Rollins, Wyoming. – Portrait photographer Anne Bland shoots graduation and wedding engagement photos in the scenic landscape of southeastern Wyoming’s granite mountains and sagebrush valleys, but those landscapes haven’t been around for years. I worry about what will happen later. Wind energy is booming here.

“I have dandelions in my garden, four or five is fine,” said Mr. Bland. “I don’t get very excited when my whole garden is full of dandelions.”

In a state where hunting, fishing and camping in beautiful, untouched wilderness is a part of life, the proliferation of wind turbines has led to erosion of the landscape, eagle carcasses, and large game such as elk and mule deer. There is growing concern about animal harm. .

On Tuesday, state and federal officials unveiled power lines from the $5 billion, 3,000-megawatt, 600-turbine Chalkcherry and Sierra Madre wind farms to Southern California, where they are legally required to switch. plans to start construction of the TransWest Express. clean energy. The wind farm will be the largest in the country.

Federal regulators gave TransWest the green light in April. The International Energy Agency and other experts say wind power will be essential to achieving a carbon-neutral world by 2050. The developers here estimate that they could prevent 7 to 11 million tons of carbon dioxide per year and provide enough carbon-free power for the electricity supply. million homes.

But in Wyoming, despite extensive wildlife research and a lengthy federal environmental review, skepticism about wind power is higher than it was 17 years ago when the project was first proposed.

“I think it’s as simple as it is too good,” Brand said.

As elsewhere, opposition to wind farms in Wyoming correlates with proximity to homes and cabins. Chalkcherry and Sierra Madre are huge but isolated, with less opposition than other areas. But Brand and local property owners opposed a 500-megawatt, 120-turbine wind farm soon to be built near the Colorado border. They lost, but the issue went all the way to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The controversial county approval process included: 5 hours public hearing In 2021, in a packed courtroom in Laramie. Residents expressed concerns ranging from bird deaths from turbine blades to damage to home foundations from construction explosions.

In neighboring Carbon County, on June 6, a county board heard from concerned people and declined to approve a 280-megawatt, 79-turbine project called Two Rivers. The commissioners instructed developers to seek federal approval first.

Carbon County Commissioner Sue Jones said local opposition to wind power was the latest move in a region that had previously welcomed the economic benefits with little question. Carbon County, named for the coal reserves that once fueled steam engines, will adopt an official seal in 2021 that features wind turbines.

But county officials recently responded to public complaints by demanding that the wind farm’s red warning lights be turned off except when aircraft are approaching.

This regulation was not retroactive. But PacificCorp, which serves customers in Wyoming, Utah and the Pacific Northwest, retrofitted on-off pilot warning systems to wind turbines in the region anyway, Jones said.

“Both companies try to be good neighbors,” Jones said. Affecting wildlife habitat. It affects birds and bats. “

Wyoming’s wind capacity has doubled in just four years, adding about 600 turbines since 2020, mostly in the southeast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Chalkcherry and Sierra Madre alone will see that amount double again — and plans for 2022 suggest at least five more wind farms. A report from the University of Wyoming.

If all goes according to plan, Wyoming could soon rise from 14th to top 5 states for wind energy, but wind energy is booming elsewhere.

Nearly 60% of the electricity produced in Wyoming, including wind power, is not used here and is sent to other states, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

State wind energy is increasingly coveted by utilities in California, Arizona and the Pacific Northwest.

The TransWest Express will transport power from Chokecherry and Sierra Madre, 732 miles (1,178 kilometers) from south-central Wyoming to the immediate suburbs of Las Vegas. On the way, it crosses northwestern Colorado and Utah, converting from direct current to alternating current in central Utah.

The wind farm and power lines, both projects of Anschutz Corporation, owned by Denver oil and gas billionaire Phil Anschutz, are expected to come online around the same time in late 2027.

The DC section of the transmission line allows efficient long-distance transmission without connecting to other transmission lines, while the AC segment is less efficient but is connected to the rest of the grid.

Wyoming’s wind power averages 21 kilometers per hour (about 21 kilometers per hour) day and night all year round, matching well with the daytime sunlight that occurs elsewhere. But so far, there aren’t many ways to bring wind power from Wyoming into the western U.S. grid, said Roxane Peluso, executive vice president and chief operating officer of TransWest Express.

“Therefore, we intend to strengthen our capacity to introduce renewable and other power, and in the future carbon-free power, into the grid,” Peluso said.

Partially parallel to the TransWest Express, Pacificcorp’s Gateway South transmission line, which connects a wind farm in Wyoming to southern Utah, is scheduled for completion next year. PacificCorp’s Gateway West line is already partially built in southern Wyoming and will extend to the Pacific Northwest after 2030.

Wind power benefits the climate, but environmentalists are divided over the cost of wind power to wildlife. In Wyoming, wind farms pose a danger to golden eagles and grouse (ground-dwelling birds the size of chickens that tend to avoid tall structures that predators perch on), he said. said Eric Molver, executive director of the power plant, Laramie. Western Basin Project.

“The real answer is to encourage the installation of solar panels in urban areas where electricity is actually used,” Molver said.

The Wyoming State Power Company, the Ashutz subsidiary that builds Chokecherry and Sierra Madre, is working with federal regulators on ways to minimize harm to grouse and golden eagles, including adjusting turbine positions to reduce bird strikes. Been working on it for years. But eagle deaths at wind farms are a common problem. often go unpunished.

Wyoming, on the other hand, is the nation’s largest producer of coal and a major source of oil and gas, so its relationship with wind power has been rocky at times. Wyoming is the only state to tax wind energy, with lawmakers discussing raising the $1 per megawatt-hour rate to $4 or more.

And there is the potential for increased local resistance. Carbon County Commissioner Jones said many people don’t understand what a wind farm looks like with turbines, lighting, roads, power lines and substations.

“You never know what it’s like until it actually happens. And then you go, wow. It’s an industrial zone. It’s a different kind of industry, but it’s an industrial zone.” said Mr Jones.