wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park 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 turbines covering an exten ...
in the U.S. state of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, near the villages of Arrowsmith, Saybrook, and Ellsworth in McLean County. It consists of 240 operating wind turbines. Each wind turbine stands 280 ft (80 m) tall and has three 120-foot-long (39 m) blades. The wind farm was constructed from 2007 to February 2008. Twin Groves was the largest utility-scale wind farm east of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
upon completion.Later in 2008, the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in neighboring Indiana surpassed Twin Groves with 400 MW of installed
nameplate capacity
Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,
Vestas
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...
1.65 MW wind turbines and is owned and operated by EDP Renewables North America. Total cost of Twin Groves was approximately $700 million. The towers are spread out over of McLean County, near the villages of Arrowsmith, Ellsworth, and Saybrook. The current total capacity at Twin Groves Wind Farm is 398 megawatts. The site produces enough power to power about 120,000 homes, or approximately 1.3 billion
kilowatt hour
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...
s annually.
Revenue
Between , or 1%, of the total 22,000 acres will be taken up by the turbines. Royalties are paid to owners of the land at $5,000 per wind turbine. The wind farm pays property taxes, of which Ridgeview School District will start collecting $300,000 a year, while Tri-Valley School District will collect between $200,000-$250,000 a year.
Future
With 240 wind turbines already generating power, the project owner is considering an additional 170 wind turbines, to bring the total number of turbines to 410. Test wind turbines are being placed in eastern McLean County to determine if additional wind turbines can be supported. If constructed, power capacity estimates for the wind farm increase from 396 megawatts to 680 megawatts.
Electricity production
See also
*
List of wind farms
Lists of wind farms include:
*List of onshore wind farms
*List of offshore wind farms
__NOTOC__ Wind farms by country
* List of wind farms in Australia
* List of wind farms in Canada
* List of wind farms in China
* List of offshore wind farms in ...
*
Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. In 2024, 453.5 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.54% of electricity in the United States. The average wi ...
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...