PPM Energy’s Klondike II wind farm to supply customers of PGE
On rolling farmland just outside Wasco in eastern Oregon, a new crop of wind turbines is taking root, and in December, these majestic towers will start generating electricity for PGE customers.
The Klondike wind farm, owned by PPM Energy, added 50 new turbines this year as part of an expansion project known as Klondike II.
Each of the General Electric brand turbines — capped by a huge three-bladed rotor — is more than 300 feet tall, about the height of a 32-story building and can generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity. All together, the 50 turbines will produce enough electricity to power 18,000 homes. Yet all the turbines and roads at Klondike II take up less than 2 percent of the total acreage of farmland, leaving plenty of land available for growing local crops.
Last December, PGE signed a 30-year contract with PPM Energy (a Portland-based subsidiary of ScottishPower) to purchase 75 megawatts of capacity from Klondike II. This agreement is the first major step toward meeting the company’s Integrated Resource Plan goal of including 200 megawatts of renewable power capacity in PGE’s portfolio. This amount represents about 6 percent of PGE’s total capacity.
