Putting wind to work on farms

Financing company MMA Renewable Ventures is branching into wind energy, betting places like family farms are underserved.

The company on Wednesday is expected to announce the launch of its wind business, which will provide financing and project management for installations between 10 megawatts and 50 megawatts.

Home on the plain: Wind power.

(Credit: GE)

Its first customer is a planned 10-megawatt project, the PaTu Wind Farm in Oregon, which is expected to go up by 2009. MMA Renewable has a pipeline of deals worth 200 megawatts, said Moira Geraghty, vice president of wind finance at MMA Renewable Ventures.

In general, the deals will be structured so that MMA Renewable Ventures manages the construction of an existing project, procures the equipment, and secures the financing. It will operate the facility and then, after earning money on the project, will hand over majority ownership to the landowner, Geraghty explained.

Until now, the company has focused on solar power installations at corporations, where it installs and operates solar arrays and sells electricity back to customers under a purchase power agreement.

While technology continues to advance, financing of renewable energy projects is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to adoption.

Geraghty said that smaller installations, rather than giant, utility-scale wind farms, often get derailed because of a lack of capital.

"It takes significant capital and resources to procure the turbines in the first place," she said.

The PaTu Wind Farm is expected to be able to generate enough electricity to power 3,000 homes each year, or about 30,000 megawatt hours.

[ev61]

excellent to see, this is something I have been waiting for for years.

[open-mind]

I've seen about 50 of these windmills in N. Illinois and S. Wisconsin. All look exactly like the one in the photo.

I've often wondered why they don't have more blades ... seems that would generate more power up to a point. Also wonder why they don't build more of them in the more windy parts of the USA ... like Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

[suyts]

They are building some in Kansas, can't comment on the other states but I suspect that they also are. However, when all of this power come online, I doubt that Kansans will see this as a good thing. Understanding that we still can't store AC electricity, a very big problem arises when the wind doesn't blow enough or at all. Something must be built to deal with this all too common occurrence. We can't use the existing coal and nuke plants to back up the wind generation. It takes days to change coal power output and weeks for nukes. The only options are hydro(when available) or natural gas. In the central plains states, it will be natural gas. Considering that it costs 5 times more than coal to generate, and the prospect of more reliance on an expensive solution, this is hardly a bargain. The wind farm would have to have an up-time of over 80% before customers see a savings after the cost of the infrastructure builds so more likely up-time of over 90% would be the brake-even point. The wind doesn't blow that much here.

[Manhattan2]

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[galeso]

Actually, a single lightweight blade would be most efficient in a stiff breeze, but the vibrations would destroy the windmill in short order. Multiple blades could help when the wind is under 10 mph.

[EESgreentech]

Dear Martin
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.We sell wind turbines and solar panels for homes and attach them with water pumps for farms. Please visit our website and browse around and tell us what you think .
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Thanks,
Mustafa