Gulf Power looking into wind energy

**florida girl** · 09-12-2009, 01:07 AM

Gulf Power looking into wind energy

If Gulf Power is doing this, why not Chelco?

Gulf Power wants to test the winds on Navarre Beach to study the potential to make electricity from wind turbines along the coast line.

Installation will begin next week on a weather data tower on Navarre Beach. The tower, which will study potential wind energy along Florida�s northern Gulf Coast, was approved by the Santa Rosa County Commission on Dec.11, 2008.

**30abob** · 09-12-2009, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by florida girl

Gulf Power looking into wind energy

If Gulf Power is doing this, why not Chelco?

The simple answer is that Chelco distributes power to its members, it doesn't produce electricity directly. However, it's really not that simple. Chelco is a part of Touchstone Energy Cooperatives which operates electrical utility coops all across the country. Touchstone also operates production facilities in our area through PowerSouth, they sell this to the distribution coops and to other utilities. If Touchstone were to explore wind energy in Northwest Florida it would be through PowerSouth, not as Chelco. Chelco is "member owned" (non-profit) and like all utility providers, highly regulated. They do have many nuanced ways around and through the regulatory loopholes. For instance, Chelco also has a "for profit" service division named CSI, you've probably seen the trucks rolling through SoWal.

Southern Company (Gulf Power) is "investor" owned and makes a profit each year. They are still highly regulated by the PSC and cut deals during negotiations for PR benefits even if they don't turn a profit. Based on all of the available data currently available our area is not a strong candidate for utility scale wind energy production according to NREL. I think the Navarre project is more PR than a legitimate expansion of energy production capacity.

My company has installed several utility wind farms in the Midwest U.S., we're currently working on a large scale project in Utah. What we think of as windy conditions here is a calm day to people in really windy areas. Maybe one day there will be advances in technology that make harvesting wind energy possible here in NWF. Right now we'd be much wiser to "invest" our resources in conservation (upgrading old buildings and facilities) and R&D for new wind turbine technology.