by Darrell Ehrlick, Washington State Standard
July 24, 2024
RAPELJE — As Montana citizens and groups pressure the state’s largest public utility, NorthWestern Energy, to add more renewable energy to its portfolio while the company continues pushing a series of natural-gas power plants, a Washington-based utility is building an expansive wind farmthat will send power to the Seattle area. Puget Sound Energy is also contracting with an energy developer for another project, and has a third project on the drawing board as a possibility.
In addition to building its own facility, Puget Sound Energy on Tuesday announced that it had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Clearway Energy Group for a 315-megawatt wind farm under development in Wheatland and Meagher counties in Montana.
That additional power buy by Puget Sound Energy will satisfy about 15% of what the utility company needs to meet Washington’s 2030 clean energy targets, the company said. Clearway is one of the largest clean energy developers in the world with more than 11.5 gigawatts of solar, storage and wind. Construction on the wind farm is expected to start in June 2026, and the project is slated to go online in 2028.
Meanwhile, Puget Sound Energy is building a wind farm near Rapelje, about an hour west of Billings, that will be capable of generating 248 megawatts, enough to power more than 83,000 houses. The Beaver Creek wind project will help the company meet Washington’s aggressive clean-energy laws. The inside of the tower of a wind turbine, showing the cables that connect the powerhouse with the power grid. (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan)
Even as Montanans urge the state and the Montana Public Service Commission to add more renewables to the portfolio, other states’ energy companies see Montana’s wind and renewable market attractive enough to invest, sending power two states away.
The initial part of the Rapeljeproject, named the Beaver Creek project, is still being constructed, with some of it going online. PSE reports that a second phase of the project could add wind turbines in neighboring Sweet Grass County, complete with a a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility, which would be tied in with the wind farms to manage customer power needs.
“Montana wind has a high production rate that is especially valuable during extremely cold weather in the Pacific Northwest, when high pressure systems mean that Washington wind farms produce less energy,” company officials said when announcing the project.
The wind farm will be fully operational by 2025, company officials say. The construction work will take as many as 200 skilled workers, and 10 to 15 permanent workers at the site itself. The company will erect as many as 88 turbines. The project will contribute more than $150 million to the tax base through impact fees for the estimated 25-year life of the project, according to PSE.
For PSE, the Beaver Creek project will be the fourth wind farm facility, with the other three being located in central and eastern Washington, according to Jim Hogan, the director of major projects at PSE.
“There are great attributes here, including high winds, in particular during the winter time,” Hogan said.
He said Montana’s regulatory environment is also favorable. Hogan described the warm welcome he received from the Stillwater County Commission and the permitting process, which has made it easier for the large energy company to operate. PSE already has power line transmission rights for nearly the entirety of the project, so transporting the power back to the Seattle area just made sense.
The project was already being developed and planned, but was sold to Puget Sound as a near shovel-ready project, with the turbines already on order.
“It’s pretty nice because everyone wants you, and they’re excited to have you here,” Hogan said. “The local government approach is refreshing.”
The massive wind farm is tucked behind some of the hills of the northern part of the county, hidden from Interstate 90 and even out of view from the closest town, Rapelje, population 91.
In the run-up to getting the project online, mainly during this summer, as many as two wind turbines per day are going online.
David Sanders, the executive director of the Montana Public Service Commission, told the Daily Montanan that while the state’s PSC doesn’t have a hand in the Puget Sound projects, he said it’s good to see other energy companies developing Montana’s natural resources.
“I don’t think there’s any frustration,” Sanders said, “We’re pretty ecumenical when it comes to developing resources. Diversity is good for power generation.”
For PSE, the Beaver Creek wind farm, and a likely sister facility in the next Montana county over, isn’t just a luxury, it’s a mandate as the public utility rushes to comply with Washington state’s strict clean-energy laws.
Washington has mandated that it will not rely on any energy derived from fossil fuels by 2050, but in order to do that, it will require a rapid build-out of renewable projects, like the Beaver Creek facility and others.
Even in PSE’s home state of Washington, regulators, environmental groups and Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee have fought about the scale and siting of projects.
For example, one project was recently scaled back beyond what the development company said was viable out of concerns about the nesting areas of ferruginous hawks, an endangered species.
“We must come to grips with the fact that we we will need to adapt and accept relatively moderate changes to our physical landscape in order to ensure continued, reliable electricity,” Inslee wrote in a letter and reported by the Washington State Standard.
The Beaver Creek wind farm project isn’t PSE’s only Montana energy footprint; it purchases power with Energy Keepers, Inc., the tribally owned corporation of the Confederate Salish-Kootenai tribes for hydroelectric, and an agreement with NextEra for power from Montana’s largest wind farm, Clearwater Wind, based in Rosebud, Custer and Garfield counties.
Earlier in 2024, PSE announced that it was expanding its largest wind farm, near Pomeroy, Washington.
Since 2019, PSE has added more than 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy to its holdings.
This article was first published by the Daily Montanan, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: [email protected]. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected]. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and X.