Wind-powered energy may be viewed as the clean alternative to coal-fired power plants, but putting together a wind farm is like moving mountains.
In Utah, it is even more difficult, according to Ed Stafford, associate professor of marketing at Utah State University.
Stafford, a speaker at the Utah Wind and Solar Energy conference in downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday, said the state's lack of incentives is a primary reason why Utah has no wind farms.
"At this point we don't really have any strong signals to bring major investment to the state," Stafford said.
And Utah's lack of vision when it comes to renewable energy policies is one reason why the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Mass., gave the state a failing grade earlier this year for its renewable electricity efforts.
Meanwhile, Utah's neighboring state of Wyoming is landing multimillion-dollar contracts, thanks largely to a new sales tax exemption for renewable electricity passed by the Wyoming Legislature this year.
In July, the same month the Wyoming legislation took effect, Florida Power and Light Energy LLC announced that it would build a $143 million wind farm 10 miles northeast of Evanston, Wyo., the largest wind project in the state.
"We found that it's beneficial for the residents, beneficial for the state and the overall energy public," said Wyoming state Rep. Owen Petersen, whose district encompasses the future wind farm. "It provides employment opportunities for the construction and trades as well as permanent jobs."
When completed in December, the Wyoming project will add 80 wind turbines capable of generating a combined 144 megawatts of electricity, enough power for more than 43,000 homes. Wyoming already has 100 operating wind turbines.
It's a different story in Utah, where 96 percent of the state's electricity is generated by fossil fuels.
John Jones, a Utah property owner, said local government officials appeared uncertain when his family first approached them with a proposal to build a wind farm on their property.
Jones has a quarter-interest ownership in 440 acres at Traverse Mountain, which straddles the Utah and Salt Lake county borders.
"Both (counties) initially said, 'Go speak to the other,' " Jones said. "Like anything that is brand new, everybody's really uncomfortable because of lack of knowledge."
Add to that the bureaucratic maze of financing uncertainties and the potential costs of running major transmission lines to wind farms — which can run between $250,000 to $1 million a mile — and wind farms can suddenly appear too risky.
Yet wind farms have many benefits. Property owners can capture $2,000 to $4,000 per wind turbine per year in royalties.
Counties can catch even more. The Foote Creek Rim wind farm in Carbon County, Wyo., generated $480,000 in annual tax revenues, according to Troy Gagliano, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislators.
"We believe that by the end of this decade, without government incentives, wind will be the lowest cost of resources," said Larry Flowers, team leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center in Golden, Colo.
As natural gas costs skyrocket — Coloradoans saw their rates rise by 73 percent last week and Utahns can expect to pay 19 percent more this winter — advocates are pushing for more wind-powered energy.
"There's a disconnect in the country," said Ron Lehr, an attorney and former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. "The people are there, but the institutions lag. And one of the important institutions that lag behind public opinion on renewable energy are the utilities."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com