On January 18, 2007, a group of Wood River Valley citizens toured various electrical generation and transmission facilities throughout central and southern Idaho. This group is working as an advisory committee to Idaho Power in an effort to create a long-term electrical plan for the Valley. Our initial effort is to gain a base understanding of the opportunities and possible solutions for meeting future power supply needs, as well as reliability, redundancy and conservation issues.
One stop on the tour was at the Fossil Gulch Wind Park near Hagerman. It is a particularly impressive site with seven wind turbines capable of generating up to a total of 10 megawatts (10 MW) of electricity. Each wind turbine is over 200 feet tall. The park is expected to grow to around 40 wind turbines by the end of this year.
I took three videos at the wind park with my cell phone camera. This is truly amateur video, but at least you get the picture.
Click here to watch the Fossil Gulch Wind Park Videos
Shortly there will be a website detailing the progress of the Wood River Electrical Plan’s development. I look forward to considerable opportunity for general public involvement as the plan comes together over the next six months. I will keep you posted on this progress.
