Rock River wind farm

» See our response to public comments on this project

Rock River wind project is the first commercial wind farm from Shell WindEnergy, located near Foote Creek I in Wyoming. The project benefits climate change strategies by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the public electricity grid, by substituting fossil fuel based power with clean renewable power.

The project’s first came online on in November 2001, and was part of an innovating financing bundle that won Project of the Year from Project Finance Magazine.

TerraPass funds would help ensure an adequate financial return for the project and satisfy the expectation project developers had about the voluntary market supporting the project. In addition, TerraPass funding is directed to PacifiCorp, now the owner of the attributes, and one of the more progressive wind-supporting utilities.

This project meets the Green-e Energy standards.

Project details

Rock River wind project was Shell Renewables’ first commercial wind farm. The Facility is sited on the top of a high plateau with an extremely good wind profile and near transmission lines that parallel Interstate 80. It is near Rock River, WY, and just a few miles away from the Foote Creek wind facilities, also a TerraPass supported project.

50 one-megawatt Mitsubishi MWT1000 turbines provide a total nameplate capacity of 50MW. The hub height is 55 meters and the blades have a diameter of 56 meters.

The facility is sited on BLM land used for grazing by local ranchers. 99% of the original land use has been preserved. The site experiences extremely cold winter temperatures (-30C), high wind gusts (125mph).

The site was developed by SeaWest Wind Power Inc and sold to Shell WindEnergy in July 2001. The Financial Times estimated the value of the transaction at $50 to $60M.

In November 2001, PacifiCorp signed a 20 year PPA with Shell that included any emissions credits.

In September 2004, Shell WindEnergy won Renewable Energy Deal of the Year (Americas Region) by Project Finance Magazine for a $123.5M financing bundle named Three Winds that included the Rock River I, Whitewater Hill and Cabazon projects, with a total capacity of 152.5MW. (Whitewater Hill and Cabazon are also TerraPass supported projects).

Construction started in July 2001. The commercial online date was November 9, 2001.

Project location

The project is located near Arlington, WY in Carbon County, Wyoming, USA between Laramie and Rawlings and between Arlington and Rock River.

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Other environmental and social benefits

Environmental benefits

• The project provides renewable energy to a region that still relies on coal for 96% of its generation, and has no Renewal Portfolio Standard (RPS) in place.
• The facility has good integration with cattle land - cattle like to lie in the shadows of the turbines.
• The project leveraged good wind planning learning from Foote Creek I for positive community relations

Social benefits

Lease payments are made to cattle ranchers leasing land, typically several thousand dollars per turbine. Local employment for construction related to the project, installation of equipment, and operation of the Project.

Project’s Ability to Foster Further Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions

• Development priming: this is one of the first bundled wind farm transactions for independent project finance.
• The project led to the development of a new substation at Foote Creek to handle the new load coming from the area’s wind farms.

Discussion of appropriate use of TerraPass funds

The project is an ideal candidate for TerraPass funds as planned carbon revenues clearly were a decisive factor in helping a path breaking project that significantly and permanently reduces greenhouse emissions.

Baseline conditions

As with all wind farms, the Baseline conditions are those of the surrounding public grid.

The facility is located in the WECC region of the National Electricy Reliablity Council, and in the newly released Green-e Climate Protocol for renewable energy has a modeled carbon intensity of 1295 lbs CO2/MWh. We use this figure to determine the translation from MWh to lbs CO2.

Additionality

No regulatory requirements. Wyoming has no requirements for renewable power. US wind not used to satisfy an RPS requirement is often considered additional by analysis of their aggregate economics and adoption profiles. This project meets the eligibility criteria of all the following performance standard protocols: Green-e Energy and the Chicago Climate Exchange Offset Protocol. The project will be certified against the standards of the Green-e Energy Protocol.

Barriers to Implementation. This project is one of the first wind farm in Wyoming, and one of the first to be bundled in an award winning project finance transaction. As such, the facility faced early market and technology barriers. Other alternatives open to the facility, such as continuing to build less expensive fossil-fuel based electrical generating capacity, were not prevented by these barriers.

Impact of TerraPass funds. TerraPass seeks projects where the funding from our purchases helps assure a positive financial outlook on the greenhouse gas emission reduction project. A review of the project’s high level financials showed the environmental attribute revenues significantly contribute to making the project economically feasible. Additionally, the purchasing utility, PacifiCorp, uses this facility for a voluntary marketing program.

Better than most. TerraPass seeks projects where the operations have shown good practices and avoided substantial negative impacts. Rock River continued the good work performed by Foote Creeke in the area in adopting steps for environmental mitigation.