Earth Equity News

Washington's Wind Power Windfall. By Kathie Durbin, Clark Columbian, Washington, 10/12/10. “Eastern Klickitat County’s wind energy boom has utterly transformed the landscape. In the past four years, 624 wind turbines have risen along the crest of the Columbia Hills and on ridges south and east of this town of 90, each the height of a 41-story building as measured from the ground to the tip of the highest turbine blade… The gusty Gorge winds that set those turbine blades spinning have the capacity to generate more than 1,200 megawatts of power once all the wind farms under construction in Klickitat County are generating electricity -- enough to serve about 300,000 homes. That’s more than the generating capacity of Portland General Electric’s Trojan nuclear power plant, which closed in 1993, or about five natural gas-fired plants, such as the River Road plant operated by Clark Public Utilities… For Bickleton, the wind-powered transformation has been abrupt, and mostly positive… The arrival of large-scale wind development also has thrown a lifeline to Bickleton-area farmers who previously scratched out a living growing dryland wheat.”