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Wind-power consultant Tim Carlson says $4 million in private corporate money has been spent on the project. File Photo by Clint Karlsen. Click on the image for an enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

Saturday, July 13, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Air Force concerns thwart Nevada Test Site wind farm

A $130 million Nevada Test Site wind power project was abruptly canceled Friday after Air Force officials said turbine blades whirling atop Shoshone Mountain would disrupt radar signals during training exercises.

The decision by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that operates the test site for the Department of Energy, halted years of work by public- and private-sector leaders during the final stage of the project's approval process.

"We had clearly hoped this project could come to fruition," said Kathleen Carlson, the manager of the administration's Nevada Operations Office in North Las Vegas. "However, we must support the mission requirements of the Air Force to train, test and develop tactics in an unfettered environment."

Darwin Morgan, a local spokesman for the administration, said the Air Force made its position clear this week.

The announcement was another blow to environmentalists and Nevada's congressional delegation, coming three days after the Senate approved the placement of a high-level nuclear waste repository inside the test site at Yucca Mountain. Parties involved with the project, including the consultant for the NTS Development Corp., the public-private venture behind the renewable energy project, said the timing of the termination announcement was coincidental.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who led Tuesday's unsuccessful battle on the Senate floor to stop the Yucca Mountain Project, expressed disappointment the wind farm project was terminated.

"He's going to keep working to see where we can do this (wind-power) project and move forward with it," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said late Friday. She said there was no connection between the Air Force decision on the wind-power site and the Senate approval of Yucca Mountain.

She said Reid, who chairs the energy and water subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke earlier this week with Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche. Reid was told the wind farm can't go forward "because of national security concerns that are classified," Hafen said.

Wind-power consultant Tim Carlson, who is not related to Kathleen Carlson, represents the four companies behind the project. He said he was deeply disappointed. Since the project's inception in 2000, more than $4 million in private corporate money had been spent on engineering, planning and collecting wind data.

The companies that want to build the wind farm are a Danish firm, NEG Micon; its development company, Global Renewable Energy Partners; Siemens, the fifth-largest company in the world; and BP Capital, headed by Texas oil man Boone Pickens. The companies still intend to begin construction on the Table Mountain Wind Project south of Las Vegas.

Tim Carlson said plans called for installing some 300 wind turbines on 264-foot-tall towers on Shoshone Mountain in three phases. The first 55 turbines would have had a capacity to generate 85 megawatts of electricity. After the completion of the second and third phases, the wind farm's capacity would have increased to 375 megawatts, enough to power a city with a population of 375,000.

Utility companies in Nevada and California, including Nevada Power Co. and the test site itself, would have been customers. The wind-power group still holds a contract with Nevada Power that was approved in May by the Public Utilities Commission.

"I think there were some issues that occurred recently in our national security that caused concern," Tim Carlson said, noting "it would have been nice" if the Air Force could have communicated its concerns earlier.

"We want to have some time to think about this and determine what we can do to solve the problem and address the Air Force's concerns," he said.

Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Mike Estrada said the Shoshone Mountain wind farm "would severely degrade our abilities to train crews and conduct testing and tactics development out there."

Nellis Air Force Range flanks the Nevada Test Site on three sides, and the top-secret Groom Lake installation, described by former workers there as an area where U.S. military aircraft are tested against foreign radar systems, sits near the northeast corner of the test site.

"Basically anytime an aircraft has its radar turned on and is pointed anywhere near the direction of the proposed wind farm, it would jam his radar," Estrada said. "If DOE decides to look at other locations, we will assist them in determining if it would have impacts."

Estrada said the Air Force conducted studies to determine whether any other material besides metal could be used for the turbine blades, but even fiberglass would have caused problems.

Gov. Kenny Guinn released a statement through his press secretary, Greg Bortolin, saying, "For many years in Nevada, we have felt wind energy had high potential. It is unfortunate this happened. Eventually, we will take advantage of the wind and solar potential in this state."

NTS Development Corp. intends to use the test site for other private ventures, including one involving Kistler Aerospace Corp. to launch and land reusable space vehicles that put communications satellites into orbit.