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 ...
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
. It consists of 53
REpower
Senvion S.A. (called REpower Systems SE until 2014) was a German wind turbine manufacturer founded in 2001 in Germany, majority owned by a private equity firm.
Senvion as REpower Systems, as it was initially called, was established in 2001 ...
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
EDF Energies Nouvelles
EDF Renewables (formerly ''EDF Renouvelables'') is a wholly owned subsidiary of the French utility EDF Group, specializing in renewable energy production. As an integrated operator, the Group develops and finances the construction of renewable e ...
built the wind farm, with Mortenson Construction's Renewable Energy Group as the subcontractor.
Indianapolis Power & Light
AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Company (also known as IPL or IPALCO), is an American utility company providing electric service to the city of Indianapolis. It is a subsidiary and largest utility of AES Corporation, whi ...
(IPL) has a 20-year contract to purchase and distribute the wind farm's output.
History
IPL and enXco announced their plan to build the wind farm in April, 2008. The original plan called for 67 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines. By the time construction started in April 2009, the plan had changed to use REpower 2.0 MW wind turbines instead, with 80m towers. At the time of construction, Hoosier was only the third wind farm in the United States to use REpower wind turbines, after Goodnoe Hills Wind Farm in
Goldendale, Washington
Goldendale is a city and county seat of Klickitat County, Washington, Klickitat County, Washington (state), Washington, United States, near the Columbia River Gorge. The population within city limits was 3,760 at the 2000 United States Census, 2 ...
, and Shiloh Wind Farm Phase II in Birds Landing, California (also constructed by enXco and Mortenson). Construction took six months.
The groundbreaking ceremony on April 17, 2009, included Indiana Lt. Governor
Becky Skillman
Rebecca S. Skillman (born September 26, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 49th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, from 2005 to 2013. She is a member of the Republican Party.
In the 2024 Indiana governor's race, Skillman endorsed ...
and other government and industry officials.
Environmental impact
IPL expects Hoosier to generate enough power for 29,000 homes and reduce
carbon dioxide emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The ...
by 348,000 tons per year. This is equivalent to the annual emissions from 58,000 cars.
See also
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Benton County Wind Farm
The Benton County Wind Farm (also called Goodland I) consists of 87 model sl/sle Gen4 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines near Earl Park, Indiana in northern Benton County, Indiana. The farm's nameplate capacity is 130.5 MW. The farm was developed by Orio ...
*
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm
The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm is a wind farm in Benton County, Indiana, near the city of Fowler, IN about northwest of Lafayette and northwest of Indianapolis. Fowler Ridge was originally developed in 2005 and 2006 by Orion Energy, LLC (Oakland, ...
Wind power in Indiana
Wind power in Indiana was limited to a few small water-pumping windmills on farms until 2008 with construction of Indiana's first utility-scale wind power facility, Benton County Wind Farm, Goodland (phase I) with a nameplate capacity of 130 mega ...