A Spanish company intends to build a huge wind farm in the north…

Spanish energy giant Repsol, which bought the controversial Rail Tie wind farm project outside Laramie, Wyoming, in the spring, plans to build an even larger wind farm northwest of Cheyenne, a Repsol spokeswoman confirmed to Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

Repsol spokeswoman Erin Szalkowski said a permit application for the 500-600 megawatt project could be submitted to county and state regulators before the end of the year.

The proposed project would be located “a few miles” west of Interstate 25 in northwestern Laramie County, in an area where True Ranches LLC operates an extensive ranching operation.

“There are no cities nearby, it’s all rural areas,” Szalkowski said.

True Ranches, which plans to lease some of its land to Repsol, was formed in 1957 after purchasing the Double Four Ranch near Laramie Peak.

Over the past few decades, True Ranches has grown to eight ranches, two farms and one feedlot. It employs just under 100 people, according to the Casper, Wyoming-based company’s website.

Cattle farming involves the breeding of Angus, Black Baldy, Charolais and Hereford cattle, which are fattened, or as the cattle say, fattened, on farms run by the breeder.

Stetson Weber, principal of True Ranches, was not initially available for comment on the proposed wind farm project.

“The team is not able to share landowner information at this time,” Szalkowski said. “The project is in the early stages of development.”

Changes along the way

The company developing the Laramie Range wind project is formally called Repsol Renewables North America, previously known as renewable energy company ConnectGen.

Houston-based ConnectGen was sold by private equity firm Quantum Capital Group to Repsol for $768 million.

ConnectGen was owned by 547 Energy, a company operating in the renewable energy industry within Quantum.

The acquisition of ConnectGen, first announced last fall, was completed in March.

Founded in 2018, ConnectGen operates solar energy projects with a combined capacity of 278 megawatts in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Repsol’s statewide expansion plan, which includes the 504-megawatt Rail Tie wind farm project in Albany County, includes wind, solar and energy storage projects with a combined capacity of more than 20,000 megawatts.

The Rail Tie project includes 120 wind turbines over 26,000 acres.

As for the Laramie Range project, Szalkowski said that “additional details will be shared as engineering progresses on the project.”

Meeting behind closed doors

Meanwhile, Repsol’s only other wind farm project in Wyoming is at a much more advanced stage, although it has encountered some problems in recent months.

The influential seven-member Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Industrial Siting Board plans to meet behind closed doors Wednesday to resolve a legal issue that could determine the future of the $500 million Rail Tie project.

The industrial location group is likely to determine the “solvency” of the previous owner of the wind farm project and whether the project was legally completed by the deadline set at the end of last year, as well as whether the deep pockets of the new owner from Spain will be sufficient to complete the project, according to sources involved in the meeting interview for Cowboy State Daily.

According to a statement released by DEQ’s Industrial Siting Council, which is tasked with reviewing new energy projects in Wyoming, a cornerstone of the special meeting is a review of the credit statements of wind farm sponsors.

Homeowners in Fish Creek Preserve outside Laramie are opposing the Rail Tie wind farm project near U.S. Highway 287 outside Tie Siding.

They oppose the project because it lowers the association’s property value and detracts from the views of the area. They also express concerns about the impact on wildlife, archaeological sites and historic monuments.

As a reminder, Wednesday’s special meeting is about the Industrial Location Board’s December 4, 2023, order that approved the so-called Rail Tie Wind Farm Project, a necessary and critical step before construction can begin.

Cat in the bag?

However, the homeowners managed to successfully stop the start of construction due to the legal proceedings they initiated.

The homeowners say the Industrial Siting Board approved the financial credibility of the previous owner by not sharing information about his financial resources with their group, which is a party to a lawsuit against the DEQ.

“We feel like we’re in a trance. We bought a house in a rural residential area near the project and we never imagined this wind farm would be built,” homeowner John Davis told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s the industrialization of the area.”

Davis argued that the Industrial Siting Board’s approval of the project occurred outside the legal framework for approving energy projects.

The legal mess has become more murky with the entry of a new owner into Wyoming for the project. Davis said the new entity may have to start the entire Rail Tie permitting process over again because of homeowners’ claims that ConnectGen’s financial adequacy process was not handled properly last fall.

“If I were Repsol, I would feel like someone had sold me a pig in a poke,” Davis said.

Pat Maio you can contact us at [email protected].