2000 Megawatt Wyoming Wind Farm to Produce Power for Southern California, Las Vegas, Arizona
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 07.31.08
photo by Cory Grunkemeyer
Though it is earlier in the development process than yesterday’s announced 909 MW Oregon wind farm—which, yes, is smaller than T. Boone Pickens’ 4000 MW behemoth, but since it’s farther along the road to actually being built can claim the world record at the moment—a new massive wind project proposal may be bringing more clean energy to Southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix, Arizona.
Wind Power Plus Transmission Capacity to be Built
The 2000 MW wind farm is planned to be built on Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz’ south-central Wyoming ranch, and now that the Anschutz Corp. has acquired rights to build the transmission lines—3000 MW, 900 miles and $3 billion worth of transmission lines—that power can be brought from a place where it is more easily generated to places with greater demand.
The project is far from a done deal however. Local and Federal permitting, including an environmental impact statement, must be completed, a process which developers are expecting to take 24-36 months to complete. No word on how long construction is expected to take, once the requisite permits are received.
Transmission Capacity a Bottleneck for Renewable Energy
Considering that expanding transmission capacity is one of the stumbling blocks for the expansion of renewable energy, the fact that Anschutz is planning to build the power lines to bring his clean energy to market certainly makes sense. Pickens wants to do the same for his Texas wind farm. For large scale projects
such as this, factoring in adding your own transmission lines may become a more common practice.
via ::Clean Technica
Wind Power
World’s Largest Onshore Wind Farm (909 Megawatts) to be Built in Oregon
World’s Largest Offshore Windfarm, The London Array, is Back On
T. Boone Pickens Gets Into The Texas Wind: 4,000 Mega-Watts Worth
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Ah, so wind is finally getting into multi-gigawatt farms. Beautiful.
I wonder how many years until solar is doing the same?
Imagine having rooftop solar required for all new construction and gov't funding for resdential and commercial installations!!!!
The hours we need the most power would be the same as the hours that the solar was producing the most power. Offset some of the building's consumption and thereby allow the power companies to throttle back a little and save some fossil fuels.
Why will it take two to three years to get the permitting process completed? This is outrageous. Can't somebody do something about this?
The sooner we wake up the better. We need alternatives and now.
2000MW is the same as 2 large nuke plants. Great news. Now we need another couple dozen announcments like this one this year. Then we'll be making progress.
@Anthony
Solar is still more expensive than wind, so getting the alternative energy tax credits passed is a must. Write your congressman and senator. Then we'll start to see large solar projects.
@Fritz
In Hawaii, all new homes starting in 2010 must have solar installed.
Using wind power is not quite that simple. On average wind turbines produce around 30% of the peek power. So a 2000 MW wind farms will on average generate 600 MW. This is a just bit more the half the output of most nuclear plants.
Also for large scale wind generation, energy storage like pump hydroelectric will be needed to match energy source to the load. We should start planing the storage infrastructure now to take full advantage of wind.
Mike
Windfarms are a consumer ripoff. The only guys who benefit are the investors and manufacturers.
Visit: windaction.org/opinions to learn more.
Wind farms were first formed by ENRON and got bought up by GE
Windfarms are a consumer ripoff. The only guys who benefit are the investors and manufacturers.
Visit: windaction.org/opinions to learn more.
Wind farms were first formed by ENRON and got bought up by GE
I would have to agree with Tony. Two to three years for permitting and an environmental impact report is quite unproductive for a renewable energy project such as this.
And as Fritz mentioned, there needs to be action with every new and existing project which shows that we are serious about renewables.
Wind Turbine Farms are destroying wildlife habitats and viewsheds! They need built in the cities where these natural resources are already destroyed!
Wyoming is a great place for wind farms. It is only logical to take advantage of the almost constant wind in some areas of Wyoming.
There is a lot of interest with the new wind farms. I just saw this on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Wyoming-Wind-Energy/73644966868?v=wall&viewas=17830444