With the total investment by enXco currently projected to be more than $330 million, the Desert Claim wind farm would provide numerous benefits to the state and local communities. Here are some of the details.

In 2006, Washington voters approved Initiative 937, which calls for increased reliance on wind and other renewable sources of electrical power generation. To meet the new law's requirements, the state's largest utilities will need 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts of new renewable power by 2020. Wind power as a plentiful and commercially advanced renewable technology will play a major role to fulfill the voters' mandate now, so that Desert Claim and other wind farms will have to supply the power needed by the state's utilities.

With Washington's population projected to increase by 2 million people in the next 25 years, Desert Claim would provide an important source of clean, renewable power for the region's growing population. The wind farm would consist of 95 turbines, each generating 2 megawatts, for a total output of 190 megawatts. That's enough to supply nearly 57,000 homes.

The location has another major advantage - its close proximity to the fast-growing population areas of Western Washington and Kittitas County. That makes it easy to deliver the power to where it's needed most. It also bypasses bottlenecks in the power transmission system farther east, where a lack of capacity is projected to hamper the growth of power-generation facilities.