Oklahoma might be ranked as the number three state for its number of wind turbines, but a massive wind farm project approved this week in Wyoming is turning heads.
The state’s Industrial Siting Council, after an intense two-day hearing, gave the green light to a wind farm that will be built on 41,220 acres of private and state land in northwestern Laramie County. The Laramie Range Wind Project, a 650-metgawatt wind farm twice the size of Cheyenne, will consist of 139 wind turbines at a large site west of Interstate 25 and about 20 miles north of Cheyenne.
The Cowboy State Daily reported the project was approved unanimously with 26 conditions deliberated during the hearing, said Jillian Scott, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees the Industrial Siting Council.
Not everyone supported the project and one of the opponents was rancher Wendy Volk.
“We are deeply disappointed by the Industrial Siting Council’s decision to approve the Laramie Range Wind Project,” Volk told Cowboy State Daily via text message late Tuesday. “Our concerns are practical and deeply personal: Safe ranch access, livestock operations, road conditions, fire and medical response, water, wildlife and the long-term future of this rural community.”
The Project
The project, proposed by ConnectGen Laramie County LLC, an affiliate of Repsol Renewables North America Inc., would be one of the largest industrial developments in the area. Repsol says it would generate enough electricity to power approximately 200,000 Wyoming homes annually.
The footprint considered by the Industrial Siting Council is smaller than the version Laramie County commissioners rejected last year.
The original proposal covered about 56,000 acres and called for as many as 170 turbines. After commissioners denied the project in a 3-1 vote in September 2025, Repsol revised the plan.
The current proposal covers about 35,350 acres of private land and 5,870 acres of state land.
Wyoming has yet to make the nation’s top 10 wind-farm states in terms of numbers of wind turbines. An August reported by Choose Energy showed Texas had 19,175 turbines followed by Iowa with 6,475 and Oklahoma with 5,564 turbines. California was ranked fourth with 5,510 turbines and Kansas came in fifth with 4,395 turbines.
However, Wyoming is ranked 7th nationally by share of electricity from wind. Almost 34% of the state’s generated electricity comes from wind power. Iowa is number one at nearly 64%. Forty-six percent of electricity generated in Oklahoma comes from wind power, enough to rank the state number four nationwide.
