Incredible photos have revealed the final resting place of massive wind turbine blades that cannot be recycled, and are instead heaped up in piles in landfills. The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the repository of at least 870 discarded blades, and one of the few locations in the country that accepts the massive fiberglass objects.

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House Bill 217 is looking at wind preventing wind turbine blades from being deposited in landfills. An amendment passed on second reading in the House on February 25, 2020. The amendment changed the year that the bill will take effect from 2020 to 2024. "I didn't oppose it. I call it a friendly amendment,” Rep. Bunky Loucks (R - HD 59) said. “I surely would like to have it not out until 2024. I can just imagine the amount of blades that the landfill is going to take in but I just want to see the bill go through."

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Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.

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Wind Wyoming’s Way announced Wednesday it would spend the next year-and-a-half gathering signatures and trying to build support to increase taxes on wind energy production. The group proposes raising the current tax from $1 per megawatt hour to $5 per megawatt hour. It also would eliminate the three-year tax exemption currently in place for new wind projects.

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South of Laramie, there's a road that goes straight into the plains. Over the hill, it's just open country, boulders and eventually, a tan house with a large porch facing the Rockies.

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ConnectGen, a renewable energy development company based out of Houston, Texas, has started the permitting stages of constructing a 504-megawatt wind farm stretching across public and private land on both sides of the highway. The project would encompass 26,000-acres close to Tie Siding.

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The future of a planned wind project between Albany and Carbon counties is now in question. The result of that could mean the loss of $5 million “impact assistance” funding that governments in Carbon and Albany counties were set to receive from the state.

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One wind farm in Glenrock and two from the Saratoga area have partnered with the Casper Regional Landfill to dispose of their old wind turbine blades. More than 900 blades will be brought to the landfill beginning now until the end of next spring.

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If you’re looking for examples of small government in Wyoming, towns like Medicine Bow, population 267, undoubtedly set the standard.

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The project is located on 49,974 acres of city of Cheyenne, state of Wyoming and private lands in Laramie County. The 17-month construction period is expected to start this month and wrap up by the end of 2020. 

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The life expectancy of a wind turbine is about 25 years. After that they can either be retooled or taken down. The state of Wyoming was one of the first to implement regulations to make sure the state did not have the problem of dead abandoned wind turbines. California, for example, has entire fields of them.

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...the project stands nowhere near ready to meet the original start-up date of this September. No turbines have been installed, and none will be available for installation for another three years. According to Jacobson, 2022 is being projected as the year when PCW would begin raising wind turbines.

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Rocky Mountain Power responded to inquiries into the dispute by stating, “Rocky Mountain Power cannot comment directly on the ongoing complaint proceedings between the company and Boswell Wind at the Wyoming Public Service Commission. However, Rocky Mountain Power takes both its commitments to provide affordable, reliable electricity to customers, and its contractual commitments seriously.”

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Wyoming will pay local communities in the state’s windiest region a little over $5 million to address the impacts from two wind developments now edging forward. ...Over time large projects generate jobs and revenue, but the construction phase comes first. County and town budgets aren’t necessarily able to absorb the impact, said Wichmann.

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A representative from BluEarth Renewables presented City Council with plans for two new wind farms in Albany County that could bring business and jobs to Laramie.

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According to Martin, project officials anticipate a 2020 Commercial Operation Date (COD); however, this date is still uncertain. In addition, a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process will need to be cemented in order for the project to be approved. Although no turbines will fall on BLM grounds, said Martin, transmission line and road right-of-ways are required.

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One of the major reasons why the Commission didn’t make an approval was that, after pressing Carpio-Delfino on if he obtained permits – including an Eagle Take Permit through the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, as well as an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (the proposed line runs through some BLM land) – he said he’s only been speaking with these entities. This means nothing has yet been finalized.

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RAWLINS — A resolution to determine whether a potential multimillion dollar wind energy project will be built or not has been delayed by the Carbon County Commissioners due to legal statutes.

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The proposed wind build-out agreed upon Thursday is comprised of three new wind farms totaling 1,150 megawatts of potential power and a 140-mile high-voltage transmission line across central Wyoming. The company’s plan to upgrade its existing wind farms is being considered separate from Thursday’s approval.

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The developers are also focused on keeping the White House engaged in the project. Without the federal government’s backing through WAPA, TransWest Express would lack the use of eminent domain, a major tool that Trump often relied on in his past life as a real estate mogul. It’s the ability to take ownership of private land for public use.

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