USA - Planned wind generation to exceed $14.5B in the Rocky Mountain Region

The Rocky Mountain states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — currently have more than 20 operational windfarms totaling about 2,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation capacity. Wind proponents are developing about 77 new windfarms in the Rockies for an additional 8,000 MW of power generation capacity an increase of 400%. This would increase wind-power capacity in the region up to 10,000 MW by 2012. The new windfarms are projected to be between 10 MW and 500 MW. This new generation will cost about $1.8M and higher per megawatt to construct, making the total cost of the new generation to about $14.5B.

Four of the states, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming, each have more than 1,000 MW of planned wind power development with Idaho having more than 1,850 MW. Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada have between 500 MW and 840 MW each. Ten windfarms are currently under construction in the region, with more than 60 in the planning and/or engineering phase. About 950 MW is on hold because of permitting issues, the need for power-purchase agreements, legal issues or investment holdups.

Windfarms are capital-intensive for construction, but once they become operational they are fairly cost-efficient. One of the draw backs for wind turbines is that they are projected to have a life of only 20-25 years, whereas nuclear and coal units have a life of 40-60 years and hydroelectric have an expected life of 50 years or more.