Global News

Thursday September 09, 2010

Cedar Creek 2 will see an increase of $350 million dollars to help fund their wind turbine development just west of Sterling in the New Raymer Stoneham area in eastern Weld County thanks to BP.

"this is a great opportunity for the county" says Dave Long the Commissioner of Weld County

"We have oil and gas, we have some solar, now we have wind energy. We've got divestures that are now going to be able to produce electricity, so we can really call ourselves an energy hub of Colorado if not for the Rocky Mountain West," Long said.

As of January 2008 Cedar Creek 1 was installed and operating, located north of Grover and it has 274 wind turbines. Dave Long says "this additional phase will not only create more electricity it will help to create sorely needed jobs".

There were a few concerns throughout the discussion process concerning the appearance of having a bunch of wind turbines in a single location. This particular field will cover an area of 27,000 acres. Dave Long, whom is also a citizen of New Raymer, says "the prospect of revenue over any kind of eyesore, quickly put those concerns to rest".

"Having a little paycheck in their pocketbook every month kind of alleviated those kinds of concerns," he said.

Cedar Creek 2 will connect to the power grid of Cedar Creek 1. Building on the cement bottoms for the actual wind turbines has recently started. The venture is planned to be online in June 2011.

Electrical power made by both wind turbine farms may be distributed to Public Service Co. of Colorado, that's a part of Xcel Energy. The initial wind turbine farm produces around 300 megawatts of electrical power, the 2nd will produce 250 megawatts.