“It’s just money in the bank,” he said, looking at the grouping of flags flapping straight out from a chilly north wind.

As the economic development director for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes, it’s Whiteman’s job to look for new opportunities. He just recently realized that one has been hitting him in the face his whole life.

In May, the tribes broke ground with the intent to be the first in the country to meet 100% of their power needs through wind energy.

Since then, Whiteman has been fielding calls from tribes all over the state and as far away as Montana.

“So, we’d better do it right,” he says. The Cheyenne-Arapaho are by no means the largest tribes in Oklahoma, but do operate large gaming facilities in Concho and Clinton, as well as smaller operations in Watonga and Canton.

And the way Whiteman sees it, sacred Mother Earth could help the tribes reap a mother lode of savings.

“As windy as it is here, there’s not a very calm day,” Whiteman says. “These generators take a 4 mph wind to turn them. I’m thinking they’re going to be turning every day. I’m thinking instead of us paying OGE or Cimarron (Electric Cooperative) or whoever, it’s going to go in our account, and we’ll be able to pay these units off and develop more projects like this for our other properties.”

Phase one is two turbines to power the tribes’ administrative offices. A secondary goal is to train tribal members in every aspect — from installation to maintenance — of the energy-producing devices.

Tribal Employment Rights Office and Department of Education grants will be used to provide the training. A slew of tax credits and energy bonds also are available for tribes and other entities that pursue wind energy.

“Oklahoma is really starting to get aggressive,” says Scott Brantley, CEO of West Wind Energy, the company the tribes chose to partner with in the initial phases of the project. “The tide’s really turned, and there are a couple of reasons why. The primary reason is coal-fired electricity costs have gone up significantly. And obviously, with the new incentives that are out … it’s huge because, in many cases, you’re offsetting as much as 50% of the project in the form of grants.”

After discussions about wind power came up within the tribes’ legislative body, Whiteman spent time on the phone with some 15 different companies.

“All of them were trying to put the megawatt systems in,” he says. “We just didn’t have time to do that. It takes at least two years to get an environmental impact statement and all the easements. Everything  we talked about was on the money — the meter tying directly into the transformer, training our own people to do the maintenance, and actually powering our own enterprises and administration buildings. Hopefully, it will expand it enough to go off the grid at Concho.”

The first two units will power the administrative offices and the tribe’s smoke shop. Once members see the savings, Whiteman hopes to enter into a lease-to-own agreement that will put between 20 and 28 more units online.

He says he expects the tribe’s utility bills to zero out between three and four years from now.

WINDY TALK?

The private turbines may be good for the Cheyenne-Arapaho, but others in the industry say total reliance on wind energy may not be the most sound decision.

OGE spokesman Brian Alford shied away from the notion that Oklahoma could be 100% wind-powered in our lifetimes.

“I think that’s doubtful,” says Alford, who notes just 10,000 customers have signed up for OGE wind power. “There’s a number of issues with wind in terms of being a reliable source. Wind is an intermittent resource. Wind doesn’t blow a great deal in the summer months. We need the reliability of natural gas and coal-fired generation to meet that demand.”

Last August, OGE began construction on a $451 million wind farm project in northwest Oklahoma’s Dewey County in line with its goal of no new coal-fired plants before 2025.

With 95 Siemens turbines, the project is anticipated to add 227.5 megawatts of energy that will be carried through the company’s new Windspeed transmission line into the OKC metro.

Alford says the additional megawatts will make wind approximately 10% of the OGE’s total generating capacity.