Based in North Palm Springs, Calif., enXco develops, constructs, operates and manages wind energy projects throughout the United States. The United States’ largest third-party operations and management provider for wind parks, enXco currently services more than 3,600 turbines with a generating capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW).

In this exclusive interview, Huseby discusses the unique challenges facing the wind and solar industries today, the Pacific Northwest’s position in the national renewable energy market, and the issues around siting wind energy projects.

nwc: What are some of the unique challenges facing the wind energy industry today?

Huseby: The whole industry is being stretched as we struggle to keep up with a rapidly growing industry. We’re seeing some dramatic shortages in turbine supply and components. The shortages go beyond just physical equipment. They are also affecting human resources. Finding experienced people in project management, project development, construction management and in commercial negotiations can be a challenge.
It’s not just here in the U.S. We are being affected by the growth of the wind industry in Europe and Asia, which puts supply strains on both physical and human resources.
I do think there is some sign that the industry is starting to look outside the United States for certain technical positions because there is a dramatic shortage of them in the United States. The meteorological profession is really stretched thin in the United States, and wind companies in the United States are looking outside the United States for meteorologists and wind site assessment specialists.

nwc: Are any of these challenges magnified and or minimized in the Pacific Northwest region?

Huseby: By and large, there are two areas that I would say create unique challenges for the Northwest compared to other regions. First, we have complex geography here in the Northwest. We have mountains and valleys, and we have very different climate conditions on the west side of the Cascades compared to the east side of the Cascades. And the geographic differences become more pronounced in Idaho and Montana, Utah and Wyoming, if you consider that part of the Northwest, and we do.
The result of the complex geography is that the wind doesn’t just flow evenly all over the place; there are certain specific pockets where the wind is most pronounced. When it comes to being close to where the demand centers are — near the cities of Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Boise — the ability to find good, windy sites is difficult. What you are going to see in the Northwest is a lot of clustering of wind projects to help meet some of the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirements.
That brings me to the second challenge in the Northwest that is unique compared to other parts of the country: the very complex and constrained transmission system that we have here. It’s very constrained; the lines are full in a lot of cases. There are certain pathways where it’s virtually impossible to get any more megawatts through the line....
When you add the two main issues — location and transmission — it becomes very clear that your ability to site and construct wind projects in the areas where you can actually get wind and transmission is critical.
It brings to mind the issue in Kittitas Valley, where very recently the Kittitas Valley project that Horizon is building was approved for permit by Gov. Christine Gregoire [see “Washington Governor makes landmark decision,” nwcurrent, October 2007]. Our Desert Claim project in Washington is undergoing the same process. As we look to build more and more wind projects to meet RPS requirements, locations such as Desert Claim are going to turn out to be extraordinarily rare and very important, and we need to be sure to utilize those resources because there are so few of them.

nwc: With more and more companies competing for wind developments, is site planning becoming an increasing concern?

Huseby: We are certainly feeling a great deal of increased pressure for acquiring good sites. Since an RPS passed in Oregon and Washington there has been a rush of new investment and new focus on going out and getting new sites, not only by enXco, but by our competitors as well.
It’s certainly having an impact on finding good locations. But you also have to take into account that we are starting to encroach on more populated areas. That is something that I think is going to be more common over time, and we have to go to the projects with both good wind and access to transmission. And sometimes, those sites are going to be closer to population centers.
There’s going to have to be a regional dialogue that takes into account the fact that we need to make decisions about what is the best for the region as far as securing long-term, reasonably cost, energy supplies that are non-polluting.
You have to draw the parallels to when the dams and the major power lines were built in the region. Certainly if we were facing the kinds of resistance that we’re seeing now to certain types of projects, if that resistance had existed back when our infrastructure had been put into place, it would be a very different situation than the one we’re dealing with. Our economy would be very different in the region if we had not been able to build out the hydro system and the transmission system. So I don’t think there’s much difference now that we’re trying to build wind projects that are obstructing people’s views.

nwc: With a waiting list for wind turbines, is this the right time to offer solar as well?

Huseby: Absolutely. While wind will continue to be the major portion of our business for many years to come, some of the biggest areas for growth within enXco will come from solar and other technologies.
It was announced recently that we made a large purchase at our parent company level of 230 peak megawatts of solar modules [see “enXco expands into PV market,” nwcurrent, October 2007]. It was one of the largest purchases ever made at prices that will allow us to compete with other solar project developers. We made this purchase because we very much believe that while a lot of the modules will be designated for projects in Europe, a great deal of them will come to the United States. We’re staffing up to have a national solar group and we’re aiming to have utility-scale projects in the 1 to 5 MW range, interconnected with utilities across the country, especially in locations where there are tax incentives and other types of incentives in place to encourage such development.
In situations where there might be opportunities to work directly with large commercial entities, we would look at those as well.

nwc: How important is regional cooperation between utilities, wind developers, and public utility commissions?

Huseby: It’s absolutely critical. It’s a very complex and difficult situation. I have to give credit to BPA and PacifiCorp in particular for having open dialogues with the wind community about where their future developments are likely to take place so they can look to expanding their systems with an eye toward where are the most likely places for clusters of large-scale wind projects to be built. They are expanding their systems with the wind community very much in mind to accommodate what in the future will be a very large number of wind megawatts coming onto their system.
It is a difficult dialogue because at times, the goals of the wind industry are out of line with the goals of BPA or the investor-owned utilities. So the discussion can occasionally become contentious. But it is encouraging that the parties at the table are allowed to voice their individual concerns. And the dialogue seems to be open enough that I think the result will be that we have a fair system where wind is treated fairly and the system will be built out to...allow the region's electrical system to be embellished with a lot more renewable power.