The wind whistling down the Plain could put green in the pockets of rural landowners, Shannon Ferrell said.

Ferrell, 34, an Oklahoma State University assistant professor of agricultural law, will be part of a panel discussion on ways rural Oklahomans can profit from wind energy at Revolution 2009: The Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference. His program will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

Oklahomans appear ready to put the wind to work, according to a statewide poll conducted by Cole, Hargrave, Snodgrass & Associates.

More than 90 percent of those responding support wind farms for meeting Oklahoma’s electricity needs, and nearly 75 percent are willing to pay more each month to build transmission lines and wind farms, according to the poll.

“Oklahoma is ideal for wind development,” Oklahoma Secretary of Energy Robert Wegener said. “Oklahoma’s traditional energy industry is the perfect complement to wind. We have an abundance of natural gas, which is a great partner for wind generation and development – together they offer a clean, renewable energy solution for the United States.”

Oklahoma has the resource, Ferrell said. The state must develop a plan to tap it. Oklahoma State University will play a major role in putting the wind to work.

Ferrell talks about that role:



Can you give a synopsis of your presentation Wednesday at the energy conference?

Wind energy projects can provide a significant new revenue source for rural landowners, but landowners must also be sure that hosting a wind energy project is right for them.

My presentation will discuss some of the impacts that a project can have on property, and how landowners can negotiate a land-use agreement that allows for a profitable wind power project while still preserving their use of the land to the fullest extent possible.



Does Oklahoma State have a role in the production of energy via the wind? If so, what is that role and how will it affect the university and the state of Oklahoma?

I think so. Since OSU’s inception, one of our jobs has been to keep a pulse on industrial developments that affect our state, and certainly the explosive growth of our wind industry is one of those developments. One way OSU can and already does have a role in the development of that industry is the work that we do to provide objective, research-based information on the industry to both our students and the state as a whole through our work in Cooperative Extension. Of course, we are also working on research to help improve the technology used to generate power from the wind and to help Oklahomans harvest the power of wind, the sun, and biofuels for their own use as well.



How can Oklahoma become a major player in wind energy?

The good news is that we have the resource – wind. It’s so much a part of who we are that when two gents from New York named Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote a musical about the state, they led the main song with a line about how windy it was here. Since the resource is in place, the major work we have to do is to build our electrical transmission infrastructure. As things stand right now, the areas of our state with the most abundant wind resources are relatively isolated from electrical transmission lines, which means the resource is essentially “stranded.”

We need a way to get power from those areas – which are largely in areas of western Oklahoma with relatively low population densities – to the areas of our state and nation that have more electrical demand, such as central and eastern Oklahoma, as well as neighboring areas such as the Dallas metroplex, Kansas City, Denver, and so on.

That means a lot of investment in building those transmission lines, but that investment comes with questions, too, such as who will bear the cost of building those lines, and how we build those lines without causing undue problems of property devaluation and adversely impact wildlife.

How will wind farms affect agriculture and the ecology?

If the wind project developer and the landowner work together in configuring the project, it is possible for the landowner to still use the vast majority of their property even while the wind power project is fully operational. As a rule of thumb used in the industry, approximately three acres of property is used (i.e. covered by turbine pads, roads, electrical equipment, and so forth) for each megawatt of turbine capacity used on a project.

In most cases, this leaves much of the property available for crop and livestock production.

Again, though, the best way to preserve the maximum remaining use of the property is for the landowner and wind project developer to work together, because just as a well-designed project can allow the landowner to lose very little use of their property, a poorly designed project can cause undue disruptions in that use.

From an ecological perspective, wind energy projects can be something of a paradox. On one hand, they are without question one of the cleanest means of generating electrical power, which is a tremendous environmental benefit.

On the other hand, they are generally constructed in areas that may not have seen any development beyond agriculture, and thus can be a new and sometimes disruptive element in the local ecosystem.

It is important that the wind project developer devote the time and resources necessary to complete a thorough evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of a planned project so that they can mitigate or eliminate any adverse impacts the project might have.

For example, many people are concerned about the impacts a wind energy project might have on local bird populations. With a proper environmental site assessment, many projects can be designed to still operate efficiently while having minimal impacts on those bird populations.



Will Oklahoma farmers be able to establish small-scale wind farms on their land and sell the electricity to utilities? Or is the price tag for wind turbines too expensive? If so, will their price ever become low enough to make it plausible?

There are two ways we can approach this question. If we are talking about “utility-scale” development – the development of projects of the size that we have already seen in Oklahoma – it is possible, but we haven’t seen that type of development yet in the state. In other states, such as Minnesota and Iowa, groups of farmers have come together to form groups that have combined their land and capital to build projects that compete with the larger utility-operated projects to generate and sell power. It takes a great deal of organization, planning, and capital, but it can be done.

On the other hand, if Oklahoma farmers think that a smaller turbine might help them generate power for their own use, they can negotiate with their electrical utility to enter what is called a “net-metering” arrangement.

In a net-metering arrangement, a farmer (or anyone who owns a turbine, solar array, or other generation equipment) can use the power from that equipment for their own use, and if they generate more power than they need, the excess is purchased by the utility and the farmer’s utility meter actually spins backwards. The sale of this excess is used to “net out” the cost when the farmer is using more power then they generate, hence the net-metering concept.



Wind farms are sustainable energy but, despite what many think, the wind doesn’t always blow in Oklahoma. What energy source will supply electricity on calm days?

In Oklahoma, the answer to this question is most commonly natural gas-powered electrical generation. Wind and natural gas are a good marriage in Oklahoma for a number of reasons. From an electrical reliability perspective, natural gas works well with wind because natural gas-powered electrical generation can respond rapidly when needed in that it can be throttled up and down quickly to offest changes in the wind (compare that to coal-fired generation, which can take hours to increase or decrease its generation capacity). From a cost perspective, wind power is often competitive with the cost of power generated by natural gas, and thus if wind power is available, natural gas generation may be backed down to save costs for the utility.



How long have you been working on wind energy?

Unofficially, I have been working on wind energy since I was 5 years old, helping my dad repair windmills on our family farm. Officially, I started working with utility scale wind energy leases since 2005, and wind energy issues have been a large part of my work since I joined OSU in 2007.



What can the state of Oklahoma do to promote construction of wind farms and transmission lines in Oklahoma?

I think that the transmission issue is the primary opportunity and obstacle for the development of Oklahoma’s wind power industry, and I think the two primary components of the transmission issue are financing and landowner impacts. To deal with the financing mechanism, we need to be creative and innovative in devising a means of developing capital for transmission projects that both facilitates the rapid development and deployment of that capital and also provides a way for Oklahomans, be they as taxpayers or ratepayers, to get a return on that investment. To deal with the landowner issues, we need a better mechanism of allowing landowners’ voices to be heard in the routing and construction process for our transmission lines, as well as a means that allows landowners to feel that they have been treated fairly in their compensation for their property when the eminent domain mechanism has been used.



What can the federal government do to promote construction of wind farms and transmission lines?

For years, we have lacked a coherent and articulated energy policy in the United States. I think that is the foundation that is needed for the federal government to proceed in any organized fashion in helping us marshal our energy resources. Such a policy would provide guidance to all the disparate federal agencies that are involved in the permitting and deployment of any energy project, including wind power projects.



Is the Oklahoma Panhandle the best spot for wind farms in Oklahoma?

The Panhandle provides one of the most stark examples of the opportunities and challenges for wind power. It is a tremendous place for wind power development in that it has tremendous wind resources, is fairly sparsely populated (which means that projects can be located in a way that minimizes any potential nuisance issues), and its people are eager for tools that might aid their economic development. At the same time, though, it is located well away from areas with high electrical demand, and doesn’t have any of the transmission capacity needed to get wind-generated power to the areas that need it most.



Could we see wind farms in the Stillwater or Payne County areas?

There has been a great deal of leasing activity to our north and west, particularly in Noble County. The wind resources in Payne County itself are relatively sparse (and I know that many people may think it is windy here, but if you think that, you should head west just a few miles). Our opportunity for utility-scale wind power in Payne County is probably limited, but our wind speeds are still sufficient for many residents to have home-scale wind turbines that could provide them significant energy savings in the long run.



Ten years from now, where do you see Oklahoma and its involvement in creating energy from wind?

If Oklahoma is smart about our development, I think that in 10 years we could be one of the top five states in the U.S. for wind-generated power.



Wind power is just one piece of the energy puzzle. How can OSU promote energy conservation and development of other alternative and sustainable energy sources?

At OSU, we have taken a two-pronged approach to helping Oklahomans deal with energy issues. First, the easiest and cheapest thing we can all do to help deal with our energy issues is to simply use our energy more wisely. In addition to educating Oklahomans about how they can reduce energy waste and improve efficiency, OSU has also been leading by example – our efforts to conserve energy on campus has already yielded multimillion dollar savings. The second prong is our highly diversified approach to energy research. At OSU, you will find active research into almost every form of energy available, including wind, biofuels, geothermal, solar, and hydrogen systems. You’ll also find us researching ways to produce and use traditional petroleum and natural gas resources more efficiently as well. The key to our energy future is not in one technology, but in a portfolio of technologies, and OSU is working along every pathway that we think can help the state we serve.