RAWLINS, Wyo. — The near-constant wind whipping across the rugged hills and ridges of southern Wyoming could soon power one of the world’s largest wind farms.
Power Company of Wyoming, an affiliate of Denver-based Anschutz Corp., wants to build 1,000 wind turbines, starting a few miles south of Rawlins, and a power line that could export the electricity to the desert Southwest.
At a projected cost of $4 to $6 billion for the wind farm alone, the proposal is the biggest in Wyoming’s burgeoning wind industry.
Power Company president Bill Miller said it only makes sense to pursue a project that’s big enough to deliver cost-competitive energy to consumers.
“To do an economically viable project, you have to have scope and scale. It has to be something that will drive itself,” said Miller, who directs The Anschutz Corp.’s natural-resources division. “The faint of heart don’t do this.”
It’s a big jump into renewable energy for The Anschutz Corp., which is owned by Philip Anschutz, the founder of Qwest Communications.
The Anschutz Corp.’s investments range widely, from cattle ranching to energy development, publishing and sports and entertainment. Last year, Forbes magazine ranked Philip Anschutz as the 36th richest American, with a net worth of $8 billion.
The Power Company’s wind farm — known as the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project — would sit on about 154 square miles on the Overland Trail Cattle Company, a ranch that An schutz Corp. has owned for 15 years. The ranch, about 185 miles northwest of Denver, is comprised of private land mixed in a checkerboard with Bureau of Land Management and state lands.
The Power Company says the 1,000 turbines would generate between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts of energy. By comparison, the world’s largest existing wind farm is the 421-turbine, 736-megawatt Horse Hollow wind farm in Texas, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
A sister project, The Anschutz Corp.’s proposed TransWest Express power line, would carry the power — most likely from the wind farm and possibly other sources — from southern Wyoming to a Las Vegas-area substation.
Miller, who also heads the TransWest subsidiary, said the line would cost about $3 billion to build. The company plans to begin holding public meetings on the project in conjunction with the BLM this summer.
