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Idaho Building its Largest Wind Complex to Date by Candace Lombardi CNET News, August 25, 2010

Idaho is building what will be the state's largest wind project to date near land once traversed by Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea.

As part of the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for the 183-megawatt Idaho Wind Partners project, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter and others signed the giant blade of a wind turbine. Most of the land being used for the Idaho project consists of both active and idle farmland across Magic Valley, part of which is considered a piece of the iconic Oregon Trail.

"The renewable energy industry is breathing new life into the Idaho frontier. We're aggressively harnessing our abundant natural resources for growth because that helps our economy, generating not only electricity but career opportunities right here at home," Otter said in a statement.

Though not as large, the Idaho Wind Partners project is similar to the $1 billion Texas wind energy complex in that it will also be a system of interconnected wind farms spread across privately owned land.

The project has actually already been started with wind turbines being delivered, access roads being forged, transmission lines being laid, and foundations being poured for wind turbine towers, according to GE Energy Financial Services, one of the investors in Idaho Wind Partners.

When completed, it will consist of 122 1.5-megawatt GE turbines placed throughout 10,000 acres, and produce enough electricity to power about 39,700 "average Idaho homes," according to GE.

The $500 million Idaho Wind Partners project was financed in part by Reunion Power, Exergy Development Group, Atlantic Power, and GE Energy Financial Services. Under a 20-year power of purchase agreement, all electricity generated by the wind project will be sold to the Idaho Power Company.

The farmland wind project should also qualify for a U.S. Treasury Grant aimed at promoting renewable energy projects. But there is concern that politics could get in the way of the Treasury Grant's extension beyond this year, according to GE Energy Financial Services.

"A federal incentive backing this project, the Treasury Grant, is expiring at year's end. Extending that program and other federal incentives would provide the long-term certainty that investors and manufacturers such as GE need to ensure continued expansion of renewable energy throughout the country," Alex Urquhart, CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, said in a statement.