April 22, 2021
Wyoming

New wind project proposed south of Rock River

Wyoming News Exchange | www.wyomingnews.com

Planning is underway for a new 590-megawatt wind project south of Rock River that would straddle the Albany County/Carbon County line.

Michael Svedeman, a representative of Chicago-based company Invenergy, gave a presentation about the project to the Albany County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning.

Invenergy has developed more than 100 wind projects in the country since 2002.

The proposed Rock Creek Wind Energy Center would be located on 37,000 acres in Albany County and 6,000 acres in Carbon County between Interstate 80 and Rock River.

Invenergy also built the Ekola Flats and TB Flats projects north of Medicine Bow, which are now owned by PacifiCorp.

Svedeman said the plan is to transfer ownership of the Rock Creek project to a Wyoming utility as well.

“The plan for ownership is being finalized currently,” he said. “We should have information on that in coming months.”

The Rock Creek project would consist of two separate projects, Rock Creek I and Rock Creek II. They would be visibly contiguous, but one would connect to the Foote Creek Substation about five miles away while the other would connect to the Aeolus Substation via a 40-mile transmission line.

Invenergy plans to get state and local permitting underway this summer, hopefully to begin construction in 2023 and operation by the end of 2024.

Svedeman said the exact number of turbines is still being considered, as is the type, but he estimated the project could include about 106 turbines that could be about 550 feet tall.

Invenergy estimates that the project would create 20-30 full-time jobs and generate $190 million in tax revenue during its lifetime.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/04/22/new-wind-project-proposed-south-of-rock-river/