Wyoming's Gold [Solar/Turbine] Rush

[Sytes]

Incoming to land near you!

An interesting thought, may a.) push wildlife onto public land and / or b.) onto private not (yet) onboard increased herds with the new sun/wind rush?
Meh - lope may learn to route in/around panels.

The outcry against this effort is already coming from some environmental groups concerned that the land rush promoted by the Biden administration could lead to a grab of Wyoming’s environmentally sensitive public lands by paving the way for big corporations and huge foreign owners that want to own tax credits and get something heavily subsidized without paying anything.

“I feel like Wyoming is in the bull’s eye,” said Anne Brande, executive director of the Albany County Conservancy in Laramie.

Wyoming May See Next Land Rush For Utility-Sized Solar Farms

Wyoming, with its friendly permitting process to build alternative energy development projects, could see America’s next land rush to build utility-scale solar farms.

cowboystatedaily.com

 

[nrpate05]

According to the BLM, Wyoming will likely see about 27k acres of public land renewable development through 2045. I had a call with a BLM official leading the Solar Plan process and emphatically expressed that the agency should be very selective in where they site solar projects. He seemed genuine and understood my concern on migration corridors, winter range, etc.

There is some false/fear-mongering info in this article too. If I recall correctly, there would be no development on land >10 degree slope, so those 25 degree hillsides the article mentions wouldn't work. Solar tech isn't good enough to be viable at that angle. Also, the developers can't just plop a development down in a migration corridor. There are a ton of steps to go through. Game and Fish will be involved and after the Sweetwater Solar debacle, a development squarely in a migration route would catch all sorts of flak.

The wild card is private land development. Developers could plop a facility in a corridor if it is on private. More expensive but much less red tape. We have to be careful about pushing development to private because a development could ruin a migration route and/or other critical habitat which would diminish public land opportunities as well.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Wyoming is unattractive for RE development in the short/medium term. There has to be a line amperage to sell the generated power - and a buyer.

Not much for HV transmission lines in Wyoming. At 3-30 million a mile - itd take investment in electric infrastructure on an unprecedented scale.

 

[Sytes]

There has to be a line amperage to sell the generated power - and a buyer.

Build begins on Wyoming-to-California power line amid growing wind power opposition

Wyoming and federal officials formally kicked off construction of a massive transmission line project to export wind power from Wyoming to Southern California.

www.latimes.com

***

Apparently, while the Wyoming article focuses on their own State, this is part of a much larger rollout of BLM / other land...

"The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday that more land in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming is needed to support rising demand for clean energy and to meet President Joe Biden’s target of a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035.

More than 5 million acres of land in the five states would be added to an Obama-era plan that expanded permitting for solar projects on federal land in six other states."

Five million acres added w/in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming?

 

[ccc23454]

My vote is developing on parcels landlocked by private...

 

[Forkyfinder]

My vote is developing on private landlocked parcels...

Likely will be. Permitting and the associated lead times affect the financing a lot.

 

[Sytes]

The wild card is private land development.

Agree.

so those 25 degree hillsides the article mentions

This was a comment made by one of the environmental organizations to maybe embellish an extreme for potential(?) to cause more queried concern for alternative energy.

 

[nrpate05]

Agree.

This was a comment made by one of the environmental organizations to maybe embellish an extreme for potential(?) to cause more queried concern for alternative energy.

Agreed, although I did a quick review and it is possible but extremely unlikely. Only Alternative 1, which is the extreme pro development alternative, has 'no slope-based exclusion'. I don't see this administration choosing this alternative.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Wyoming is unattractive for RE development in the short/medium term. There has to be a line amperage to sell the generated power - and a buyer.

Not much for HV transmission lines in Wyoming. At 3-30 million a mile - itd take investment in electric infrastructure on an unprecedented scale.

This does not stop the government from allowing these areas to be developed.

They will put them in and then build the lines to transport the power.

You bring up one of the big issues with RE. The amount of stuff (minerals, infrastructure, etc) to make it functional.

I wonder if it will go through the same phase that EV's are going through.

People rushed to buy them, go manufactures bumped up the capabilities, only for them to sit on the lots with -15k+ below MSRP and 0 % Financing offerings because people had a severe case of buyers remorse due to the lack of infrastructure.

 

[Forkyfinder]

This does not stop the government from allowing these areas to be developed.

They will put them in and then build the lines to transport the power.

You bring up one of the big issues with RE. The amount of stuff (minerals, infrastructure, etc) to make it functional.

I wonder if it will go through the same phase that EV's are going through.

People rushed to buy them, go manufactures bumped up the capabilities, only for them to sit on the lots with -15k+ below MSRP and 0 % Financing offerings because people had a severe case of buyers remorse due to the lack of infrastructure.

It does stop them from being developed - inherently. Theres no generation plant if there is no line to connect to. The cost of that infrastructure (t line to connect to utility asset) is typically paid for and owned by the generator and at this scale is going to be cost prohibitive for many locations.

 

[sccritterkiller]

I love how none of these articles mention the miles of right a ways/easements needed to transfer the power to the grid. They have a couple wind mills turning off the east coast now and the power is going nowhere...no infrastructure to bring it to the grid.

 

[SAJ-99]

Interesting article. I know we worry and debate about BLM, but most of the development is going to be on private due to closer and better transmission infrastructure. Will we still support the keeping family farm in the family for those getting $1000/acre? That is basically corn at $5/bu and 200bu/ac and ZERO input cost. If you thought farmers had too much time on their hands before, this is crazy.

Purdue University’s “Ag Economy Barometer” in March found that 54% of respondents were offered a lease rate by solar companies of $1,000 or more per acre and just over one-fourth of respondents (27%) said they were offered a lease rate of $1,250 or more per acre. Those numbers compare to average offers of around $750 an acre in 2021. (Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, Purdue University, USDA)

Solar Panels Covering More Prime US Farmland Raises Alarms – The Van Trump Report

www.vantrumpreport.com

 

[TheDudeAbides]

It does stop them from being developed - inherently. Theres no generation plant if there is no line to connect to. The cost of that infrastructure (t line to connect to utility asset) is typically paid for and owned by the generator and at this scale is going to be cost prohibitive for many locations.

I don't disagree, especially at scale.

However, in a smaller scale they will build them as we have seen.

 

[Forkyfinder]

I don't disagree, especially at scale.

However, in a smaller scale they will build them as we have seen.

Theres not much local use for that power. Wyoming as state averaged a 2000 MW power use. Thats simply not much demand/need for power in the first place... even if the growth of demand or need for more generation to be RE was to happen.

 

[BigHornRam]

Sorry Wyoming.
The solar gold is drying up in California.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/04/22/california-solar-duck-curve-rooftop/

 

[wytex]

Well we have new transmission lines coming in and new windfarms, one of which will have the tallest turbines put on land to date I believe.
Also there is a very important transmission line with some tower issues that may well need to be repaired somehow or a large part of the West may lose power according to the electrician they talked with about the repairs.
Wind is not drying up in Wyoming, ugh.

 

[ismith]

It’s much worse for the environment that fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is the solution.