UTAH WIND, L.A. BUZZ

Utah’s legislature passed a production tax credit (PTC) in 2007 to incentivize wind energy development. 2008 will therefore see new wind installation in the state and the following year the Utah boom in New Energy is expected to come online.

L.A. has set a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 20% renewable power by 2010. It is therefore anxious to buy all the wind Utah can send along.

An enriched Utah and a cleaner LA are the direct results of favorable governmental policies, the very policies the federal government specifically rejected in the Bush administration energy bill of 2007. Go ahead, do the math.

Election Day is November 4, 2009.

Utah wind farm to benefit L.A.
Jasen Lee, December 21, 2007 (Deseret Morning News)

WHO
UPC Wind, the city of Los Angeles (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council), Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) (for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the cities of Burbank and Pasadena)

Members of the Southern California Public Power Authority. (click to enlarge)
Clickable map at SCPPA.

WHAT
UPC Wind’s Milford Wind Corridor project has contracted with the City of LA’s SCPPA to send wind-generated energy to the LA grid.

WHEN
- The contract is for 20 years. It was approved by Villaraigosa and the City Council December 17.
- Phase one is expected to begin supplying LA by the end of 2008.

WHERE
- The Milford Wind Corridor project will be 7 miles north of Milford, Utah.
- UPC Wind is based in Massachusetts.



WHY
- The Milford Wind Corridor project’s first phase will supply 185 megawatts of energy to LA, of which Burbank will get 10 and Pasadena 5.
- 185 megawatts: 39,000 homes, 1.9% of LA’s 20% renewable sources by 2010 goal.
- The Milford Wind Corridor project also benefits Utah through property tax revenues, royalty payments to landowners where turbines are sited and jobs for Millard and beaver counties. There are expected to be 275 jobs during construction and permanent jobs estimated in the “dozens.”
- The new Utah incentive provides a 0.35 cents per kilowatt-hour tax credit to wind energy producers. The PTC will cost the state $4.3 million over the next 2 years and is expected to jumpstart a new Energy boom there.

Southern California Public Power Authority's new transmission and generation projects. (click to enlarge)
Clickable map at SCPPA.

QUOTES
- Paul Gaynor, president/ceo, UPC Wind: "The approval of this power purchase agreement by the mayor and the L.A. City Council is a major milestone for our Utah-based Milford Wind Corridor project…In addition to the clean wind energy that the project will produce for the city of Los Angeles, it will be a source of revenue and new jobs to the Utah region where it will be built."
- Krista Kisch, western regional vice president, UPC Wind: "We'll begin construction sometime the middle of next year…We're aiming to have the project built before the end of 2008."