Wyoming Infrastructure Authority

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CHEYENNE, WY, June 29, 2011
– Several proposed changes to federal rules designed to protect wildlife…more

Cheyenne, Wyoming; June 14, 2011: The development of 9,000 MW of new power transmission lines in Wyoming for export to California and other states more

Cheyenne, Wyoming; February 28, 2011 

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Download the Study here

In addition, Western Area Power Administration commissioned ICF to develop an Environmental Opportunity/Constraint Map for Wyoming which may be downloaded here.

On August 18, 2010, Governor Freudenthal issued Executive order 2010-4 which, among 16 other provisions, established transmission corridors to construct significant new transmission infrastructure to transport electricity generated in Wyoming to out-of-state load centers …. Download here.

By JEREMY PELZER Star-Tribune capital bureau trib.com | Posted: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 2:00 am |

TIM KUPSICK Wind turbines in Rocky Mountain Power’s Dunlap project dot the landscape near Medicine Bow last year. A new wind tower manufacturing facility near Cheyenne aims to produce components for Wyoming wind farms. (Star-Tribune, Tim Kupsick)
CHEYENNE — In what’s hoped will be the start of a flourishing industry in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead and state business officials announced Tuesday that construction will begin this spring on a $40 million wind tower manufacturing facility near Cheyenne.
As Wyoming’s first-ever wind energy manufacturing facility, the 30-acre facility will be a milestone in efforts to build a manufacturing sector around the state’s mushrooming wind energy industry.
Co-owned by Spanish-based steel company Corporation Gestamp and Ohio-based Worthington Industries, the facility will create about 150 new jobs, company officials said in a State Capitol media conference.
Starting early next year, the companies plan to start shipping annually more than 300 steel wind tower sections, each measuring between 80 and 100 feet long.
The facility will also serve as North American headquarters for Worthington Industries’ wind energy division, said company president Ralph Roberts.
While most of the towers will be used to build wind turbines in Wyoming, Roberts said Worthington also plans to ship tower sections to northern Colorado, the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest.
“We’re hoping this will be a competitive base, that we can have a much broader reach than just Wyoming,” he said.
Roberts said his company approached and chose Wyoming because of its low business costs, work force and regional market projections. And unlike other states with significant wind development, such as Texas, there are no Wyoming-based wind manufacturers to compete with, he said.
Just as important, he added, the facility at Swan Ranch Development south of Cheyenne is adjacent to two rail lines and two interstate highways.
Wyoming’s wind generation industry is growing — a recent federal study predicted wind development could pump $5.1 billion into the state’s economy during the next decade — but analysts say the real economic boost to the state could come from the emergence of a wind energy manufacturing sector.
The hope is that building up the wind industry will help even out the boom-bust cycle that the coal, oil and natural gas industries — and therefore, much of Wyoming’s economy — suffers from.
“I don’t know that Wyoming is considered a manufacturing powerhouse in the country,” said Eric Lantz, a policy analyst at the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, speaking to the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority Board last fall. “At the same time, when you’re installing gigawatts of wind power — which is what we’re looking at — that’s a pretty good motivation for potential blade manufacturers or power manufacturers to come to this state and install manufacturing facilities.”
Wyoming Business Council CEO Bob Jensen said the council will try to “leverage” the Gestamp/Worthington announcement to lure wind manufacturers to Wyoming, much as it’s attracting data centers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputing facility being built in Cheyenne.
“This takes us to the next level, which is the ongoing service and support and replacement parts business, which is going to be critical for us going forward,” Jensen said. “Somebody has to provide for those components to replace worn gears and worn turbine parts.”
Gestamp/Worthington might have neighbors soon. Jensen said a turbine blade manufacturer, which he declined to name, is “very close” to an agreement to build a facility at Swan Ranch.
Jensen said that earlier this month the Business Council took representatives of a German components manufacturer — which he also wouldn’t name — around the state to scout locations for a gearing and components facility.
Mead said he expects the Gestamp/Worthington deal to be the beginning of a new industrial sector in Wyoming.
“They are going to be a beacon, a lighthouse, a magnet for other manufacturing companies and other distribution companies to come to Wyoming,” he said.
Contact capital bureau reporter Jeremy Pelzer at 307-632-1244 or jeremy.pelzer@trib.com
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