Wyoming nears 1,000 megawatts of wind power generation

Filed Under: Environmental News on December 27, 2009

by Aaron Turpen, Cheyenne Green Living Examiner

According to the American Wind Energy Association, Wyoming is nearing the 1,000 megawatt mark for wind energy production. Current production, as of September, is at 986 MW with an additional 300 currently being installed. Ad additional 500 or more is under development for the next two to three years.

While not leading the nation in total wind power production (Texas leads at nearly 8,800MW), Wyoming is certainly a national leader. Ranked at number 11, Wyoming has the potential to be number 7 in total capacity.

Most of those plants are owned by PacifiCorp and Duke Energy.

The only facility powering Wyoming is the Happy Jack facility near the city dump outside of Cheyenne, which is owned by Duke Energy and supplies Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power. The Air Force’s turbine is their own, of course.

Facilities range from the top of the state near Hulett to the bottom near Fort Bridger. And everywhere in-between, right to left, up and down. The largest facility is Seven Mile Hill, producing 118.5MW with 79 generators, installed in 2008.

Another big one is the High Plains facility that just went online this year with 66 turbines putting out 99MW of capacity. The Glenrock facility puts out the same, in fact.

Definitely a lot of wind blowing through here, so be happy that this Holiday season, though the weather outside might be frightful, the wind… it’s delightful!

Ya, I know, cheesy.