The answer is blowing in the wind: a Montana gravel pit is exploring new ground with a plan to build a wind farm for electricity

Pit & Quarry, Sept, 2004 by James E. Guyette

Great Falls, Mont. has been known for years as The Electric City based on a historic abundance of hydropower where the mighty Missouri River tumbles 500 ft. through town. Big Sky Country also has big wind, and now a local gravel operation is exploring new ground as it prepares to erect a wind farm capable of generating utility-quality electricity.

For more than 100 years, Montana farmers have used windmills to pump drinking water for man and beast. For United Materials, the answer to powering-up its pit is blowing in the wind.

The company plans to install six 326-ft.-tall wind turbines that will produce nine megawatts of electricity--enough to serve 4,000 to 4,500 homes.

"It makes sense for us to do," says Bob McIntyre, United's chairman.

Several years ago the operation depleted its main gravel-mining site on Gore Hill, south of Interstate 15. The quest for another pit led them north across the four-lane highway to a 1,700-acre location on the edge of the Gore Hill bench.

However, the area lacked access to a 100,000-volt power line and a required substation. Three Cummins diesel generators were installed to drive the equipment, but Gore Hill's shingle-stripping brisk winds offered a far better solution.

"We knew that we had an adequate supply of wind," says McIntyre. "After more research we decided that this would work for us."

Selling power

In a rather complex arrangement, United will not use the wind power directly. Instead it will sell the juice to Idaho Power as an added profit center for the company.

A new substation--now a part of the project--near the wind turbines will "ramp up" the current to a 100,000-volt line belonging to NorthWestern Energy. This line will wheel the wind power over to Idaho Power.

"It will be our substation," McIntyre explains. A mile of suitable overhead lines is also being installed to service the pit.

United will be paid "seasonal rates" for its wind-generated power, and those funds will be applied toward traditionally generated electricity purchased on the open market. "We'll buy power at the best rate we can" from local providers, he notes.

McIntyre is reluctant to discuss specific figures, but a local newspaper concluded from its research that the three turbines and related infrastructure would cost about $9 million. United is financing the project, teaming with Exergy Development Group of Missoula to build the facility.

Construction is slated to begin this summer, with completion due by the end of the year.

The project could be delayed, however, based on the fate of federal energy legislation, which includes production tax credits for renewable energy projects.

The issue remains under debate in Congress. Although this is an election year, McIntyre is confident that the measures will pass within a few months.

McIntyre expects to use General Electric wind turbines for the Gore Hill application. They have three blades that operate facing into the wind. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity. The blades are controlled so they always spin at the same rate. They are not likely to chop-up birds.

The GE 1.5-megawatt machines are the largest wind turbines currently assembled in North America, with more than 2,200 units installed worldwide. (A much larger GE turbine unit is being developed for offshore locations.)

Breezing along

Wind power is rapidly picking up steam as an alternative power source--even for more-traditional applications such as those proposed by United.

"While Europe continues to lead the world in wind-power capacity, both the United States and Asia are demonstrating a strong, growing interest in wind power as a source of clean, reliable energy," says Steve Zwolinski, president of GE Energy's wind business division.

During GE's first 22 months in wind energy development, the company has more than doubled its wind engineering workforce, quadrupled its research and development engineering support to the wind segment, and initiated more than 100 new wind energy technology projects.

GE also dedicated an existing facility in Florida to wind turbine blade manufacturing and, this year, it's opening a new Global Research Center in Europe with an added focus on wind and other types of renewable energy.

"We view wind as a natural evolution of our global family of technology and service offerings and a solution that many of our traditional customers will require in the decades ahead," Zwolinski predicts.

The United site would be Montana's first commercial wind farm. Local politicians and state officials seem excited at the prospect.

The issue has received considerable positive coverage in the regional news media, with McIntyre and United prominently portrayed. The project has thus far breezed through the necessary public hearings.

The few concerns expressed by neighboring residents over the towers creating noise or generating aesthetic complaints were resolved during discussions. Questions about the safety of bird populations were alleviated by an avian study of flight patterns.