Global warming debate misses the point

Here's a radical thought from someone who works at a company building renewable energy facilities as fast as any utility in the nation (with the photo at left showing new turbine towers being trucked into our Wild Horse Wind Facility this week): the global warming debate completely misses the point when it comes to energy strategy.

Whether you are convinced that human activity is changing our climate, or convinced that climate change is all hot air, I think much of the back and forth misses a much bigger and more important point: we need to re-think our energy strategy so that we can produce more energy here in the U.S., and then use that energy wisely to get the most out of every dollar we invest. Climate change or not, I'm convinced that most of the actions that fall under the "stop global warming" banner make good sense -- even if you argue climate change isn't happening.

Here are a few of the things PSE is doing that address climate change, but also have a powerful impact on maintaining a diverse portfolio of resources and giving our customers greater control over their energy use -- and energy costs.

Energy independence: building more new wind power facilities, as seen in this report by Seattle's KING 5 TV. These facilities help add another source of power as energy demand rises, and give our portfolio a hedge against things like a low snowpack (which affects our hydro resources) or increased natural gas prices (which affects our natural gas-fired electric powerplants) or the potential for carbon cap and trade or tax regimes (which affects our coal-fired electric powerplants).

Energy efficiency: working to make energy efficiency something consumers think of first, by encouraging those who haven't used new technologies like CFLs to give them a try, offering rebates and savings options for homeowners, and bringing new tools online to allow users greater visibility and make smarter energy choices.

So, what's not to love about new clean sources of power, and being wiser about the energy resources we do have? We're using more energy as individuals, and our region's population is growing. Bottomline, we need more energy, and we'll get the most out of our investments by not wasting the sources we all pay for through our electric rates.

A lot of heat, but little light shed, in the climate change debate. But common sense tells me the strategies of renewable energy and energy efficiency will pay off, regardless of whether the planet is getting warmer, cooler or staying just as it is.

Turbines, turbines, turbines

Today's wind turbines are tall, about 351 feet tall in fact out at Puget Sound Energy's Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility. I took the pictures here on Monday, and they show some of the 22 new wind turbines going up.

Each turbine blade is about 120 feet long, or longer than the wing of a Boeing 747. Made out of carbon fibre composite, they are hollow and are lifted one at a time with a crane and fitted into the hub of the three-blade rotor. And, as you can see, the hub itself is huge, taking one oversized semi truck to carry it. It's so big, workers climb inside to bolt in each blade.

Each of the new turbines, which are adding to the 127 turbines already at Wild Horse, has a capacity of 2 megawatts -- or about the equivalent of the energy needed to serve 225 to 300 average U.S. households, according to the American Wind Energy Association. We opened Wild Horse in 2006, and are expanding now with an eye toward full commercial production from the new turbines by the end of 2009 or early 2010. With this 44 MW addition, Wild Horse will have a capacity of 273 MW, or what AWEA equates to just under 70,000 average American homes.

Impressive as this all looks in photos, it is even
more amazing in person. To see wind power up close, come and spend an hour or so at our Renewable Energy Center at Wild Horse. It's free and open every day now through November 30. It's about 2 hours east of Seattle on I-90 near Ellensburg.

The green jobs impact is pretty impressive as well, with about 150 people being employed during construction at Wild Horse, and some two dozen working full-time for operations and maintenance. The turbine makers are also increasingly turning to U.S. production for key components, which is good for our economy, and helps stabilize the prices of the units for us as a utility, by removing the swings of the exchange rate between the dollar and the Euro.