Large-scale farm could produce enough power for 90,000 homes
The Washington County Commission in Colorado recently gave Charlottesville, Va.-based Greenlight Energy approval to develop a large-scale wind farm in rural northeastern Colorado. The wind farm could provide enough clean energy to meet the annual needs of as many as 90,000 homes.
The permit allows the independent producer of wind energy to develop the 200MW to 300MW wind farm on more than 15,000 acres near the town of Akron. Construction on the estimated $250 to $350 million project could start as early as 2006, pending the completion of a power purchase agreement and remaining development work.
Three utilities—Xcel Energy, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and Western Area Power Administration—have transmission facilities in the area. Colorado will require the state’s largest utilities to obtain 10% of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2015.
