Local hospitals join to buy wind power

A group of local hospitals has banded together in an unusual initiative to buy power generated by the wind in Schuylkill and Columbia Counties.

The wind power will supply approximately a third of their electricity for 10 years, the hospitals said in a news release yesterday.

The health institutions participating in the group purchase are Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Inc., Main Line Health System, Frankford Hospitals, and Magee Rehabilitation.

Paul Copleman, a spokesman for Iberdrola Renewables, the company that will supply the wind energy, said he believes this was the first "retail" purchase of this type. Most wind energy is purchased by other energy companies.

The wind energy will be generated at the Locust Ridge II wind project. It is now under construction and is expected to be operating by the end of March.

It will include 51 wind turbines manufactured in Bucks County. The health institutions will use 55 percent of the electricity generated at Locust Ridge II.

Rodney Yancey, an Einstein spokesman, said Einstein estimates that using the wind energy will save it $4.5 million over 10 years.

The hospitals have locked in a flat price. The agreement begins in 2011, the year when state price caps on electricity rates in Pennsylvania expire, the health institutions said. The state imposed the caps in 1999.