Oklahoma’s Wind A Valuable Asset
Okies have a love it/hate it relationship to wind-it’s either a plains-sweeping source of joy or a horrific life-destroying avatar of chaos. But in a world increasingly concerned about climate change, taming Oklahoma’s famously strong winds for power is increasingly viewed as both virtuous and lucrative.
Wind turbines are an impressive sight-towering pillars of starkly painted steel and concrete, blades as long as airliners whooshing in lazy circles. But if you live in the more urban areas of Oklahoma, it’s easy to forget about them-even major farms like the massive Blue Canyon Wind Farm with 250 of these mammoth machines tend to be little more than distant spiky figures off a stretch of highway. But as forgettable as they are, they are responsible for nothing less than a revolution in how the former Oil Capital of the World gets its power.
If ever a state existed where renewable power would seem like a non-starter, it’s definitely Oklahoma. After all, Oklahoma has vast reserves of natural gas-37 trillion cubic feet, and is #4 in the USA in production at 2.7 trillion cubic feet per year as of 2018. The situation with oil is similarly strong-over 2 billion barrels of reserves and yearly production of roughly 200 million barrels. With such abundant sources of energy and many years of institutional development and lobbying from these entrenched fossil fuel interests,you would expect any nascent challenger to their dominance of the energy sector to face strong push-back. Oklahoma is also one of the most conservative states in USA, handing anthropogenic climate change denier Donald Trump a more than 2 to 1 victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The deck seems stacked against renewable energy to an almost comical degree.
But none of these obstacles ultimately mattered in the face of the opportunity that awaited wind entrepreneurs in the state- Oklahoma has some of the finest locations for wind farms in the United States. Huge tracts of land in both the Panhandle and south-western areas of Oklahoma have the strong, consistent wind flow that helps wind turbines operate most efficiently, as the image below from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory clearly shows.
So after the costs of wind turbines plummeted from advancing technology, a wave of investment radically reshaped Oklahoma’s energy economy. In 2005, Oklahoma got roughly 2 percent of its electricity through wind power-that number had risen to over 30% as of 2018. And this significant shift in power production has not resulted in rising electricity prices-Oklahoma has among the lowest consumer prices of electricity in the country. Far from getting in the way, existing companies with major holdings in fossil fuels have embraced investing in wind power, and major outside investors in wind like EDP (who got the ball rolling on that massive Blue Canyon project) have poured billions of dollars in investments into Oklahoma.
The increasing use of wind power for electricity has an economically advantageous potential future consequence-with less demand from locals for natural gas, more of the very commercially lucrative fuel can be sold out of state or even exported to other countries. Natural gas demand is projected to remain high globally through 2050 due to its lower price and significantly better reputation than coal, which has rapidly become a pariah fuel due to its extreme dirtiness. (Presently, Oklahoma natural gas consumption has actually risen in recent years due to coal use(thankfully) being in freefall) . If a carbon tax on fossil fuels becomes a legislative and regulatory reality, then existing domestic consumption would likely fall sharply as prices rose and wind’s already impressive gain in market share would almost certainly accelerate.
“Black swan” technological developments could eventually make wind power obsolete-low-cost baseload power from nuclear fusion is widely seen to be many decades away by experts, but recent developments from a few teams could have a highly disruptive effects on the overall energy market in the next 15 years. But for the time being, wind is a strong, ethical investment with immense potential for growth.
