By Bill McCarthy/Original Source

CHEYENNE — Rancher Rocky Foy of Glendo is part of movement toward a new kind of cooperative. He is a member of the Glendo Wind Energy Association.

“It’s a lot better for the landowners and the companies,” Foy said. The landowners can work out situations with neighbors
separate from their negotiations with the wind energy companies.

And the price is more uniform, Foy said, so property owners don’t feel cheated, and the companies have an idea what the
cost of using a rancher’s land will be.

“Everybody in the association has a voice,” Foy added.

Associations that serve agricultural communities are helping prepare their members as well.

The Wyoming Stock Growers Association keeps an eye on such things as landowner property rights. The association lobbies for the landowners, develops contacts and provides education.

“Everyone is very protective of quality of the land,” said
Kosha Olsen with the Stock Growers Association.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in
Golden, Colo., the U.S. wind energy industry’s installed
capacity has grown by 50 percent in recent years with 8,358
megawatts of new capacity. The nation’s total wind energy
capacity now is at 25,170 megawatts.

America now has the largest wind energy capacity in the world. Germany fell to second with 23,903 megawatts of capacity at the end of 2008.

While there are many wind farms developing around Wyoming, it’s almost impossible to predict the future scope of the boom here, experts say.

Todd Parfitt with the Wyoming Department of Environmental
Quality’s Industrial Siting Division said, “There’s a lot of
activity in the wind-generation field.”

The size of the construction for industrial wind-generation
projects determines the kind of permit or other clearances
required. So the state may not record all wind farms.

“Certainly the counties are aware of new ones and oversee
them,” Parfitt said. But there really is no way to know what
kind of demand there will be for Wyoming wind and the scale of
development to come, he said.

Many potential bottlenecks to commercial wind generation in
Wyoming need to be resolved. Infrastructure is at the top of
the list.

“You can’t go forward without transmission lines,” said Rob
Hurless, the governor’s adviser on technology. There are six
proposed transmission line projects — five to the huge energy
markets to the west and one to the east.

Successful completion of those projects would make Wyoming more
attractive to companies interested in commercial wind-power
generation, Hurless said.

But falling energy prices and tight credit also play roles in
the uncertainty that companies feel about investment in the
projects. So the success of efforts to turn around the economy
and create liquidity becomes parts of the equation.

There also are environmental concerns and worries about marring
the state’s scenery. “We need to have a lot more public
discussion,” said Brent Lathrop of the Nature Conservancy’s
Cheyenne office.

There could come a time when there would be a solid row of wind
turbines from Cheyenne to Glenrock, he said. The National
Renewal Energy Laboratory says the area north of Cheyenne to
Glenrock is home to some of the best winds for commercial
electricity production in the world.

Lathrop and the Nature Conservancy, a natural habitat
conservation organization, support renewable energy and wind
generation. But he is worried that the impacts be considered
carefully.

Conserving grasslands and animal species on those lands is part
of a delicate balance, he said. And bird species of the
grasslands are already in a frightening decline.

“Our best allies are farmers and ranchers in Wyoming,” Lathrop
said, adding that they want to take care of the land. “It’s not
a fun decision” for ranchers, he said.

He is worried that covering the eastern plains of Wyoming with
wind turbines — and the disturbance that goes with the
development — will ensure the listing of the sage grouse on
the federal endangered species list. That is something Gov.
Dave Freudenthal is trying to avoid.

“It has been on the front burner,” Hurless said. No matter how
those issues play out, southeast Wyoming should continue to
attract companies interested in wind generation, said Duke
Energy spokesman Greg Efthimiou.

Duke has 14 turbines at the Happy Jack Road site west of
Cheyenne and plans to put up 20 more at Silver Stage next to
Happy Jack and 66 more at Campbell Hill near Casper.

Though Wyoming policies are supportive of business, Efthimiou
said, “We go where the wind blows, primarily.”