New energy projects are coming to small towns. Where will workers live?
There’s a brand new coffee shop in the small town of Kemmerer, Wyoming. It is called Fossil Fuel Coffee Company, a nod to two things this area is known for — prehistoric fish fossils and the fossil fuel industry.
The rural community of about 2,500 is known for boom and bust cycles.
“There’s been times that it has been really busy,” said local real estate agent Jessica Lozier. “There’s been times that it’s been not busy and that downtown has kind of been dying.”
And that has been the case for the past five years or so. Mainly because coal mining and energy production have slowed way down in Kemmerer, as demand has waned. City leaders worried that Kemmerer would become a ghost town.
But, Lozier said that changed in late 2020-2021 when a new energy industry showed up. The company TerraPower, co-founded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, announced plans for a nuclear plant.
“It brought, I think, a revived sense of security for the community that it needed,” she said.
The project is one possible solution to the Biden administration’s goal to get the U.S. to 100% “clean” energy by 2035. Part of that plan actually includes nuclear power, so several new nuclear plants are in the works, including the roughly $4 billion TerraPower project. The company claims it will be much smaller and more efficient than traditional nuclear plants.
TerraPower said the plant is perfect for the wide open spaces of Wyoming, where it could bring both vibrancy and new life. But there is one problem — a housing shortage.
On a recent spring day, Gordon Gunter walked the RV park he owns in town. The camping spaces are surrounded by sagebrush and overlook a river.
“A lot of the guys that we have stay here are working people,” Gunter said.
Over the next seven years, 1,600 more workers are needed here to build the nuclear plant, which is well over half the town’s current population. Gunter said he gets a lot of calls from employers, like one construction contractor recently searching for workforce housing.
“I said, ‘Well, how many sites do you think you’ll need?’ And she said, ‘Oh, about 1,100.’ Well, we’ve got 44 max at this point, and I went, ‘1,100?’” Gunter said with a laugh.
He is going to add 15 more spaces over the next few years. One motel in town is adding nine new rooms – but that is still a far cry from what is needed.
“We have to be a little bit realistic about what we can and can’t do in our planning,” said Brian Muir, Kemmerer city administrator.
He said he expects almost half of the workers to commute, since the town does not have enough infrastructure to support the growth. Its water and sewer system is aging. One of the main roads is still dirt.
“We’re not going to have a Walmart here probably for a long time, if ever,” Muir said.
TerraPower plans to begin the bulk of construction next summer. CEO Chris Levesque said if the Kemmerer plant is successful, it will set the stage for future projects.
“We think electricity demand is going to double in the U.S. between now and 2050,” Levesque said.
He added that TerraPower wants to build five more nuclear plants by 2035, most likely in the West.
“So there’ll be a big need for these reactors all across the U.S,” he said.
And, a need for housing as communities nearby as new reactors grow.
For now, Kemmerer still feels quiet. There is that one new coffee shop downtown, but also a lot of empty storefronts. On a recent weekday, there was one person out and about on the main street, the birds were chirping and a dusty truck drove by every few minutes.
It is still small town Wyoming. Even though much of the energy world is watching how this project goes, this community still feels like a place that is waiting for things to happen.