Wind turbines on Mount Bachelor?

That’s one of the options the ski area will evaluate this summer as management looks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent in the next five to 10 years.

Bachelor will conduct internal surveys to determine the ski area’s current fuel, propane and electricity usage and where reductions could be made, said communications manager Janette Sherman.

Sherman noted that ski resorts around the country are hurt by global warming, where warmer winters reduce mountain snow. As such, it’s natural for ski resorts, which depend on snowfall for business, to pursue renewable energy, she said.

”We’ll be looking at where we can cut, not in terms of our services, but in terms of where there may be excess (energy usage) that leads to emissions,” Sherman said.

The survey is part of Park City, Utah-based POWDR Corp.’s efforts to lower carbon gas emissions across the company’s six resorts, including Mt. Bachelor.

The Central Oregon resort is purchasing almost 700,000 kilowatt-hours of wind-generated power annually from La Pine-based Midstate Electric Cooperative, Bachelor’s utility provider.

To reduce waste, the resort plans to switch from paper plates to chinaware next season for food services, officials said.

This summer, Bachelor will investigate the feasibility of on-site wind turbines and solar panels, Sherman said.

”It depends on what we find (in the survey),” she said. ”(But) I think we’ll be looking into those options. There’s definitely interest on our part to include those resources, because you see a lot of sun-power usage in the region, and you know how strong the winds can get up here during the year.”

Local and regional officials said they have noticed a higher level of interest on the part of many ski areas to pursue green power, although discussions of on-site turbines are rare.

Elliot Mainzer, manager of transmission policy at the Portland-based Bonneville Power Administration, said that installing wind power production devices on-site remains somewhat expensive, and Bachelor may find other options more appealing.

”I think the fundamental question for them is whether they want to put something in on their own or work with a utility company to build elsewhere, then purchase that power,” Mainzer said. ”My guess is (the second option) will be more cost-effective.”

Installation costs vary by the size of the facilities.

According to the Iowa Energy Center, a large-scale facility producing more than 100 kilowatts could have installation costs as low as $1,000 per kilowatt, while small systems generating 10 kilowatts can cost as much as $30,000 to install.

Many wind turbines actually have high speed cutoffs, which turn off the generators during times of excessive wind speed, Mainzer added.

”I think the high wind speed (at Bachelor) could raise a couple of challenges,” he said. ”I’ve skied there, and there are days where the wind just screams.”

Cylvia Hayes, executive director of 3EStrategies, a Bend-based nonprofit renewable resources advocacy firm, said current technology should be able to compensate for Bachelor’s strong winds.

The issue, Hayes said, comes back to cost.

”Wind turbines are expensive,” she said. ”They usually require high enough quantities for them to pay off, and that requires a steady wind speed to do any good.”

Bachelor operates the ski area, which is on national forestland, on a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service, said Tom Knappenberger, media liaison with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest region.

Although Knappenberger declined to speculate about the likelihood of wind turbines on Bachelor, he said the ski area would have to go through several steps before installing turbines.

”They would have to apply to amend their special use permit,” he said. ”And we would have to do an environmental assessment to make sure the new uses are within our guidelines.”

But Hayes said it is good to see a major Central Oregon business taking steps toward renewable energy usage.

”It’s an ambitious program,” she said. ”But they can really pioneer this effort, and maybe smooth the way for other entities to push for renewable energy production.”