Plans for Colton area wind farm scrapped

Wind industry group asks

commissioners to lobby

legislature

A major wind power developer has scrapped its plans for a wind farm south of Colton, citing low wind speeds and diminishing state mandates to develop wind energy.

Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish wind farm firm, has held lease options on some 10,000 acres of land in the Rimrock area on the Snake River breaks south of Colton for the past five or six years.

Brian Walsh, business developer for Iberdrola’s Portland branch, said measurements from meteorological towers on that land did not warrant an investment in a full-scale wind farm.

“Th...