2,000 MW Wind Farm Will Send Power from Wyoming to Southern California
The Anschutz Corp. said Tuesday it has acquired the rights to a proposed $3 billion, 3,000-megawatt transmission project that will bring electricity from Wyoming to Southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The 900-mile TransWest Express Project will carry power from a 2,000-megawatt wind farm Anschutz is developing in south-central Wyoming, a large portion of which will be built on a ranch he has owned for about 15 years.
A study by National Grid released this month concluded that wind-generated power produced in southern Wyoming is the most viable option for meeting the clean power demands of the desert Southwest. Both the wind farm and the proposed transmission project still must get approval from state and federal agencies, which will include an environmental impact study and opportunities for public comment. The permitting process will likely take 24-36 months to complete.
This is the fist venture into renewable energy for Anschutz, who made his fortune in oil, gas, real estate, telecommunications and entertainment. Today’s news comes in the wake of two major developments in US wind energy development: the well-publicized T. Boone Pickens push for a 4,000 MW wind farm and associated grid infrastructure in Texas, and the recent approval of a 909 megawatt wind farm in Oregon.
Related Posts:
- World’s Largest Wind Farm Planned in Oregon
- Transmission Politics Hold Up Utility-Scale Solar
- World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Back on Track
- Texas to Build Wind Power Super Highway
The Denver Post
Photo: Vestas
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July 31st, 2008 at 12:53 am
It will be extremely interesting to see how this project unfolds. It is becoming increasingly clear that the most pressing goal for developing more wind power generating capacity is not the building of new wind farms, but the rather the effective transportation of the resulting energy to where it is most needed. Not to mention the problems with simply integrating that much new power into the grid, as Ariel mentioned in her post on the Oregon windfarm. Hopefully this will prove a successful pilot project.
More energy solutions: http://www.brightfuture.us
July 31st, 2008 at 8:28 am
Check out PacifiCorp’s Generator Interconnection Queue (it is basically the “line” you have to stand in to interconnect your electricity generating facility to the transmission system). Notice every Wyoming interconnection request is wind power, excepting two. Wind is here to stay folks.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Oops… forgot the link!
http://www.oasis.pacificorp.com/oasis/ppw/lgia/pacificorplgiaq.htm
July 31st, 2008 at 10:01 am
I’m confused, why call it 2000MW when there’s a better term for that.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am
Tim and JL-
thanks for the links.
richansa-
Good question, perhaps for effect I suppose. And to be honest, I’m not sure if everyone who reads this automatically knows how much a gigawatt is. Megawatt is a term that people (at least in the U.S.) have a little bit better of a grasp on.
Thanks for your input.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] Anschutz Corporation has acquired the rights to a 3,000 megawatt transmission project that will transport wind energy harnessed in Wyoming to Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Southern [...]
July 31st, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Fascinating. Harnessing energy is such an intriguing topic, and the benefits are endless.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:54 am
[Notice every Wyoming interconnection request is wind power]…
Having grown up in south east Wyoming, wind is the one major thing Wyoming has plenty of and can contribute to society.
60mph winds almost all winter where I grew up. It is time it was finally put to use.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
At what cost to the tax payers?? Ol’ Boone Pickens plan is full of tax breaks and subsidies. How about this one?
August 1st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“… And to be honest, I’m not sure if everyone who reads this automatically knows how much a gigawatt is.”
1.21 gigawatts is what it takes to jumpstart a flux capacitor — everybody knows that.
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Windpower is great but If the U.S. had chosen to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times – solar/thermal-molten sodium – electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, ($650 Billion), today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only – FOREVER! It would be equivalent to an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power, and storeable hydrogen gasoline replacement from the electricity, for all!
After the millions of murders, and $650 billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich Arabic saber dancing daddie’s boy oilman, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep! (also see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan)
September 21st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Wow Cool !
Super Man
Nice Site
January 17th, 2010 at 10:00 am
[...] engineering a national grid that can reliably deliver new energy sources including solar power and wind power, some of which involve complex management issues because of their intermittent [...]