State's largest wind power project starts this summer
(Published Friday, March 30, 2007 09:49:40 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - We Energies plans to start construction this summer on what will become the largest wind power project in the state.
The $300 million Blue Sky Green Field wind farm will be located on 10,600 acres in the towns of Calumet and Marshfield just east of Lake Winnebago. It is expected to be under construction for about a year.
We Energies recently completed a deal to buy 88 wind turbines from Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark. The turbines will be 1.65 megawatts each and the total output of the wind farm will be 145 megawatts, or enough to power about 36,000 homes.
The endeavor had been projected to cost ratepayers up to $394 million, but that price was based on buying larger turbines than those under contract from Vestas.
Under a new state law, Wisconsin utilities must expand their use of wind power and other renewable sources of electricity. By 2015, 10 percent of the electricity sold in Wisconsin must come from renewable power.
Other utilities are also planning wind power projects.
-A proposal from Alliant Energy Corp. for a wind farm in Fond du Lac County is being reviewed by state regulators.
-Sun Prairie-based Wisconsin Public Power Inc. said it signed a deal last week to buy power from the Butler Ridge wind power project in Dodge County, plus several local wind-power projects that may be developed in Kaukauna, New Holstein and Westby. The 54-megawatt Butler Ridge project being developed by Eurus Energy is expected to begin generating electricity next year.
-Wisconsin Public Power will make electricity from methane emitted by the Outagamie County landfill. Including these and previously announced projects, the utility says it expects to generate 10 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2009.
