Northwest's largest solar-power site about to come on line
ELLENSBURG -- The sun peeked through the clouds Thursday above the Wild Horse solar power project atop Whisky Dick Mountain.
When it comes to solar energy, every little bit of sunshine counts. The project's modules, which collect the solar energy, generated 114 kilowatts Thursday morning, enough to power 92 homes for the day.
That was much more than the amount generated from the neighboring Wild Horse Wind Farm. The unusually calm winds barely moved the farm's 127 turbines.
Puget Sound Energy, the Bellevue-based utility company that owns the project 13 miles east of Ellensburg, expects the first phase to go online in the next few days. At 450 kilowatts of power, Wild Horse is the largest-wattage site for solar power in the Pacific Northwest.
This project is part of the company's efforts to have 10 percent of its power come from alternative fuel sources by 2013. With the addition of the solar facility and the wind farms it currently owns, Puget Sound Energy will have about 5 percent of its power from alternative fuels, said Roger Garratt, the company's director of resource acquisition.
The project is composed of more than 2,400 solar modules, which take solar energy and convert it into several electrical formats before being transmitted to Puget Sound Energy's grid where it's distributed to its customers.
An additional 50 kilowatts will be installed next year, said Alana Bobo, construction manager for EI Solutions, the California company contracted to build the facility.
When finished, the 500-kilowatt project will be able to generate power for up to 300 homes.
Despite the windy weather of the area, construction for the project went smoothly, she said. About 35 workers were hired.
Though the project is the largest of its kind in the region, it's small when compared to wind farms around the state. The neighboring Wild Horse Wind Farm, which Puget Sound Energy begin operating last year, can generate up to 229 megawatts of energy. That's enough to power 50,000 homes annually.
But Garratt said solar power will not compete with but will complement wind energy. Solar modules generate more energy, not surprisingly, during the day when the sunshine peaks and when demand for electricity is higher, while wind turbines generally gather more energy at night.
If successful, the project could generate additional large-scale facilities or encourage more solar-power installations at homes and businesses, fueling the state's developing solar-power industry, Garratt said.
One beneficiary of the project is OutBack Power Systems in Arlington, Wash. The 6-year-old company manufactures alternative fuel converters, but Puget Sound Energy chose the company to create solar modules for the final phase of the project.
"I think it's a good starting point. I think it's a good demonstration site," said Gary Shaver, director of operations for OutBack. "We're pleased that Puget Sound Energy chose our module for such a visible demonstration of solar (energy)."
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Northwest's largest solar-power site about to come on line
