There's power in the wind, but it's not unlimited

4/13/2009 9:48:32 AM

by Bill Modisett, Midland Reporter-Telegram

BIG SPRING -- There's power in those gusty winds that blow over the rolling hills around this jumping off point to the Staked Plains of Texas. That fact is evidenced by the number of steel towers that have sprung up on either side of Interstate 20 around here in the past few years, each with a whirling windmill on top.

But a Big Spring wind energy company official said wind is not the answer to this nation's insatiable thirst for electric power. It is merely one element in the mix of power producers that will provide what the people of the future will need.

Katharine "Kathy" Lusk, principal owner of AKL Wind Energy, said, "Wind is not the golden egg that is going to provide all the power we will need. It is just part of the overall energy picture."

In 2008 Texas became the nation's leading producer of wind-generated electrical power, but that still was only 2-3 percent of the total power demand of the state. By the end of this year, Lusk said, wind generation in Texas could climb to 5 percent and eventually could be 15 percent.

Americans have shown they do not want to use less energy, Lusk said. But, she added, conservation of energy is still very important as the world's energy demand mushrooms.

Lusk, who grew up on a farm and ranch operation in Lynn County, got involved in wind energy leasing services in the interest of helping her own family and other landowners. In 2006, she incorporated AKL Wind Energy, which now works with five of the top 10 wind developers in the nation.

When she first started leasing land for wind generation a decade ago, the lease rate was often $1 per acre, she said.

"Now, however, the same land leases for $4 to $5 per acre depending on its location and wind generation ability," she said. Much of the increase came about after landowners learned more about wind generation and what the market for electricity justified.

She said learning about wind energy leasing has been an evolving process. The leasing process has now changed, she said, to where a landowner leases land for different periods -- development, the construction phase when the towers are actually put in place, the operation phase which is a 20- to 30-year period when the electricity is actually being produced and, lastly, a decommission phase.

"It's still a learning process for us," Lusk said. She said the leases are extremely variable and that the amount a landowner receives for a lease should either be paid by the megawatt or by a percentage of the electricity produced.