Big Wyoming Windfarm Wins Preliminary BLM Support, Waits for Fish & Wildlife Service

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A huge proposed windfarm in Wyoming took a step forward last month when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (Washington, D.C.) said Phase I of the proposed Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Windfarm would not have a significant impact on the environment. Phase I of the project calls for a 1,500-megawatt (MW) windfarm to be built south of Rawlins, Wyoming, at a cost of about $2.6 billion, project spokesperson Kara Choquette told Industrial Info.

"The March 9 finding from the BLM was an important step forward in a long journey that began in 2008," Choquette said. The BLM is scheduled to take public comment on its draft finding through April 22, and then issue a final finding, a process that could take between several weeks to several months, depending on the volume and content of public comments, she added.

But the windfarm's developer, Power Company of Wyoming LLC (PCW) (Denver, Colorado), a unit of privately held Anschutz Corporation (Denver, Colorado), is not ready to begin celebrating yet. A welter of federal government permit applications is keeping the developer from setting a start date for construction. A separate review of Phase I is being conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (F&WS), which, like BLM, is a branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) (Washington, D.C.).

PCW applied to F&WS for a voluntary "eagle take" permit several years ago. The agency is expected to release its draft findings this spring, and then go through its own public comment and finalization process. The permit would require PCW to take all practicable steps to avoid or minimize the impact of its project on the eagle population. There is no statutory timeline for the F&WS to complete its work.

All this permitting is just for Phase I of the Chokecherry windfarm. "Then, we get to do it all over again" to permit Phase II of the project, Choquette said. The second phase, also slated to total 1,500 MW, has total investment value (TIV) of about $2.4 billion, she estimated.

PCW has not selected an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm for either phase of the proposed windfarm. The developer is expected to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for an EPC firm later this year. Also, there has been no determination as to which equipment manufacturer would supply three-megawatt turbines to the windfarm.

Choquette said there are several proposed transmission lines that could transport some portion of the output from Phase I of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre project. One of those proposed lines, Trans West Express LLC, is owned by a PCW sibling company, she said in an interview. The Trans West project is a $3 billion, 725-mile, extra-high voltage (EHV) project that may kick off construction late next year. If it does, it could be operating by year-end 2021.

One of the other proposed high-voltage lines, Gateway West, is being developed by units of IDACORP Incorporated (NYSE:IDA) (Boise, Idaho) and Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated (NYSE:BRKA) (Omaha, Nebraska). The third proposed project, Energy Gateway South, also is being developed by a unit of Berkshire Hathaway. For more on proposed transmission project development in Wyoming, see November 15, 2015, article - Wyoming Leads U.S. in Transmission Projects, Propelled by Windfarms.

PCW proposes to build both phases of the Chokecherry Sierra Madre windfarm on a checkerboard pattern of federal, state and private land in Wyoming. Another Anschutz company owns all the private land in the proposed windfarm's footprint, Choquette said, and the Chokecherry project has secured all necessary state and county permits.

"The federal permitting process to build energy projects on public lands in the West is a long and difficult process," noted Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power Industry. "There seems to be a national consensus that more renewable energy is desirable, but getting it out of windy places to where it is needed continues to be a veritable death march for project developers."

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