Portland-based PacifiCorp brought a new wind farm fully into service this week in Wyoming — its biggest yet — and more of the same is in the works in an ongoing solicitation.
TB Flats, the new wind farm, comprises 132 turbines that add up to 503.2 megawatts of generating capacity. It's expected to power the annual energy needs of around 170,000 homes.
Thirty-five of the turbines actually went online late last year, and the rest were in operation by Monday, PacifiCorp told Oregon utility regulators in a filing.
The project is part of a $3 billion PacifiCorp initiative called Energy Vision 2020 that kicked off in 2017 and is now wrapping up. It included 1,150 megawatts of new wind — all in Wyoming — along with upgrading of existing wind farms and a new 140-mile transmission segment.
This summer, PacifiCorp is closing in on projects in a new renewable energy solicitation. A short list released last month includes 1,792 megawatts of wind, all of it in Wyoming except for a 151-megawatt project in Idaho.
Wyoming projects have done well in the bidding, despite some relatively hefty state taxes, because it has one of the best wind resources in the country. Wyoming projects can produce 20% to 30% more power than comparable wind farms on the Columbia Plateau.
PacifiCorp, a Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK) company, operates in six Western states — Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. About a quarter of its electricity is sold in Oregon, where it goes by the name Pacific Power.
Though the company has faced a renewable portfolio standard in Oregon for years, its recent investments into renewables have mostly been driven by economics. Regulations are expected to exert themselves again, however, as PacifiCorp faces a 2030 deadline for getting coal out of Oregon rates, and as HB 2021 unfolds.
That legislation, signed by Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday, mandates an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with PacifiCorp's Oregon electricity sales, and for Portland General Electric, from a 2010-12 baseline by 2030 on the way to 100% clean electricity by 2040.
That will likely mean a lot more wind and solar, and batteries, and possibly other modes of energy storage such as pumped hydro and green hydrogen. Offshore wind off Oregon is getting new attention, as well, and PacifiCorp is also talking about developing a small modular reactor nuclear power plant in Wyoming.