The two wind farms will be constructed in three phases, as reported by the Power Company of Wyoming Vice President Roxane Perruso to the Carbon County Commission.
She said the company estimates to employ nearly 1,300 people during the peak of construction and more than 100 operational and administrative positions once construction is complete. That doesn’t include potentially thousands of more jobs that would be indirectly created by the development, she said.
Perruso said the wind power project would worth between $4 billion and $6 billion when the construction is totally completed. On completion, the project would generate between $28 million and $42 million in tax revenue for Carbon County during the first year of operation of all three phases.
Terry Weickum, chairman of the Carbon County Commission, said depreciation would reduce tax receipts over time.
The company expects to start the three-year construction project in 2011, according to Perruso. The Bureau of Land Management office is working on a draft environmental impact statement for the projects.
To carry power from the wind farms to the southwestern US, Anschutz has planned to build a $3 billion power line called the TransWest Express Transmission line.
Perruso said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission plans to begin the process of environmental work on the proposed route of the line and establishing public need for the project with scoping meetings this summer.
In addition, Perruso said that the company has proposed to construct a 600 kilovolt direct-current line capable of carrying 3,000 MW of power. The lines would be attached to steel lattice towers.
