May 30, 2008
Wyoming
Wyoming
A regional power company plans to erect wind turbines on property at the border of Albany and Carbon counties after it receives the proper county and state permits this summer.
PacifiCorp Energy plans to erect more than 100 wind turbines on land off Wyoming Highway 13 (also known as Arlington Road), which runs northeast from Arlington to Rock River.
Doug Bryant, Albany County’s planning director, said the wind farm would be south-southwest of Rock River.
The PacifiCorp Energy wind farm will have 125 turbines, a majority of which will be in Albany County. If the wind farm is approved, High Plains Wind Energy will install the turbines.
“Eighty one of those … will be in Albany County,” Bryant said. “The rest are just over the line into Carbon County.”
The Albany County Commissioners approved a zoning certificate for PacifiCorp Energy at their May 20 meeting.
PacifiCorp Energy still has to obtain land-use change and conditional-use permits before it can move forward with applying for a state industrial citing permit and the eventual construction of the turbines.
“(The conditional-use permit) gives us a little bit more authority, on the part of the county, to condition the permit,” he said.
By definition, a conditional-use permit allows a governing body the flexibility to consider special uses of a property that normally are not allowed within a particular zoning district.
The application for a conditional-use permit is brought before the city council or county commission in a public meeting for its approval or decline.
The property that is being considered for the project is currently zoned for agricultural use.
After it secures the county permits, PacifiCorp Energy will seek a state permit from the Wyoming Industrial Citing Council, Bryant said.
Another issue that the applicants have to contend with is pending county regulations for commercial wind farms, Bryant said.
“They’re still at the Planning and Zoning (Commission) stage,” he said of the wind farm regulations. “That will be coming forward in the next few months, but we don’t have those in place now.”
PacifiCorp Energy is one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States. It provides more than 1.6 million Americans with energy.
PacifiCorp Energy operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. In Oregon, Washington and California, it does business as Pacific Power.
High Plains Wind Energy is a family-owned business located in Lawrence County, S.D. The company sells and installs wind turbines, solar panels and hydroelectric equipment for homes, businesses and Native American tribes.
High Plains Wind Energy deals Bergey, Entegrity, Ventera and Skystream wind turbines in Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana.
For more information about both companies, visit http://www.pacifi corp.com and http://www.high plainswind.com.
By Aaron LeClair Boomerang Staff Writer
29 May 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/05/30/using-the-wind/