The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that it had approved the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project site as suitable for wind energy development, ensuring that, since President Obama announced his “all-of-the-above” strategy, over 10,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable power have been authorised on public lands.
The new project is a proposed complex that could generate up to 3,000 megawatts of power in southeastern Wyoming, producing enough energy to power nearly 1 million homes, and creating an estimated 1,000 jobs in the process.
Proposed location for the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project
“When President Obama took office, he made expanding production of American made energy a priority, including making our nation a world leader in harnessing renewable energy. Tapping the vast renewable energy resources on our nation’s public lands will create jobs while supporting a clean energy future,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
“Wyoming has some of the best wind energy resources in the world, and there’s no doubt that this project has the potential to be a landmark example for the nation. President Obama challenged us in his State of the Union address to authorize 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy on our public lands by the end of the year – enough to meet the needs of more than 3 million homes – and today we are making good on that promise.”
The Department of the Interior has authorised 33 renewable energy projects since 2009, which includes 18 utility-scale solar facilities, 7 wind farms, and 8 geothermal plants, with associated transmission corridors and infrastructure that will enable the projects to connect to established power grids.
These projects are all still in various stages of development, but upon completion, they would add up to over 10,000 megawatts of power.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior
Image Source: Power Company of Wyoming
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
