Plans for the first major solar energy plant in Wyoming have been approved.
The 80-megawatt Sweetwater Solar plant will be built primarily on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, 700 acres of land in Sweetwater County, outside Green River in western Wyoming.
Once built, the plant will generate 80 megawatts of electricity, enough to power around 17,000 homes. The plant will have as many as 250,000 solar panels, each measuring about 6 feet by 3 feet.
The schedule for the project has not been announced.
Around 40 percent of the nation's coal comes from Wyoming and 85 percent of the electricity generated in Wyoming comes from coal-fired power plants.
