WIND FARM ON SCHEDULE FOR JULY START
NS&D Monitor
1/31/2014
Pantex Plant officials anticipate the plant’s new wind farm, the federal government’s largest, will be operational in July and will generate enough power to provide more than 65 percent of the nuclear weapons plant’s annual electricity needs. On Jan. 23, representatives from Siemens USA, Texas Tech University, B&W Pantex and the National Nuclear Security Administration joined local government officials and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) at Pantex for a blade-signing ceremony and to monitor progress on the facility, which is now under construction.
Karl Waltzer, acting deputy manager for the NNSA Production Office that oversees Pantex, said the wind farm will significantly reduce Pantex’s carbon footprint and help meet the Obama Administration’s renewable energy objectives. When the facility becomes operational, its clean power generating capacity will be the equivalent of removing 35,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the air, taking 7,200 cars off the road each year or planting 850,000 trees, Waltzer said. “The opportunity to power the plant with clean, renewable wind power is a way we can be more environmentally responsible, reduce costs and become more efficient here,” he said.
Ron Griffin, project manager for Siemens, said the wind farm components were built in the United States. The 241-foot towers are built in Abilene, the 150-foot, 11-ton blades are manufactured in Fort Madison, Iowa and the nacelles, 90-ton fixtures that sit atop the wind towers and house mechanical components, were built in Hutchinson, Kan. The farm’s 15 wind blades, made of composite materials, will each swing an arc roughly the size of a football field, Griffin said.
Officials: Project On Time, On Budget
When the turbines are completed, each will stand as tall as a Boeing 747 on its tail and will weigh as much as 48 elephants, according to information from Siemens. The wind farm, expected to be operational by July 31, will generate about 47 million kilowatt hours of clean energy per year, enough energy to power roughly 3,500 homes. Griffin said the project required 3,300 cubic yards of concrete and said Siemens has relied heavily on local contractors to erect the towers, wire the facility to a nearby electrical substation and help install components.
Under the contract with Siemens, government payments to the company come from the value of guaranteed energy savings generated by the farm. “This project is not costing the taxpayers any money, and that’s an important thing to underscore,” said Griffin, who noted that so far the project has come in on time and under budget. Thornberry said Texas Tech researchers also will be able to study the turbines’ operations and gain vital research data. “The wind farm, I think, is a good addition to the essential work that happens here. Our country needs all the energy we can produce here at home because everything we produce here at home, we don’t have to buy overseas,” he said.
