By Xi Chen | Cronkite News
The Department of the Interior on Friday approved a 500-megawatt wind-power farm near Kingman, a project that could cost up to $800 million and bring hundreds of construction jobs to the Mohave County area.
The proposed facility, on 38,000 acres of federal land near Squaw Peak, would ultimately have a full-time operations staff of about 30 once it started generating power, supporters said.
“We are grateful to have it in Arizona, to bring renewable resources and also economic benefit to the area, to do a little bit more to combat climate change,” said Dennis Godfrey, spokesman for the Arizona office of the Bureau of Land Management.
He could not say when construction might begin and the project developer, BP Wind Energy North America Inc., did not immediately respond to a request Friday for that information. But Godfrey said the company will have to have power purchase agreements in hand from energy buyers before it can break ground.
