For More Information Contact:
Joe Harwood, 685-7471
Eugene Water & Electric Board

Dec. 23, 2009

Latest EWEB wind project now generating electricity

Harvest Wind, the Eugene Water & Electric Board’s latest wind generation project, is now complete and is generating and transmitting electricity onto the Pacific Northwest’s power grid.

The $220 million project, of which EWEB owns 20 percent, features 43 wind turbines that can collectively generate almost 100 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 27,000 homes.

The addition of EWEB’s ownership stake in Harvest Wind brings the utility’s wind generation maximum output capacity to almost 80 megawatts. EWEB already owns part of a wind farm in Wyoming, and has contracts to purchase electricity from the Stateline wind farm near Walla Walla, Wash., and from the Klondike wind project in central Oregon.

“With Harvest Wind coming online, EWEB’s renewable energy portfolio will grow by almost 25 percent,” said Dick Varner, EWEB’s power management and planning manager. “We also brought the project in for about $220 million, roughly $30 million less than the original project budget.”

Other project owners include Cowlitz Public Utility District, Peninsula Light and Lakeview Green Energy. The project is located about 20 miles east of Goldendale, Wash., just a few miles north of the Columbia River.

EWEB’s cost for its share project is about $44 million. Power generated by Harvest Wind will be delivered to the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid for south-central Washington. EWEB initially plans to sell its share of the output on the wholesale market, and in later years will use the output to supply its customers in Lane County.