Overcoming obstacles in wind energy development - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 178

multilateral negotiation involving multiple other wind energy developers
who contemplated developing their own, competing projects in the area.
This sort of bargaining dynamic—with several competing developers
trying to pool resources to site and fund transmission facilities that are
critical to each of their rival projects—inherently lends itself to tension.
On the one hand, Cannon and the other developers in these negotiations
recognized that some degree of cooperation was imperative to their success;
if they couldn't reach agreement, it was quite possible that all of their
proposed projects would fail. On the other hand, each developer at the
negotiating table was also fiercely competing with everyone else to secure
wind energy leases with landowners and to get community members to
coalesce around its own particular project. Due to practical limitations,
it was more than likely that some of these developers' proposed projects
would ultimately fail.
Comprehending the nature and implications of this delicate dynamic,
Cannon tried to help this group of rival developers focus on the greater
good that could be gained from coordinated effort. Rather than bristle
at the notion of working with direct competitors to help fund trans-
mission, the company and its lawyers sought to guide funding discussions
toward workable solutions. For the most part, the developers in the group
maintained an air of congeniality, listening to the views of all developers
that were serious about participating.
Eventually, a tentative deal was reached: Cannon and a handful of other
wind energy developers agreed in principle to collectively fund the $35 million
that KPUD would need to build a new substation and transmission connec-
tions. In return, each developer would receive interconnection capacity at the
new substation in an amount that was roughly proportional to the size of its
respective financial contribution to the transmission project.
By overcoming its differences, this unlikely group of competing wind
energy developers was able to create grid connection opportunities that
would have otherwise been unavailable. The final arrangement was far
from ideal, but it was still more than adequate from Cannon's perspective.
For $16 million, the company could secure 500 MW of interconnection
capacity—enough to connect a $1 billion wind farm to California electricity
markets 800 miles away.
Securing lease rights
Satisfied with the quality of wind resources and transmission availability
in Klickitat County's Windy Point area, Cannon next turned its attention
to assessing the one other critical element for successful wind energy
projects: a group of landowners who are ready and willing to lease their
land. Monkhouse and Hardke sincerely believed that a wind farm would
create net benefits for the area, but could they persuade local residents to
share their vision? They determined that the only way to get an accurate