Built in phases, not in one season

A project this size does not get poured like a foundation. Power Company of Wyoming has split it into phases, with the first phase covering roughly 500 turbines, something close to half of the full plan, per the developer's project materials. Each phase carries its own turbine order, its own construction season, and its own connection to the grid, so the ranch will host active building in some places and finished rows in others for years.

Phasing is partly about money and partly about timing. A single company does not write one check for a project on the order of several billion dollars, and the turbines cannot run until a line exists to carry the power to buyers out west. Building in pieces lets the schedule of the wind farm and the schedule of the transmission line move toward each other, which is why the first turbines went up only after the long-haul line had cleared its own federal reviews.

Why it took the better part of two decades

Federal environmental review opened around 2008, and the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages much of the public land here, signed its main Record of Decision (the formal approval of the plan) around 2012. That was not the finish line. Site-specific plans, turbine-by-turbine siting, and wildlife conditions came after, and the first turbines did not rise until the early 2020s.

Part of the delay is the land itself, and part is simply that nothing this large moves fast. The original plan described something close to 1,000 turbines, and that count came down over the years as review narrowed where turbines could go. This desk would treat any firm completion date with care, because the remaining phases depend on financing, turbine supply, and the transmission line all holding to schedule, and any one of them can slip.

The ranch, the grouse, and the wire out

Underneath it all is the Overland Trail Ranch, a working cattle operation whose land is laid out in the old checkerboard pattern, alternating square-mile sections of private and federal ownership left over from nineteenth-century railroad grants. That mix is why both the Bureau of Land Management and private owners had a say, and why the maps are more complicated than a single fenced field.

Greater sage-grouse, a ground-dwelling bird whose breeding grounds sit across this part of Wyoming, shaped where turbines could stand and when crews can work near sensitive areas. The power, meanwhile, is meant to leave the state on the TransWest Express line, a roughly 730-mile high-voltage project aimed at delivery into the desert Southwest, which began construction in the mid-2020s after its own long approval path. Without that wire, the wind farm has nowhere to send most of what it makes.

Worth watching this month

1. Watch for any new phase or turbine-count announcement from Power Company of Wyoming, which would signal how fast the build is moving past the first phase.

2. Watch TransWest Express construction updates, since the wind farm's output depends on that line reaching the Southwest roughly on schedule.

3. Watch the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council docket for any amended permits tied to the project, a routine but revealing paper trail.

4. Watch the seasonal sage-grouse timing windows, which can pause work near breeding grounds in spring and are worth knowing if you live nearby.

5. Watch the Bureau of Land Management Rawlins Field Office notices for site-specific plan updates, most of which are routine.

Questions readers ask

How big is it, really?

The developer has described a full build-out on the order of 3,000 to 3,500 megawatts, which would make it the largest wind proposal in the country. That is the full plan, not what is standing today. The first phase is a large project in its own right but only part of the whole.

Will it lower my Rocky Mountain Power bill?

Probably not directly. Most of the output is meant to travel west to California, Nevada, and Arizona over the TransWest Express line. The project sits in Wyoming, but the electricity it makes is largely sold elsewhere.

When will the whole thing be finished?

No one can say for certain. The remaining phases depend on financing, turbine supply, and the transmission line, and any of those can push dates back. Treat any single completion year as a target, not a promise.

Who owns and runs it?

The developer is Power Company of Wyoming, part of the Anschutz Corporation. The land is the Overland Trail Ranch, which is affiliated with the same ownership. The Bureau of Land Management oversees the federal portions of the site.

Sources of record

  • Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins Field Office (.gov)

    Lead federal agency for the project's public-land reviews and site-specific plans. www.blm.gov/office/rawlins-field-office

  • Western Electricity Coordinating Council (grid reliability)

    Reliability coordinator for the Western Interconnection, where this project and Wyoming's grid sit. www.wecc.org

  • Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (.gov)

    State permitting and industrial siting information for large Wyoming energy projects. deq.wyoming.gov

  • Power Company of Wyoming, project page

    The developer's description of turbine counts, phasing, and the Overland Trail Ranch site. www.powercompanyofwyoming.com

  • TransWest Express, project page

    The long-haul transmission line meant to carry the project's power to the desert Southwest. www.transwestexpress.net

  • Rocky Mountain Power

    Wyoming's largest utility, for context on who serves most homes near the project. www.rockymountainpower.net