Great article about proposed wind energy site in Wyoming
How a Conservative Billionaire Is Moving Heaven and Earth to Become the Biggest Alternative Energy Giant in the Country
(snip)
Miller was soon sitting in Anschutz’s 24th-floor office, which has a sweeping view of Denver, the high desert, and the Rocky Mountains beyond. The two of them knew that the market for wind energy was growing, and that other oil and gas companies had been poking around Wyoming’s windy corners. “I know we’re trying to sell this ranch,” Miller told his boss, “but we may have something here. So why don’t we peel this orange and see what we get?”
Anschutz, who reads widely about energy markets, seized on the idea at once. Though the pair didn’t realize it at the time, they were about to hatch plans for the largest single onshore wind farm in the world.
On the prairies of northwestern Iowa, where turbines have been churning out electricity since around 2000, the winds are considered Class 3 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which ranks wind density on a scale from one (lowest) to seven (highest). The winds of West Texas, home to some of the nation’s largest wind farms, are Class 4. Most wind power in these places is generated at night, when the winds blow the hardest; that’s the time, of course, when people need it the least.
But along the ridges of the Overland Trail Ranch are some of the only Class 7 winds in the nation. What’s more, the wind on the ranch starts up in the morning and gains force throughout the day, just when people are firing up their air conditioners and dishwashers. “We looked at the data and said, ‘I’ll be damned,’” Miller recalls. The property was like the Saudi Arabia of wind.
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/how-a-conservative-billionaire-is-moving-heaven-and-earth-to-become-the-biggest-alternative-energy-giant-in-the-country
= new reply since forum marked as read
And yeah, it is known.
