Reported by Staff

Picture yourself heading westbound on I-70  for a day of skiing; only imagine it is two or three years in the future. No, you won’t see a high-speed train racing along side, that is years down the road, if ever.  You may, however,  be able to see dozens of wind turbines quietly rotating on the hilltops in the vicinity of Idaho Springs to Georgetown.

This scenario may become a reality, if a Littleton-based company gets its way. Clear Creek Power, LLC hopes to place 40 turbines in the area, which the company says will generate up to 100 megawatts of renewable energy.

The average wind speed on the mountain ridges of Arapaho National Forest is an impressive 21 miles per hour. ““These are Class 6 or 7 winds, some of the best in the country, ” said James Thomas, project administrator and business development team leader for the developer.

Several Clear Creek Power workers have spent the last three years performing various tests in the location, in addition to researching the potential impact of such a project on plants and animals in the area. They’ve also  analyzed what it would take to upgrade the roads required to move the large turbine machinery, and most importantly for the project, conferred with investors about financing.

The estimated cost of the “Highland Park Wind Energy Facility” is in the neighborhood of $190 million to $230 million; and Clear Creek Power has approached utilities about buying the power.

The company says the going is slow. In addition to conducting three years worth of tests, it is also dealing with a myriad of federal requirements for energy projects on public lands, and some of the regulations are changing, according to Thomas.

The land which Clear Creek Power wants to utilize is under the auspices of the Forest Service, and it lacks rules governing clean energy projects, although new rules are expected soon. For now, the developer is working with BLM-crafted policies that deal  on a limited basis with the development of renewables on BLM land.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires that 10,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal projects be approved on public lands by 2015. The BLM has said it expects to have 2,800 megawatts of renewable-power plants online by Sept. 30, the end of the federal 2010 fiscal year.

Traditional extraction industries operating on public lands in the U.S. have been regulated for years, but the rules governing renewable energy development is still a work in progress.

“There are much stricter and much more thorough environmental regulations and protections on federal land than would be on non federal land,” Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM’s Colorado office, told the Denver Business Journal. At the start of this year, Hall’s office established a small team to review renewable-energy applications on BLM land in Colorado.

In addition, other major factors that will impact future renewable energy projects on public lands are the ability to get the power from the remote wind or solar source to power plants and ultimately, consumers. Upgrading the U.S. electrical transmission grid is the proverbial “elephant in the room” as federal, state and local jurisdictions battle over citing authority. Until that and other issues are worked out, many of the new renewable energy projects may be delayed or, in some cases, abandoned for good.

The San Luis Valley is a case in point. The area is one of 24 tracts included in the Solar Energy Study Area unveiled by Secretary Salazar last year, but solar development on the 20,000 acres may not occur anytime soon, even though it has the potential to generate 4,182 megawatts of power. First Solar of Tempe, Arizona had applied for a permit to build a power plant in the area, but has since pulled it without providing a specific explanation as to why. No other developer is in the picture, at least right now.