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The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has granted a construction and operating permit to the developer of a wind project comprising multiple facilities with a combined capacity of 780 MW.

Sited in the southeastern Wyoming towns of Medicine Bow in Carbon County and Rock River in Albany County, the Two Rivers and Lucky Star project will be developed and operated in two phases by subsidiaries of BluEarth Renewables Inc. During the first phase, the Two Rivers phase of construction, workers will erect 77 wind turbines at four generation sites — known as Two Rivers I, II, III and IV — with a combined anticipated capacity of 280 MW. Later, during the Lucky Star phase, 200 turbines will be installed at the Lucky Star site with a total capacity of roughly 500 MW.

The estimated cost to construct the entire 100,198-acre project was listed at $1.05 billion in the permit application. The Two Rivers phase of construction is slated to begin in April 2021, with operations at those facilities anticipated to start in early 2022. The Lucky Star phase of construction should commence in April 2022, with that facility expected to come online in the last quarter of 2023.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Industrial Siting Division issued the permit with 22 stipulations, including one that requires the developer to seek out local workers for open positions. The company anticipates employing 262 workers at the peak of construction during the Two Rivers phase and 400 workers during the peak construction period for the Lucky Star phase.

The project initially was being developed by Intermountain Wind LLC, which sold its Wyoming wind portfolio to BluEarth Renewables for an undisclosed sum in July 2018. According to American Wind Energy Association data that was last updated in October, Wyoming is ranked 17th in the nation in terms of installed wind capacity with 1,488 MW. [Bridget Reed Morawski]

More ($): 780-MW wind project in Wyoming receives construction permit