According to the Wall Street Journal, Duke Energy is planning its ninth wind farm in the U.S. and its fourth in Wyoming.
The latest project, dubbed “Top of the World,” is a 200 MW project on 17,000 acres of private and public land Duke Energy holds under long-term lease. Duke is expecting the project to be in service beore 2011. The project will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 50,000 to 60,000 homes each year.
PacifiCorp, which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming, will purchase the electricity generated by the project and the associated renewable energy credits as part of a 20-year power purchase agreement. PacifiCorp will get the same from a nearby project from Duke Energy, which is one-half the size of Top of the World.
“We’ve always believed Duke Energy could become a major player in the wind power industry if we adhered to our strategy for organic as well as opportunistic growth,” said Wouter van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), a business unit of Duke Energy that owns and develops renewable energy assets. “Including Top of the World – which will be our second-largest renewable energy facility – we’ll have committed to four new wind projects totaling more than 360 megawatts this year alone.”