Northwest U.S. to see wind power boom

PORTLAND, Ore., July 22 (UPI) -- Wind capacity in the Northwestern United States could quadruple in the near future.

Transmission developers in the region agree with the projected increase estimates and say they support renewable energy, but they also told The Oregonian newspaper the infrastructure is not ready to handle so much added power.

"It's phenomenal," Elliot Mainzer, a transmission manager with the federal Bonneville Power Administration, told The Oregonian. "It's more than we expected. But a resource isn't very valuable unless you can deliver it."

BPA recently completed an assessment that suggests its current transmission will be able to handle about 4,716 megawatts -- only a third of the expected power generation to come online in the next several years.

BPA's study suggested up to 30 percent of the unmanageable power would likely be transported to California, where they have sufficient transmission.

Mainzer said BPA's current system transports around 1,490 megawatts of wind power, but the amount of generated wind power is expected to increase by about 600 megawatts just before the end of this year, and increasing transmission is costly. Mainzer told The Oregonian that to run a power line to a new wind farm can cost between $1 million and $3 million.