BNSF proposes wind energy hub in Pasco, Wash.

BNSF wants to create a wind energy hub in the Big Pasco Industrial Center, the Tri City Herald reports. The railroad company, which operates one of North America's largest rail networks, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces, recently proposed setting up a transload facility on Port of Pasco land. The idea is to haul wind turbine components by rail from production sites and deliver them to Pasco for loading onto trucks for shipment to wind farm sites within 150 miles.  

The Pasco transload
center would be one of 20 in BNSF’s network. The Fort Worth, Texas-based
company believes such centers would allow cheap and efficient transport of
oversized wind farm components, including towers, hubs, blades and nacelles —
the protective housing for gearboxes, drive trains and generators. Seven of the
20 centers proposed nationwide are in service. They are run by private groups
that BNSF works with to cut costs of building wind farms.

Transportation and
logistics costs can add 10 percent to 25 percent to a turbine’s cost, according
to an industry estimate.

The centers are a boon to
manufacturers and wind farm developers, said BNSF’s David Polzin, who worked on
the company’s plan to address transportation needs and manage logistics in the
growing wind energy market. To handle such concerns, BNSF works with other
partners in several ways, including altering railcar designs. As a result of
one partnership, a twist-lock mechanism was developed to hold the 110- to
145-foot blades on a retrofitted flat car, says a recent BNSF report.

BNSF has helped move wind
power shipments for almost 10 years but has made a greater push to capture more
of that freight market in the last three years, Polzin said. By 2012, about 17
wind farm projects are to be built in Washington and 12 to 17 in Oregon, Polzin
said.

The wind industry
installed about 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity in 2009, enough to
serve 2.4 million homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Rail’s advantage is that
it can move a huge load at one go with fewer emissions and a smaller carbon
footprint than trucks, said Teresa Perkins, BNSF director for business
development.

The company’s proposal
for Pasco calls for leasing about 17 acres and using 1,400 feet of track for a
year, with two renewal options.

Because wind power
development is a volatile industry, it’s natural to be cautious, said Sam Good,
the port’s director of properties and development. BNSF still is identifying
markets and clients, she said. She is hoping BNSF will stay at the port for the
long haul, because wind farms in the Northwest will need replacements and could
provide a steady business.

BNSF’s proposal will help
create jobs and may attract ancillary businesses to the port, she said. The
long-term potential will far surpass the port’s gains of about $86,000 a year,
she said.

Last year, the port
served as a transload facility for wind turbine blades from a Siemens plant in
Iowa. Once the equipment reached Pasco, Lampson International of the Tri-Cities
used its cranes to load the trucks headed to the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm in
Oregon near the Columbia River Gorge, Good said. The shipment’s carbon
footprint was about 28.9 metric tons, or 82 percent less than what trucking
would have created, according to a BNSF study.

The project, which earned
about $44,000 in four months for the port through an eight-acre lease, was led
by a Texas-based logistics company working with BNSF.

BNSF later also helped
bring in wind turbine parts shipments to Lampson, which provided storage and
transload facilities on land leased from the port, Good said.

A location that enables
railcars to get in and gives trucks easy access to highways generally is
preferred for a transload facility, said BNSF’s Perkins. She said she expects
the wind industry to grow and hopes to see more standardization of fixtures on
railcars to help move the big pieces.