James Burger, Bakersfield Californian

The wind turbines that first started appearing on ridges of the Tehachapi Mountains in the early 1980s have been just a footnote in the energy story of power-hungry California.

Yes, the 783 megawatts of electricity those pinwheels produce can energize hundreds of thousands of homes.

But their impact is small compared to that of the state's two nuclear power plants, which churn out 4,400 megawatts, and by the energy generated from burning coal and natural gas.

Things, however, are changing.

NEW ENERGY

Lorelei Oviatt, chief of Kern County Planning Department special projects, likes to compare today's wind industry prospects to those of the early days of Kern County's petroleum boom.

"In the 1800s when the first surveyors saw the signs of oil deposits in the Sunset Oilfield..," Oviatt said. "This is no different."

On Tuesday, Kern County supervisors will debate whether to allow construction of the 800-megawatt Alta-Oak Creek Mojave project. The Terra-Gen Power, LLC venture would double the amount of wind energy produced in the Tehachapis within the next few years.

The board has already approved an additional 365 megawatts of wind energy.

And other power developers are lining up with requests. Six additional projects, which could bump the total power output of the 223,000-acre Tehachapi Wind Resource Area to more than 2,000 megawatts, have begun the environmental review and approval process.

Terra-Gen, EnXco and Horizon Wind are working to develop five additional projects, Oviatt said.

In the end, she said, Kern County expects to bring 4,600 megawatts to California's power table -- nearly doubling the state's current wind energy power ceiling of just more than 2,600 megawatts.

CROSSROADS

A crossroads of circumstance is powering Kern County's sudden burst of wind energy development.

Within the next six months, Southern California Edison will complete the first three phases of a massive electrical transmission line from Santa Clarita to a "wind hub" on Oak Creek Road between Mojave and Tehachapi.

Terra-Gen spokeswoman Jennifer Geeslin said the company's plans to develop in Tehachapi were a direct result of that power line expansion.

"We are finally able to tap into the SCE wind hub," Geeslin said. "All the (existing) transmission lines were completely tapped out."

Linda Parker of the Kern Wind Energy Association said it was impossible to expand wind energy generation in Tehachapi without a way to move the power to the open energy market.

"We've always been constrained with our transmission system," she said. "Now we'll have the ability to transport our power to any utility."

Completion of that power line came at the same time several other things made massive wind energy projects possible.

Parker said anyone who can get a wind project approved by December 2010 has a shot at federal stimulus money.

And California's new mandate that electrical utility companies generate 20 percent of their energy from "green" sources by 2010 is adding powerful fuel to the wind energy fire.

And finally there are the turbines.

WIND'S SHADOW

Geeslin said the first phase of the Alta-Oak Creek Mojave project -- 100 1.5 megawatt General Electric turbines -- will be operational by 2011.

Each turbine will scrape the sky at 388 feet and produce approximately 11 times as much power as the average turbine in Tehachapi does today.

The complicated technology of the seemingly simple machines has advanced exponentially since the 1980s.

Larger and larger machines produce more and more power -- and at lower wind speeds.

But while the turbines don't take up as much ground as your typical solar field, Oviatt said, they do present some problems when their massive size is considered on the human scale.

Before the Kern County Planning Commission, the Alta project faced heated opposition from residents of a small, off-the-grid enclave of homes tucked into the remote mountains southeast of Tehachapi.

At issue for Old West Ranch residents are the three turbines planned near three of their neighbors' homes.

Oviatt said the turbines are, at more than 500 feet, far enough away from each owner's property line to be safe for homes.

But Merle Carnes, who leads the Old West Ranch Property Owners Association, said the turbines must be removed or area residents will fight the project before supervisors.

The turbines are "obnoxious" and neighbors want to keep the place a quiet hideaway, Carnes said.

There are also real concerns, she said.

Residents worry about the dangers of spinning blades flinging ice and mechanical failures causing the massive machines to malfunction and collapse.

Carnes said they worry about the machines' impact on surrounding wildlife and how close one turbine would sit to the tank from which fire helicopters dip water to battle forest fires.

"We don't want want one of our fire 'copters put in danger -- although those guys that fly those 'copters probably don't think they're in danger. They're so macho," she said.

Carnes said Terra-Gen is listening to Old West Ranch concerns.

She said she's promised the company that if it moves those three turbines, her community will support the project.

"They have to go where the wind is," she acknowledged.

BRIGHT FUTURE

Parker has been promoting development in Tehachapi since the mid-1990s.

"At first there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "Now it's coming so fast at us it's unbelievable."

By 2030, she said, wind energy is expected to share equal stature as the oil industry in Kern County's economy.

Parker estimates that when the 4,600 megawatts of power capacity in the Southern California Edison line are filled, the massive increase in the property tax value of the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area will generate $45 million a year in new taxes for state and local coffers.

Oviatt said the new development will produce hundreds of high-paying technical jobs doing maintenance on the wind fields.

Educational institutions are already ramping up to teach the needed skills, Parker said.

"Cerro Coso has a wind energy boot camp," she said. "Cal State is looking at a wind energy institute."

Kern County's bottom line and its employment base will benefit from this explosion of the green energy frontier, Oviatt said.

"I equate it (to) a gold-rush," Parker said.