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Sixty-nine turbines that PacifiCorp placed on the landscape between Laramie and Rawlins 20 years ago churn out the same amount of power that a mere dozen turbines could produce now.

That’s why they are coming down.

The utility has asked the local planning department in Carbon County for a permit to replace the wind turbines at Foote Creek Rim I with 12 new ones. That’s new nacelles, new towers and new blades. Where the existing towers reach about 200 feet from the ground, the majority of the new turbines will likely be closer to 500 feet tall, the length of a football field and then some, according to materials included in the local permit application.

Foote Creek was the utility’s first large wind project. Commissioned in 1998 and beginning power production the following year, the farm would be followed by many other wind projects in Wyoming.

The utility now owns and operates nine wind farms in the state and buys power from six additional wind facilities.

Currently, PacifiCorp is planning an expansion of its Wyoming wind fleet that will include three new wind farms totaling 1,150 megawatts of potential power. The farms will be located in the state’s band of profitable winds in Carbon, Albany and Converse counties.