Finance Committee Approves Belvoir Lease

The Cheyenne City Council Finance Committee on Monday approved the lease of part of the Belvoir Ranch for a hybrid wind/natural gas electric generation facility that the developer says would be the first of it’s kind anywhere in the world. Bruce Morely, President of the parent company of Cheyenne Wind LLC, which wants to build the facility, says the generation plant would use wind power to generate electricity when the wind is blowing. Morely says when the wind is not blowing the facility would switch over to natural gas to generate electricity. Morely says the electricity would then be shipped to California, adding the electricity would not be as vulnerable as natural gas to fluctuating energy prices.

Morely says Cheyenne could expect to receive around $70 Million in royalty fees over the 30 year life of the proposed lease. He says the plant would generate around $100 Million in tax revenues over the same period. Morely says the plant would create about 200 jobs during the construction phase and around 15  permanent jobs once it is operational, which he says would probably be around 2015.  The lease proposal now goes to the full city council for further consideration.