Tribes think future is in the wind Wind farm would create jobs, revenue

Leaders of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are hoping to cash in on the strong wind that blows
across the Fort Hall Indian reservation in eastern Idaho.

Ken Dey
The Idaho Statesman

Wind speed data collected on the reservation at five separate sites over the course of a year
show that all the sites could support a commercial wind farm.

“These are world class-sites that are better than 90 percent of the wind farms in California,”
said Gary Seifert, who heads up the wind power program at the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory.

Seifert, who was speaking in Boise Wednesday at the monthly meeting of the Idaho
Department of Water Resources´ Wind Power Working Group, has been working with the tribe
and monitoring the wind-speed measuring devices — called anemometers — placed at five
locations on the 544,000-acre reservation.

All five locations have average annual wind speeds of between nearly 14 and 18 miles per
hour, well above the 13-mile-per-hour average wind developers recommend to support a
commercial wind farm.

Seifert said the sites on the reservation are also close to power transmission lines that would
make it easier to get the wind power onto the power grid so it could be sold to others.

The data is good news to Shoshone-Bannock tribal members who hope to develop a
commercial wind farm on reservation land.

Nancy Eschief Murillo, a member of the Fort Hall Business Council, said a commercial
development could provide a needed economic boost to the tribe.

The reservation is currently facing a 52 percent unemployment rate, and many tribal members
live on fixed incomes making it hard to pay for things like power bills.

She said a commercial wind farm would push the tribe to a greater level of self-sufficiency by
providing power for its members and by providing jobs and additional revenue from selling any
excess power the tribe doesn´t use.

“This will help our folks a lot,” Murillo said, adding that the majority of the tribal members in the
areas where a project would likely be sited are in favor of moving forward.

The tribe plans to build the project itself and not involve any outside developers in order to
preserve their sovereignty, said Murillo.

She said the tribe is applying for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to provide
funding for a feasibility study. The tribe also hopes to gather at least another year´s worth of
data at the sites.

After the feasibility study is completed, the tribe will have a better idea what size wind farm
they would likely build. After the size and scope are determined, the tribe would then have to
explore ways to finance the project. Murillo said the tribe would likely fund the project with
loans and any grants they could obtain.

The Fort Hall Reservation isn´t the only reservation in Idaho believed to have wind power
potential. The Duck Valley Reservation that straddles the Idaho-Nevada line in southern
Owyhee County also has one monitoring site that has recorded winds in excess of 18 miles
per hour.

The wind research from tribal lands is the latest information pointing to the potential of an
Idaho resource that has gone unnoticed for many years. Seifert said just five years ago wind
developers believed that Idaho´s wind was “junk” and had no potential, but in the past few
years more developers have discovered the state. No commercial wind projects have been
started yet, but at least two wind power companies have publicly announced interest in Idaho.

Boise-based Windland is currently in the process of completing environmental documentation
for a proposed $200 million project on Bureau of Land Management land in the Cotterel
Mountains southeast of Burley. Developers are planning to build 130 wind turbines to produce
200 megawatts of power.

EnXco, a Danish company, also is actively investigating and monitoring eight sites in Idaho for
potential wind farms.

Dick Larsen, senior public information officer with the Idaho Department of Water Resources,
says his agency knows of more than a dozen companies that are investigating Idaho´s wind
power potential. Larsen´s agency is also monitoring five sites on state endowment lands that
have potential for commercial developments.

As more data comes out pointing to the quality of Idaho´s wind resource, Larsen said wind
development could become the state´s next gold rush.

“Now that we´re getting hard numbers, the rush is going to be on because the good sites are
going to get staked out,” Larsen said.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Ken Dey
[email protected] or 377-6428

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=38239