Wind farm to churn out renewable energy

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s board
passed a contract to acquire a $239-million wind farm in Kern
County which is being developed by a private contractor later this
year.

Known as the Pine Tree project, the construction of the wind
farm will provide 80 new wind turbines that will produce 120
megawatts of power ““ enough power for up to 120,000
homes.

The project would increase the amount of renewable energy that
the DWP produces from 2 percent to 3.7 percent of the total energy
that is produced, said Walter Zeisel, a spokesman for the DWP.

But the department has even bigger plans in mind for the
future.

UCLA currently produces about 80 percent of its own power, and
purchases the rest of the electricity it needs from the DWP. A rise
in the DWP’s clean energy would mean a concurrent rise in
UCLA’s clean energy.

“The goal is to get to 20 percent by 2017,” Zeisel
said, which would amount to about a 16 percent increase in clean
energy use.

While the DWP aims to attain the 20 percent level within 12
years, Zeisel said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to reach that
level within five years.

Zeisel said he did not know whether they could reach the 20
percent renewable energy goal by 2010, but he said there would be a
definite rise in the amount of clean energy in the upcoming
years.

The energy that UCLA generates itself comes from its Energy
Systems Facility located behind the university police department
building on Westwood Boulevard.

UCLA’s Energy Systems Facility runs as a co-generation
system that takes in landfill gas and natural gas and utilizes both
sources of power to produce electricity, steam and chilled
water.

“We’re pretty green right now. It’s not as
green as windmills, but it’s better than other sources of
energy,” said Dave Johnson, director of energy services and
utilities at UCLA’s Facilities Management. He added that the
Energy Systems Facility produces less pollution that most other
types of power plants.

Most coal and oil generators produce electricity at about 40
percent efficiency, while UCLA’s co-generation system that
runs on landfill gas and natural gas has 80 percent efficiency,
Johnson said. Efficiency is calculated through the amount of
electricity produced in relation to the amount of materials
used.

The UCLA generator plant runs on methane derived from the decay
of garbage and natural gas, and tight restrictions govern how the
plant is run and how its waste is emitted.

“We have one of the most sophisticated active energy
control programs,” Johnson said.

While a percentage of all the electricity the DWP provides comes
from renewable resources, its customers are able to purchase an
additional amount of renewable energy as compared to nonrenewable
power.

“UCLA is a clean power customer of ours and part of our
“˜Green Power for Green L.A.’ program,” said
William Glauz, manager of renewable and emerging technologies at
the DWP.

“Green Power for Green L.A.” allows customers to pay
a premium of 3 cents per kilowatt hour in order to use more
renewable energy, and the 30,000 customers enrolled in the program
greatly benefit the cleaner energy effort, Glauz said.

“It’s a very good thing they’re doing,”
Johnson said.

Facilities Management is running an active energy control
program that aims to cut down on the use of energy on campus, and
buildings are being retrofitted with new lights that conserve more
energy than previous ones.

Johnson said by replacing thousands of T-12 fluorescent lights
with the more efficient T-8 fluorescent lights UCLA has helped cut
down on energy costs.

“They can build as many renewable energy sources as they
want, but we can help keep the atmosphere clean ourselves by
conserving energy,” said Naveen Khan, a third-year
anthropology student.

She said by turning off computers, lights, and other appliances
when not using them, students can help cut down on the fossil fuels
burned to provide the electricity used.

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