Wind Farm Seeks to Locate in Bannock County

Utah Wind Firm Weighs Site Near Downey

BY JOHN O’CONNELL

A Utah energy company has proposed to build Bannock County’s first commercial wind farm on agricultural land near Downey, using a new turbine technology designed to accelerate wind speeds.  

Officials with LA Wind, based in North Salt Lake City, say they also plan to hire about 100 employees to produce parts locally, both for their planned Southeast Idaho project and for shipping worldwide.

The company intends to locate its local manufacturing facility either in Pocatello or somewhere between Pocatello and Downey and is considering the Gate City’s old Naval Ordnance Plant as a potential fabrication facility. LA Wind will appear before the Bannock County Planning and Development Council at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday seeking approval for a conditional use permit to build
15 accelerator turbines. The meeting is scheduled in room 302 of the Bannock County Courthouse.

The wind farm would be located on a 200-acre site between the U.S. Highway 40 exit from Interstate 15 and the city of Downey, about a half mile south of Highway 40. Each turbine would produce between 3 and 5 megawatts of power. The land would also remain in agricultural use for cattle grazing.

Rick Wood, chief executive officer and directing manager for LA Wind, said the company plans to install turbines in two additional phases after the first 15 are operational.

As for the manufacturing facility, he expects to move into an existing building, where workers would build generator parts, carbonfiber blades and the larger of two cones used for capturing wind in the company’s accelerator turbine design.
Wood is confident that accelerator turbines are the future of the industry. Wood said accelerator turbines are 95 percent efficient, compared with about 30 percent efficiency from traditional models, and they can also utilize slower wind speeds, making them an ideal fit for places such as Bannock County which haven’t been enticing for wind energy developers in the past. And while traditional wind turbines must shut down for protection when wind speeds exceed 30-40 mph, his accelerator turbines can produce electricity in winds of up to 100 mph.
“What you’re going to see is a radical change in windmill technology — primarily because the technology that’s available now is centuries old and it’s not efficient — especially in areas like Idaho without strong enough winds,” Wood said. “We get an appreciable difference in return on investment.
“Instead of having to put in 80 of the traditional type of windmills, we can do the same thing with 15.”

The accelerator turbines planned for the Downey area project were developed by Sterling Energy based in Palm Springs, Calif. “It has a cone on the front and a cone on the back where it recovers wind and creates a vortex, sucking wind through it,” Wood said. “What the cone does is recovers wind and creates a vortex out of the back with the secondary cone and basically pulls the wind
through the turbine, accelerating the blade.” Wood said the turbines he would use can be built for about $1.1 million per megawatt, roughly $400,000 cheaper than traditional models. While traditional wind turbines average about 500 feet in height, with blades of about 300 feet from tip to tip, Wood said his design is about a third the height with blades ranging from 60 to 73 feet from tip to tip.
The company doesn’t have exact cost figures or size specifications for the local project as the design could change depending on the data collected from the site.