Four consumer-owned utilities have joined forces to develop the 204-MW White Creek Wind Farm in Klickitat County, Washington.

When it comes to wind power, co-ops and public power districts along the West Coast have just raised the bar. 

The White Creek Wind Project in Washington state has officially come on-line, and its 205 megawatts of output represent the largest wind project initiated by public power utilities in the nation.

The 89-turbine farm, located on 9,500 acres of ranchland in the Columbia River Gorge in Klickitat County, Wash., produces enough electricity to power 38,000 homes.

It’s the product of a collaboration between co-ops and public utility districts in a venture known as Last Mile Electric Co-op, which was formed in 2001 as a way for Washington state co-ops to participate in renewable energy projects.

“We knew in 2001 that large corporations were leasing most of the best wind sites in our state, so if we were going to secure a cost-effective site we had to move when we did,” said Elmer Sams, former manager of Tanner Electric Co-op, North Bend, Wash., and currently the part-time manager of Last Mile Electric Co-op.

The four project developers are Tanner Electric, Lakeview Light and Power, Cowlitz PUD and Klickitat PUD, which have entered into 20-year power purchase agreements, with a repurchase option after ten years.  Construction of the $360 million project took about 18 months. 

Sams said the Last Mile Electric Co-op board of directors, in addition to building out White Creek, is looking at geothermal and concentrated solar-thermal projects. 

“With new clean air and renewable portfolio standards legislation in most western states, it appears our job of bringing renewable energy projects on line has only just begun,” Sams said.

Three possible additions to the farm could bring it to as much as 400 MW, making it one of the largest in the country, said Aaron Jones, president and general manager of Golden State Power Co-op in California, who was manager of the Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association when wind farm plans were conceived.

This article by Steven Johnson was reprinted with permission from Electric Co-op Today (January 11, 2008).