Wichita ? Kansas — ranked first in the nation in wind-energy potential — could theoretically produce enough power to supply 40 percent of the demand for electricity in the United States, an energy expert said Monday.

“Realistically, that wouldn’t be developed, but that is only to give you an idea of the scope,” Randy Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, told attendees at the 2003 Kansas Wind and Biomass Energy Conference.

Consider that the state’s wind resources are greater than Saudi Arabian oil reserves, he said, or that half of Kansas has commercially viable wind-farm sites.

Kansas was named last year the No. 1 state for potential wind resources in a study published by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

On Monday, conference participants explored some of that potential in Kansas at the same time they looked at some of the problems holding back its development.

Among the biggest constraints is the lack of adequate transmission lines to carry wind power produced from Midwest states to population centers on the east and west coasts, Swisher said.

Lee Allison, director of the Kansas Geological Survey, announced Monday at the conference the formation of a Transmission Task Force to determine the reliability of the Kansas electric grid and identify its needs and opportunities.

Over the next 20 years or so, it is realistic and achievable for wind power produced nationwide to provide 6 percent of the total electric generation in the United States, Allison said.

“What that implies for Kansas, for Kansas’ economic development future, for Kansas as an energy exporting state, is profound,” Swisher said. “But it is really dependent on the decisions that are made here in this state — what kind of leadership is offered by policy makers.”

The potential for wind-energy development comes at a pivotal time.

Since 1997, Kansas has gone from a net energy exporting state to an energy importing state — reflecting declines in the past 20 years in the Hugoton natural-gas field and its stripper oil wells, said Allison, who also is chairman of the State Energy Resources Coordination Council.

“Wind energy can play a very significant role in changing that,” Swisher said.

John DiDonato, director of FPL Energy, told attendees that his wind-power company is driven by demand — focused on who is going to buy the wind power produced.

Kansas is a great place to do business, he said, but it is difficult to get wind power produced in Kansas even to Missouri.