PACIFICORP'S DAVE JOHNSTON MINE PLANTS A WIND FARM

摘要

In what many are calling an industry-wide first for post-mine land development, PacifiCorp's subsidiary Rocky Mountain Power this summer announced plans to begin permitting a 99 megawatt (mw) wind farm on their closed Dave lohnston surface mine located about 12 miles north of Glenrock, Wyo. This planned wind generating facility, located on 200 acres out of 4,800 acres of reclaimed mine land, is the first of its kind in Wyoming, and perhaps the first wind farm to be sited on former mine lands anywhere in the U.S. More than 30 years after the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977-despite what several environmental groups are purporting- tremendous acreage of disturbed lands are within final reclamation stages, and thousands of acres are close. The proposed wind power facility will consist of 66 GE 1.5-mw wind turbines. The towers will be 80 meters high with 77-meter diameter blades. Most of the new power lines associated with the facility will be located underground. Given the relatively small footprint of the wind farm, the vast majority of land at the Dave Johnston mine will remain open for grazing and wildlife habitat purposes.