California Energy Commission (CEC) recently announced that in a recent auction of financial incentives, nine new renewable energy power plants, including seven wind power plants, received funding. The installed capacity of all of the renewable energy power plants is expected to be about 300 megawatts (MW). The projects include a 30-MW facility fueled by used tires in Imperial County, CA, and a small-scale hydroelectricpower plant in El Dorado County, CA. Seven additional wind power plants ranging in size and production capacity were chosen for funding, as well.

"These new projects represent an important step towards Governor Davis' goal to increase California's yield of electricity from renewables from 12 percent today to 17 percent by 2006," said CEC electricity and natural gas committee chair Michael Moore. "We're very pleased that this auction was a success." The third auction in a series conducted by CEC's renewable energy program, the successful bidders will receive incentive payments up to 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the renewable electricity produced during their first five years of operation. Additionally, to qualify for funding, the projects must be located in California for sale, not just for on-site use.

Bids were accepted from the lowest incentive to the highest until all of the allocated funds were exhausted. Eligible power generation technologies include biomass, digester gas, geothermal, landfill gas, photovoltaics, small hydroelectric (30 MW or less), solar thermal electric, waste tire and windpower.

Of the original 72 projects selected in the first two auctions, 35projects totaling more than 200 MW of power have been completed and are delivering power to the grid. . For more information on renewable energy projects in California, see Web site at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/index.html . Results of the third auction can be found on the Commission's Web site at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/contracts . The CEC Renewable Energy Program is available at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/renewables .