Wind Farm Powering a Million Homes Nears Approval Deep in Coal Country

A massive wind farm in Wyoming is getting closer to reality.  Last week Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council voted unanimously to approve a permit to construct and operate the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, which could eventually generate 3,000 megawatts of energy — enough to power nearly one million households.  The $5 billion project, which could include up to 1,000 wind turbines, is being undertaken by Power Company of Wyoming.  The Power Company is a wholly-owned affiliate of Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz’s The Anschutz Corp, which also has holdings in oil and gas infrastructure and electricity transmission.

The permit is the last major non-federal permit needed to move the project forward, however the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is still working on two environmental assessments to be released in the near future.

The wind farm will be sited in south-central Wyoming’s Carbon County where it will sprawl across a 320,000-acre checkerboard of private land, state land, and federal land, but only occupy some 2,000 acres.  However, the energy from the project is anticipated to be exported to utility customers in California, Arizona, and Nevada — with none of it remaining in Wyoming. The company is still negotiating power purchase agreements with utilities.

“It is the utilities in the Desert Southwest — Southern California, Arizona and Nevada — with densely populated areas and high Renewable Portfolio Standards that will be buying the power,” Kara Choquette, communications director for Power Company of Wyoming, told ThinkProgress.

Choquette said the project site directly aligns with major transmission lines under development, such as Energy Gateway West and Energy Gateway South, which will bring power to neighboring western states.  The TransWest Express Transmission Project, which is being developed by Power Company of Wyoming affiliate and Anschutz Corp-owned TransWest Express LLC, is another option.  These transmission lines are expensive and time-intensive to construct and not having power purchase agreements in place can make it harder for them to get built.

According to the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) recent second quarter market report, there are now 61,946 megawatts of installed wind capacity in the United States and over 46,300 wind turbines.  During the first half of 2014, 835 megawatts of wind energy were installed, however 14,600 megawatts of wind capacity is under construction across 106 projects in 21 states as of the end of June.

Wind Farm Powering a Million Homes Nears Approval Deep in Coal Country