The Colorado Green Wind Power Project, the fifth largest wind farm in the nation and the largest in the state, may triple in size.
The wind farm, which is jointly owned by PPM Energy and Shell WindEnergy Inc., spans 11,840 acres of grassland between Lamar and Springfield. With 108 wind turbines on line, the Colorado Green Wind Project at full power can generate enough power to serve the energy needs of about 52,000 homes and businesses.
PPM energy is venturing out on its own, proposing an expansion that will include about 100 turbines in Prowers County and another 100 turbines in Bent County.
The company will own 100 percent of the new project.
Raimund Grube, director of business development for PPM, said Tuesday that the new expansion will run east and west of the existing Colorado Green Project.
The company obtained a special land use permit for 100 turbines from Prowers County officials Tuesday and will seek another permit from Bent County next week. “We are looking for approximately the same amount of turbines in Bent County,” Grube said.
Grube said that PPM’s biggest hurdle right now is finding a company to buy the power. The company has sent a bid request for the project to Xcel Energy.
Currently the power generated by the existing wind farm is delivered under a 15-year purchase agreement with Xcel, the fourth- largest combination natural gas and electricity company in the nation with regulated operations in 11 Western and Midwest states.
Grube declined to comment on the progress of the bidding process with Xcel.
“We are not in negotiations right now. We are just in the bidding process with Xcel,” he said. The project will affect 25 to 30 landowners in both Prowers and Bent counties, but Grube said that PPM will pay close attention to their needs during the process.
“We try to work closely with the landowners because we understand their needs — without them there is no project,” Grube said.
The project calls for two new transmission lines to be built in Prowers County. They will bring energy from the turbines to a substation where the power will be transferred to the existing Colorado Green transmission system.
“We have preliminary locations of where the turbines will be set, but as we continue through the siting process, which includes continuing study of the wind resource out there, and talking to all the various regulatory agencies in the state, we will be moving around turbines to make sure we comply with all of the rules and to make sure we are getting the best possible wind resource,” Grube said.
Grube said that the new turbines will be similar to the existing turbines in height but that the blades will be longer.
“The blades out there are 70.5 meters (231 feet) and the new ones will be about 77 meters (253 feet) long — it’s just the evolution of some of the technology that has been perfected,” Grube said.
Grube said that he would like to start construction within the next two years, but without a buyer he can’t promise anything right now.
“We have a great opportunity out here and a proven resource, but somebody needs to say, ‘Yes, we select you to buy power from,’ ” Grube said. “I would say that is the biggest hurdle,” Grube said.
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