Rocky Barker
Idaho Statesman
June 3, 2010

Bone Road through the dry farmlands east of Idaho Falls would be the last place you’d look as a center of economic development.

The lonely road rises from Snake River Valley through the foothills overlooking the once sleepy farm communities surrounding eastern Idaho’s nuclear hub. But soon giant towers topped with wind tubines will rise over the skyline producing 125 megawatts of electricity, enough to light 37,000 houses.

Officials from the developers, Ridgeline Energy, and BP Wind Energy, joined Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, and others Wednesday for a wind turbine blade-signing event for the Goshen North wind farm in Bonneville County. For BP officials it’s a welcome respite of positive publicity as its parent company’s oil spill drags its name through the sludge.

“Today’s blade-signing event is a bit of a tradition in our industry,” said Steve Voorhees, CEO, of Ridgeline Energy. “It’s an opportunity for those who have been involved in the project, along with our friends and supporters who helped get us to this point, to sign their names and to leave a message on a turbine blade.”

T he message is that Idaho is ready for a new project that may employ 250 workers during peak construction and a full-time staff of 10, who will monitor and maintain the 11,000-acre site after it becomes fully operational.

The project has came about not so much because of the state’s policies toward alternative energy but despite them. Still, Otter’s Department of Commerce has helped wind developers and recognizes the potential they offer for further economic development.

In 2008, Nordic Windpower built a turbine manufacturing plant in Pocatello in part due to the persuasion of Exergy Development Group, another wind developer in the state. Pocatello has become a center of alternative energy businesses and the development of another big wind farm may help bring more.

“This is another great example of how Idaho is leading the way in development and support of alternative and renewable energy projects, from wind and solar to geothermal and biomass,” Otter said. “And what better area to be a national ‘green spot’ for creating energy-related career opportunities than eastern Idaho, which for generations has been home to a world leader in clean, efficient, carbon-free nuclear power research and development.”

With Boise’s newly announced solar power generating plant, Micron’s solar partnership, its promising Light Emitting Diode (LED) business, M2M’s energy efficiency growth and Inovus Solar’s growing power pole business, these wind developments beef up Idaho alternative energy base.

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