Google is getting deeper into renewable energy investment, this week investing $100 million in the Shepherds Flat wind farm in eastern Oregon, .

This brings Google’s renewable energy spending to more than $350 million. Last week, Google announced it would invest in BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power tower in California’s Mojave Desert – billed as the largest solar project in the world – and in a solar plant project in Berlin.

The Shepherds Flat project, by developer and located near Arlington, is expected to be the largest wind farm in the world when completed in 2012. It is planned to cost $2 billion and would produce 845 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 235,000 homes.

“Shepherds Flat will help Oregon continue to be one of the top wind producing states in the nation, while providing significant direct economic benefits to the state,” wrote Rick Needham, Google’s director of green business operations, on Google’s official blog.

While Shepherds Flat would – creating 35 permanent jobs and 400 temporary ones – the energy created by the project would go to Southern California Edison, a utility in California. California is to 33 percent of power sold by 2020. Presently, the requirement is 20 percent.

“The project will also benefit the region by helping California meet its aggressive renewable energy goals with a cost-effective and clean wind resource,” Needham wrote.

Shepherds Flat is also receiving federal, state and local subsidies totaling more than $1.2 billion, according to that explains how wind developers are “double dipping” in government subsidies. Private equity totals about 11 percent of the project’s cost, according to the memo.

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Google is getting deeper into renewable energy investment, this week investing $100 million in the Shepherds Flat wind farm in eastern Oregon, .

This brings Google’s renewable energy spending to more than $350 million. Last week, Google announced it would invest in BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power tower in California’s Mojave Desert – billed as the largest solar project in the world – and in a solar plant project in Berlin.

The Shepherds Flat project, by developer and located near Arlington, is expected to be the largest wind farm in the world when completed in 2012. It is planned to cost $2 billion and would produce 845 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 235,000 homes.

“Shepherds Flat will help Oregon continue to be one of the top wind producing states in the nation, while providing significant direct economic benefits to the state,” wrote Rick Needham, Google’s director of green business operations, on Google’s official blog.

While Shepherds Flat would – creating 35 permanent jobs and 400 temporary ones – the energy created by the project would go to Southern California Edison, a utility in California. California is to 33 percent of power sold by 2020. Presently, the requirement is 20 percent.

“The project will also benefit the region by helping California meet its aggressive renewable energy goals with a cost-effective and clean wind resource,” Needham wrote.

Shepherds Flat is also receiving federal, state and local subsidies totaling more than $1.2 billion, according to that explains how wind developers are “double dipping” in government subsidies. Private equity totals about 11 percent of the project’s cost, according to the memo.

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A $1.3 billion federal loan guarantee has been finalized for the Shepherds Flat wind farm in eastern Oregon, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on Thursday.

The 845-megawatt wind project is being developed by Caithness Energy LLC on the Columbia Plateau near Arlington. It would be the largest wind farm in the world. The federal loan for the project was initially announced in October. The project is also being sponsored by GE Energy Financial Services.

The project will create 400 jobs during construction and 35 jobs after construction is complete.

“Renewable energy investments like these are creating jobs while helping to maintain America’s global competitiveness in the clean energy economy,” Chu said.

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A wind farm under development in Eastern Oregon has received a $1.3 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat wind project is being developed by Caithness Energy LLC on the Columbia Plateau near Arlington. The loan comes from the Department of Energy’s Financial Institution Partnership Program and is being funded by a group of investors and banks led by Citi, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., RBS Securities and WestLB Securities Inc. The 338-turbine project has a power purchase contract with California-based utility Southern California Edison.

Shepherds Flat ran into trouble in March when the Federal Aviation Administration sent a notice saying the project’s turbines could interfere with a nearby radar station owned by the Department of Defense. That charge was later dropped after a study commissioned by the Department of Defense revealed that technology at the radar station only needed to be updated to avoid conflicts with the wind farm.

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The U.S. Department of Defense today announced it wouldn’t block the Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm in Arlington from being constructed.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice of presumed hazard to Shepherd’s Flat developer Caithness Energy saying that the project’s turbines could interfere with a nearby Department of Defense-owned radar facility.

Now, the Department of Defense says it will upgrade its system to eliminate any problems between the radar and the wind turbines.

“The FAA and DoD’s solution shows that energy security and national security can work together,” said Rachel Shimshak, executive director at the Renewable Northwest project, a nonprofit that promotes renewable energy projects. “I think that the decision today bodes well for repairing a very old radar system and hopefully allowing the proposals in mid-Columbia ready to break ground to move forward.”

The 845 megawatt project is expected to employ about 700 construction workers.

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Construction of new wind farms in Oregon usually begins in springtime, when developers hope for dry weather. But this spring, developers are concerned about more than just rain.

The Federal Aviation Administration last month sent a notice of presumed hazard for Caithness Energy‘s Shepherd’s Flat wind farm in Arlington, saying one of the project’s 303 turbines could interfere with transmissions from a Department of Defense-owned radar station in nearby Fossil.

Now, a study to determine whether the turbine could interfere with signals from the radar station will hold up the Eastern Oregon project well into summer. And wind developers, like Chris Taylor of Element Power, worry that their own projects may be delayed in the future.

“The troubling thing is this project was developed properly and responsibly,” Taylor said. “We need a system (with the FAA) that allows you to tell early on where the problem areas are. The fact that they came at the 11th hour is what is really problematic.”

Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the FAA, said Caithness Energy filed a notice with the FAA in September 2009, but a notice of presumed hazard wasn’t issued by the FAA until March 1, a few weeks before project construction was scheduled to begin.

Caithness had already poured concrete for Shepherd’s Flat and purchased all of the turbines it needed from General Electric, according to John Audley, executive director of the Renewable Northwest Project, a nonprofit that performs advocacy work for Oregon’s clean energy industry. Now those turbines are waiting at a terminal in the Port of Tacoma.

“Investors are in a catch-22 here,” Audley said. “The window for construction is very narrow. You have to start building now to be done by October, when the rain starts, and then be sufficiently completed by the end of the year to qualify for federal tax incentives.”

One of the difficulties in planning a wind farm project, Taylor said, is that developers will go through dozens of potential turbine layouts between concept and completion to ensure that the turbines are generating the most energy possible.

But Taylor said the FAA doesn’t have the resources to review multiple designs. Instead, it asks developers to submit an initial layout and use that to determine whether the project presents a hazard. Later, a wind developer has to resubmit the project for final approval if any changes have been made. As a result, it could be rejected.

“The concerns stem from the fact that this project sought and was given approval by FAA and they went back for final approval with minimal changes, the opinion changed,” Audley said. “That’s hard on a business making investments and financing decisions.”

“The irony is, you could stick with the unoptimized layout that has been approved by FAA and build a less efficient wind farm,” Taylor said. “We need a system that allows you to tell early on where the problem areas are. Something like, anything under 450 feet tall is OK. That’s the clarity we need.”

The increase in wind projects seeking the OK from the FAA has challenged the federal agency. Brown said that in 2004 her office saw 4,000 applications for wind turbines each year. Today, it sees 30,000 per year.

“We have been telling the wind turbine industry for a number of years that we need eight to 12 months to do these reviews,” Brown said. “We recognize that the developers want to proceed quickly. But since we have to review every single turbine, on a project that involves hundreds of turbines, that’s a bigger task.”

Brown also noted that the FAA cannot stop construction of a wind project, even if it determines a potential hazard; state and local authorities have the final say.

Iberdrola Renewables previously received a determination of no hazard for its 200-megawatt Leaning Juniper II wind farm in Arlington, and ground is slated to be broken next month. The firm recently had to resubmit a notice to the FAA because the location of some of the project’s turbines has moved, said Jan Johnson, spokeswoman for Iberdrola. Johnson said she doesn’t believe the FAA will take any issue with the new proposal.

“I think it would be unusual for the FAA to change (its) mind so quickly,” Johnson said. “We received determinations of no hazards on three wind farms in that area in 2008 and 2009. We did make some minor modifications based on state and local siting rules, and to optimize the layout to generate the most electricity possible.”

If Iberdrola were to receive a notice of potential hazard on Leaning Juniper II, or two other wind farms the firm has planned in the vicinity, it would hold off on the projects, Johnson said. Iberdrola is looking to build a 50-megawatt project and a 150-megawatt project near Bickleton, Wash.

“These three wind farms represent a $1 billion investment in Oregon and Washington,” Johnson said. “We estimate it will bring 600 construction jobs and millions (of dollars) in tax payments and landowner payments, all going to Oregon and Washington governments and residents.”

The Shepherd’s Flat project is being studied by radar experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to see if turbines can reflect radar and create blind spots where airplanes can’t be seen by radar screens. Brown said her office is still reviewing information and hasn’t made a determination yet.

The outcome of the radar study could affect future wind projects near Fossil, but Audley hopes that the visibility of Shepherd’s Flat will lead to a more permanent fix for the issues surrounding FAA oversight of wind projects. He also doesn’t believe projects that have already received approval should have to suffer.

“Let the projects in the pipeline get built,” Audley said. “The larger question is how we improve this process so (the FAA) engages in advance so businesspeople can make good decisions. That’s a longer-term issue that will require legislative activity or federal policy rethinking that is a bit above my pay grade.”

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