Staff Report
WALSENBURG– Rumors are in the air this week: The Cordova Wind Farm project may be going nowhere. E.ON Climate and Renewables, the owner of the Cordova Wind project, is a German-owned company, and it was Germany which recently bailed out Greece. Earlier this year, Greece was trapped in a financial quagmire brought about by the global credit crunch and was threatening bankruptcy, which could have brought down the Euro. According to rumors, this bailout by the Germans has brought about a freeze on a lot of foreign investments by German companies, E.ON included, and this freeze is putting the Cordova project on the skids.
However Paul Bowman, the Vice President of Mountain West Development with E.ON in the U.S., says that’s not so. “The biggest obstacle to the Cordova project is the proposed transmission line project from the proposed Calumet substation in Huerfano County to the Comanche plant in Pueblo. Without that transmission line, we won’t be able to secure a power purchase agreement and that could hurt the wind project,” Bowman told the Huerfano World Journal.
The transmission line project is a controversial project in Huerfano County, but some observers with the county hope that the Public Utilities Commission will be able to cut the transmission line project into two parts. This should have the effect of separating the Calumet-to-Comanche segment from the La Veta Pass-to-Calumet segment and allow the Calumet-to-Comanche segment to be built quickly and without the controversy.
“If that happens, then it will unlock a great deal of potential and economic development for Huerfano County,”Bowman said. “I would hope that the PUC could go along with that idea.”
