Twin Groves Wind Farm is a wind farm in the U.S. state of Illinois, 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 upon completion.Later in 2008, the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in neighboring Indiana surpassed Twin Groves with 400 MW of installed nameplate capacity.
Description The Twin Groves Wind Farm lies in eastern McLean County just east of Bloomington on Illinois State Route 9. The wind farm consists of 240 Vestas 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 hours 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
+Twin Groves Wind Farm Electricity Generation (MW·h) Year Twin Groves IHigh Trail Wind Farm(198 MW) Twin Groves IIOld Trail Wind Farm(198 MW) Total Annual MW·h 2007 324,962 - 324,962 2008 635,776 579,235 1,215,011 2009 570,571 579,853 1,150,424 2010 549,674 565,168 1,114,842 2011 590,569 598,433 1,189,002 2012 589,634 604,896 1,194,530 2013 579,021 588,592 1,167,613 2014 582,524 585,864 1,168,388 2015 592,258 604,310 1,196,568 2016 541,774 565,513 1,107,287 2017 586,815 616,625 1,203,440 2018 527,035 553,138 1,080,173Average Annual Production (years 2008–2018) ---> 1,162,480Average Capacity Factor (years 2008–2018) ---> 33.5%
See also
List of wind farms Wind power in the United States
References
External links Video of turbines in action (requires Adobe Flash) Twin Groves Wind Farm official site Prairie Fire: Twin Groves Wind Farm (WILL-TV)