Biglow Canyon Wind Farm is an electricity generating

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 ...

facility in

Sherman County, Oregon Sherman County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,870, making it the second-least populous county in Oregon after nearby Wheeler. The county seat is Moro, and the largest city i ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is owned by

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

-based

Portland General Electric Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants ...

and began operations in 2007. With the completion of phase 3 of the project it has a generating capacity of 450

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 ...

s. It is located roughly five miles (8 km) northeast of

Wasco, Oregon Wasco is a city in Sherman County, Oregon, United States. The population was 410 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Wascoite, a type of white clay-based mineral ...

, and about ten miles (16 km) southeast of

Rufus, Oregon Rufus is a city in Sherman County, Oregon, United States. The population was 249 at the 2010 census. The city was named for an early settler, Rufus Carrol Wallis. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total ar ...

. Biglow Canyon Wind Farm covers in the

Columbia River Gorge The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the st ...

History

In 2005, Orion Energy announced plans to develop a 450-megawatt wind farm with 225 turbines at Biglow Canyon in the Columbia River Gorge, at the time the largest project of its kind in Oregon. Portland General Electric (PGE) acquired Orion's development right to the $200 million project in 2006. In November 2006, PGE purchased the first 76 turbines for the project from

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 ...

, with the project cost increasing to an estimated $256 million for the first phase. PGE broke ground on the site in February 2007. In the middle of October 2007, ten Vestas V82

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 year. ...

s were energized to produce the first electricity at Biglow.Sickinger, Ted. Demand for wind dwarfs supply. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'', November 9, 2007. The last of the 76 turbines in the first-phase of the wind farm development became operational in December 2007. PGE Completes Biglow Canyon Wind Farm.
''Renewable Energy Access''. Retrieved on 2009-01-26. The turbines for phases 2 and 3 were purchased from Siemens Energy. There will be 141 SWT-2.3-93 turbines, with a capacity of 2.3 MW each. Phase 2 of the project was completed in August 2009, adding 65 turbines to the wind farm. The expansion brought generating capacity to 275 megawatts. Phase 3 added 76 wind turbines, with the cost of phases two and three totaling $700 to $800 million. Phase 3 completed the project and brought the maximum generating capacity to 450 megawatts, though the anticipated generation is estimated to average 150 megawatts. The final phase was completed in September 2010, with the project totaling 217 turbines at a cost $1 billion. On February 1, 2022, a turbine lost a blade which traveled about 100 yards before landing. This resulted in the farm being shutdown for months for inspections.

Operations

The Biglow Canyon Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 450 megawatts. The site covers in Sherman County. The wind farm uses a feeder transmission line from the canyon to high-voltage transmission lines via a power substation located near

The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...

. PGE does not own this line. Additionally, the line connects this and other wind farms to the

Bonneville Power Administration The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an American federal agency operating in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to cons ...

run power grid built for use with the hydroelectric dams on the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

Certification

The facility is authorized to install up to 225 wind turbines totaling 450 MW and averaging 150 MW distributed over . Each turbine's supporting tower must be tall; combined with wind turbine blades, each unit may be in height. The turbines may be aligned in up to 30 corridors wide on private farmland leased from the appropriate landowners. The initial construction—termed phase I—provides a completed capacity of 125 MW or enough to power 34,000 homes.PGE's Biglow Canyon Wind Farm Helps Make Holiday Lights Greener, ''PGE press release'', December 21, 2007. Phase I cost some $250 million. Energy Trust of Oregon contributed $6 million. Turbine output is around 600 V AC and is converted to 34.5 kV by a

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

at the base of each tower. The output is gathered by a substation which combines the individual turbine contributions. Most collector cabling and associated control and monitoring

fiber optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

(up to 99 miles) is buried underground. Exceptions are made for

aerial cable An aerial cable or air cable is an insulated cable usually containing all conductors required for an electrical distribution system (typically using aerial bundled cables) or a telecommunication line, which is suspended between utility poles or ...

s to span terrain such as

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

s, and cultivated areas to protect the environment. Up to of aerial cabling is permitted.

built a 12-mile 230 kV transmission line to collect the power. It has capacity for an expected additional 450 MW from two other proposed wind farms in Sherman County. The substation may be up to including transformers, switching equipment, maintenance shops, control room, and offices. As many as ten

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

observation towers up to 279 ft (85 m) are allowed throughout the wind farm to collect wind resource data. Construction must be completed by June 30, 2011. Visual impact restrictions are in force for the John Day Wildlife Refuge, John Day Wild and Scenic River, and the John Day State Scenic Waterway (from Parish Creek to Tumwater Falls). Wildlife protection must be provided for nesting

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey bac ...

s, Swainson's hawk,

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird ...

Burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America. Burrowing owls can be found in grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, deserts, or an ...

Ferruginous hawk The ferruginous hawk, (''Buteo regalis''), is a large bird of prey and belongs to the broad-winged buteo hawks. An old colloquial name is ferrugineous rough-leg, due to its similarity to the closely related rough-legged hawk (''B. lagopus''). ...

and minimization of harm to other wildlife. Noise levels during construction and operation of the facility must not contribute more than 50 dBA at 24 identified noise sensitive sitesAmbient noise level.

Electricity production

References

External links