The Roscoe Wind Farm near
Roscoe, Texas is one of the world's largest-capacity
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 ...
s. With 627
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 ...
s and a total installed capacity of 781.5 MW, owned and operated by
RWE. At the time of its completion in 2009, it was the largest wind farm in the world, surpassing the nearby 735.5-megawatt
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center.
[ In 2012, it was overtaken by California's 1,020-megawatt ]Alta Wind Energy Center
Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), also known as Mojave Wind Farm, is the third largest onshore wind energy project in the world. The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in Tehachapi Pass of the Tehachapi Mountains, in Kern County, Calif ...
.
Facility details
Roscoe was constructed in four phases. The first phase, Roscoe, was constructed in 2008 and consists of 209 Mitsubishi 1-megawatt turbines. Phase two is called Champion was also completed in 2008 and includes 55 Siemens 2.3-megawatt machines. The third phase is called Pyron. Its 166 GE 1.5-megawatt turbines were commissioned in mid-2009 shortly before the fourth phase, Inadale, was completed. Inadale adds 197 more Mitsubishi 1-megawatt turbines to the existing project.
The project cost more than $1 billion and provides enough power for more than 250,000 average Texan homes. It is located about west of Fort Worth
Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
, spanning parts of four Texas counties and covering nearly , several times the size of Manhattan.[O'Grady, Eileen]
E.ON completes world's largest wind farm in Texas
''Reuters'', October 1, 2009.[EC&R Completes 780-MW Roscoe Wind Farm]
''Renewable Energy World'', 2 October 2009.[American Wind Energy Association]
U.S. Wind Energy Industry Installs over 2,800 MW in First Quarter
Cliff Etheredge, a local cotton farmer, helped to organize the project.royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...
from the project.[John Burnett]
Winds of Change Blow into Roscoe, Texas
''NPR'', November 27, 2007. Wind farms are helping to revive the local economy in remote areas of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.[
The Roscoe Wind Farm and Cliff Etheredge are featured in the 2010 documentary film,'' Carbon Nation''.
]
Electricity production
See also
*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 ...
*List of onshore wind farms
This is a list of the largest onshore wind farms that are currently operational, rated by generating Nameplate capacity, capacity. Also listed are onshore wind farms with notability other than size, and largest proposed projects.
Largest oper ...
* Wind power in Texas
* List of power stations in Texas
References
{{Wind power in the United States
RWE
Energy infrastructure completed in 2008
Energy infrastructure completed in 2009
Wind farms in Texas
Buildings and structures in Nolan County, Texas