Mendota Hills Wind Farm
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The Mendota Hills Wind Farm is a
wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
near the village of Paw Paw in Lee County. It consists of 63 operating
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s. Each wind turbine stands 214 ft (65.23 m) tall and has three 85 ft (35.91 m) long blades. The wind farm was constructed from June 2003 to November 24, 2003. Mendota Hills was the first utility-scale wind farm in the state of Illinois.


Description

The Mendota Hills Wind Farm consists of 63
Gamesa Gamesa (formerly Galletera Mexicana S.A. de C.V. "Mexican Biscuit Company") is Mexico's largest manufacturer of cookies. The company also makes flour, ready to eat cereals and other related products. It is headquartered in San Nicolás de los Gar ...
G52-800 kW wind turbines, each costing around US$1 million. Each turbine stands tall and has a diameter of across the rotor, the two ton rotors spin at 25 
rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
. Each of the three blades measure 83 ft (25.91 m) long. The turbine towers are spread out over of Lee County, Illinois, near the village of Paw Paw and adjacent to
Interstate 39 Interstate 39 (I-39) is a highway in the Midwestern United States. I-39 runs from Normal, Illinois, at I-55 to State Trunk Highway 29 (WIS 29) in the town of Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, which is approximately south of Wausau. I- ...
. The wind farm was developed by Navitas Energy, and is now owned and operated by Leeward . Energy produced at Mendota Hills is sold to
Commonwealth Edison Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois County on the south to ...
. Each tower has a 2.5
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
capacity giving a total capacity at Mendota Hills Wind Farm of 72.6 megawatts. The site produces enough power (approximately 110 million kilowatt hours annually) to power about 13,000 homes. 29 SG126-2.5's were put up on their place in 2019


History

The Mendota Hills Wind Farm's beginnings are rooted in the spring of 2002 when land owners were first approached about the wind towers. For the two years previous to that wind metering had been taking place in the area where the wind farm is located today. Construction could only begin, in June 2003, after a series of environmental and archaeological tests and approval from the Lee County Zoning Board. Construction on the wind farm was complete by November 2003 and the Mendota Hills Wind Farm officially went online on November 24, 2003. Landowners and farmers are compensated by the developer, Navitas Energy of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a contractual basis. Most landowners are paid US$1,200 to $1,500 per megawatt of electricity produced on each tower.Clark, Carol,
Local residents take a whirlwind tour
," ''Galesburg Register Mail'', via Western Illinois Economic Development Commission. Retrieved 1 July 2007.


See also

*
Twin Groves Wind Farm Twin Groves Wind Farm is a wind farm in the U.S. state of Illinois, near the villages of Arrowsmith, Illinois, Arrowsmith, Saybrook, Illinois, Saybrook, and Ellsworth, Illinois, Ellsworth in McLean County, Illinois, McLean County. It consists of ...
* Wind power in Illinois


Notes

{{Coord, 41.7256, -89.0456, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title Buildings and structures in Lee County, Illinois Energy infrastructure completed in 2003 Wind farms in Illinois