Let’s Talk Numbers – The Money Behind The Plan

Ahh word counts. This bit below was suppose to be included in my most recent assignment (a 500-word article with three interviews) but unfortunately I had to chop it. Still, I think the information is interesting and important.

Here’s a little background:

- Patrick Ashby: the general manager of the Tillamook People’s Utility District who oversees the PUD’s project with Principle Power.

- Principle Power: the Seattle-based green energy company that signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Tillamook PUD on November 18th, 2008. Their sole product is WindFloat, the prototype of which is currently under construction in Portugal and is described more in earlier posts.

- Mary Jane Parks: the senior vice president for Principle Power.

Now here’s the information….

The price tag for the proposed Tillamook wind farm of 40 turbines is roughly $450 million, a number The Oregonian first reported in October 2008 and which Ashby said in a November 4, 2009, e-mail is “close enough” to projected budgets. Onshore wind farms tend to cost much less – 76 turbines at the Columbia River Gorge Biglow Canyon project totaled between $255 to $265 million. Parks of Principle Power, however, said higher costs result when developing a new area like offshore wind.

“This is an emerging technology and so, of course, the cost of development is higher,” she said. “Onshore wind has already gone through the initial fabrication and building costs.”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) helped ease the financial burden of trailblazing with two recent waves of funding: the first arrived on September 15, 2009, with $750,000 awarded directly to Principle Power; the second came exactly a month later with an $8 million investment in the University of Maine DeepCWind industry consortium, to which Principle Power serves as a member. As far as the specific price of one WindFloat, Parks said Principle Power is currently unable to release the information.

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