Pathfinder
Pathfinder Wind Project
A Community of Wind
The state of Wyoming has the strongest sustained winds in the United States. This resource provides an opportunity for the demand for clean, efficient and sustainable wind energy. Prosser | PRIME AE is proud to have been part of the original development team with Founder and Visionary Jeff Myer, creating the Pathfinder Master Plan, the first such approach in the industry. After a comprehensive resource analysis, stakeholder engagement process and subsequent GIS mapping, Five Guiding Principles were created that formed the foundation for the Master Plan providing for the unmatched stewardship in harnessing Wyoming's wind resources.
Five Guiding Principles
- Wildlife, Habitat & Watershed Protection
- Public Recreation
- Cultural Resource Protection & Education
- Community Engagement
- Visual Resource Protection
The Master Plan maximized wind development in the most appropriate locations considering each of the Guiding Principles through public interaction, environmental inventories and employing the most technologically advanced planning, design and engineering techniques available. The Pathfinder Wind Project footprint, planned for 2,100 MW, advanced to identify optimum zones of wind velocity overlaid on lands of lower environmental sensitivity. As the project progressed, the primary zones of development shifted to include existing managed ranch properties. These lands had less impacts and future wind leases can provide additional long-term sources of income for the ranch owners.
The Wildlife, Habitat and Watershed and Protection program was further developed into the Sweetwater River Conservancy, a mitigation bank and conservation program now known as the Pathfinder Ranches. Many of the original properties are now part of this science-based approach to conservation that restores and protects diverse biological communities associated with energy development in Wyoming.
Of additional interest, the project has advanced to consider a unique energy storage system. Electricity generated from Pathfinder wind turbines will be transmitted to Utah powering compressors that pump air into underground salt domes. Later, at peak electric demand, the compressed air drives turbines that regenerates electricity on-demand.
Interesting References:
Pathfinder Wind Project
Mitigation Bank and Conservation Program
