Sacramento Bee

Solano windmill farm plan dropped

Updated: April 10, 2001 - 9:06 a.m.

Plans to build a windmill farm in Solano County's Montezuma Hills have been halted.

The plan to lease Enron Wind 2,800 acres was ended Friday when the Sacramento Municipal Utility District pulled out of negotiations, said SMUD spokesman Gregg Fishman.

The 30-windmill facility would have produced up to 45 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power roughly 45,000 homes. Construction was the start by the end of this year, Enron officials said.

The two sides couldn't agree on the land lease and the cost of the electricity sold from the facility to SMUD, Fishman said.

But Enron Wind vice president Bob Gates said the company didn't expect SMUD to pull out of the project so late in negotiations.

"Those terms have been settled for some time, so we were surprised with SMUD's desire to disengage. They've been pretty insistent; we can't pursue anything at this point," Gates said.

Enron Wind is a subsidiary of Enron Corp., a Houston-based power company.

-- Associated Press

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Answers

Wind Power has been the culprit of killing wildlife. The environmentalist-solar-wind-power engineers haven't figured out a way to prevent birds from flying into the mills. Altamont Pass here in CA., (Livermore, CA) is a windmill farm--and an for reasons stated above. The wind does not always blow here in CA. and when the mills stand idle, no revenues are being generated. Wind power cannot be totally relied upon for power, perhaps that's why SMUD dropped Enron, it's not cost-effective.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

I didn't know that about the birds. Big screen with a black hawk silhouette?

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001