Dear editor:
There are many factors to take into account in making a fair balance between renewable energy and other Wyoming concerns.
I attended the commission meeting last Tuesday night, and made several comments there which are not generally addressed in the your news articles and possibly not widely appreciated.
When the governor speaks of "trying to balance the state’s energy needs with residents’ desire to keep Wyoming the way it is," the energy contribution of wind farms is often highly exaggerated.
The 650MW nameplate rating of this project is misleading.
In Wyoming, wind farms have an average capacity factor of 39%. This means that when it comes to producing revenues via Wyoming's wind energy tax, this project behaves not as a 650MW plant but more like a 250MW plant and annual state revenues I'd estimate as no more than $900,000 even if all the wind energy leaves the state and is taxable.
The county share would be maybe $1.3 million.
A 1.1 billion dollar project that produces so little revenue is something to consider. The property tax revenues are likely to be surprisingly small.
In Albany county two comparably sized wind projects will produce annual property taxes around $1.8 million each.
For purposes of providing reliable energy when it's needed for industry (think data centers and AI computing), most utilities use a measure called effective load carrying capacity (ELCC) of about 10% for wind.
Yet, as I commented in the meeting, even this is too optimistic because I have shown data in PSC hearings proving that wind can drop to zero effectively on several days during any week of the year.
When wind fails some other generating facility has to pick up the slack. Where and what will these be? Will this have consequences for Wyoming residents and business? Who will own this plant ultimately? Heaven help the rate-payer if it becomes part of a local utility.
This wind plant will produce 23 full-time jobs after its construction.
This is a pittance compared to general county employment of more than 48,000 people; and while there are many more temporary jobs during construction, most will go to out of state entities.
Finally, the decommissioning estimates revealed in the wind plant application are not credible.
They amount to only $59,000 per wind turbine. As I commented, Xcel Energy performed a system-wide decommissioning study that showed costs of $200,000 to $500,000 per turbine.
Laramie County residents should expect the clean-up of this project to be done thoroughly and with all due regard for the environment, but that is not what the project application implies -- not at this point anyway.
Renewable energy projects involve lots of big numbers, like $1.1 billion in project costs in this case and 650MW of power, but these big numbers do not necessarily translate into big opportunities for the host county or state.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kilty, Laramie
