Point Reyes Light- November 5, 1998

Wind power company makes public offering

Anticipating a growing demand for "green electricity" produced from renewable sources - as opposed to nuclear reactors or fossil-fueled plants - a Point Reyes Station-based firm has started offering shares in its wind-turbine business.

Hoping to raise $1 million through a direct public offering, Wind Harvest plans to install up to 100 new Windstar turbines at a site near Palm Springs.

Wind Harvest would then market the electricity it generates to small businesses looking to buy electricity from non-polluting sources, said George Wagner, the company's vice-president.

For nearly 20 years, Wagner's company has been developing a patented turbine, which spins on a vertical axis instead of horizontal axis like conventional windmills. (In other words, Wagner's turbines look somewhat like egg beaters while conventional windmills look more like electric fans.)

Until deregulation took effect Jan. 1, Wind Harvest had little hope of breaking into the heavily regulated energy market, said Wagner.

Now, with deregulation allowing small companies to compete with giant utilities for individual customers, the company is poised to sell wind energy to the environmentally conscious consumer, he said.

"We're on the cusp of something very big," added Wagner, who likens the burgeoning "green electricity" market to the willingness of some consumers to pay higher prices for organic foods. "It's like buying organic milk," he reasons. "Who thought anyone would pay more for Straus milk?"

Indeed, since deregulation took effect in January, several businesses and municipalities have made high-profile decisions to buy green power, most notably the City of Santa Monica and Patagonia, the Ventura-based clothing company.

Although wind energy already produces about 1.1 percent of California's electricity - about enough to light San Francisco - deregulation has yet to generate a proven market for green power, said Bob Aldrich, a spokesman for the California Energy Commission.

The most encouraging sign for wind power, he said, is that wind farms in places like Altamont Pass and Palm Springs are installing new turbines for the first time since 1994, when talk of deregulation made operators nervous about their future.

To help wind farms make the transition to a deregulated marketplace (in which the wind farms retail electricity directly to consumers instead of wholesaling it to public utilities), California has earmarked $70.2 million in subsidies over the next four years.

The California Energy Commission is also preparing to spend another $5.4 million to educate consumers about the benefits of buying green electricity, including the possibility of getting state rebates of up to 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

"It's hard to put a finger on where it's going because it is so new," commission spokesman Aldrich said. "The one thing we have seen, as far as renewables are concerned, are a lot of wind farms repowering."

Wind Harvest is currently negotiating to install up to 100 turbines on a wind farm near Palm Springs to give the company a higher profile in the marketplace, said Wagner.

Because Windstar turbines measure only 45 feet tall, about half the size of conventional windmills, they use less land and interfere less with views, Wagner said, adding that vertical-axis windmills are also quieter than other turbines and do not trap birds in their spinning blades.

But most importantly, he continued, their materials and relatively simple design allow them to be located in remote areas where it would be nearly impossible to bring in cranes and construction equipment for work on conventional wind turbines.

That fact has made Windstar turbines attractive to developing countries. Wind Harvest has turbines operating in China and is negotiating to build them in southern Africa. His turbines also power a desalination plant in Puerto Rico, Wagner said.

In the foreseeable future, however, Wind Harvest will not install turbines for individual customers, he added. The company plans to market wind power to businesses using more than 50,000 kilowatts per year. With large-scale customers, Wind Harvest will be able to hire contractors to install the turbines and to negotiate with power companies to deliver the electricity.

Wagner concedes it will be difficult to sell an invisible commodity such as electricity on the basis that it's good for the environment - especially if customers are not directly receiving wind-generated electricity. The concept of green electricity will take time for some customers to fully embrace, he said.

The problem is that creation of wind farms will not eliminate the need for fossil-fuel plants. It will merely to provide utility companies with alternative sources of fuel. In short, the electrons in a home's wiring may continue to come from a fossil-fuel plant just as they always did; the only difference will be that less fossil fuel will be consumed.

"If you create green power, you are eliminating a bad source," Wagner explained. "For every wind turbine we put up, it means you don't have to burn two barrels of oil. It's immaterial where [the power] goes. It's offsetting pollution."

Considering that power production creates most of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, it is only a matter of time before consumers begin to see the cost benefits of buying green power, agreed Fred Noble, who operates the Palm Springs wind farm where Wind Harvest plans to install its turbines.

Since deregulation there has already been a growing demand for "green electricity," said Noble, who expects it will only increase with greater public awareness. "Here in Palm Springs," he noted, "the prevailing winds bring the smog from LA right through the pass."

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