I am sure glad to see this coming to fruition. We need more of these renewable energy sources if we are going to get a hold on our energy crisis.
http://ap.thekansan.com/stories/stat.../3888640.shtml
SPEARVILLE, Kan. — The first major components of a wind farm in Ford County have rolled through town, and as many as 24 blades, five generators and five hubs could be on site by the end of the week, officials with Kansas City Power & Light said.
Phil Duncan, a project manager for KCP&L, said a "blade signing ceremony" will take place June 16, shortly before two oversized cranes arrive in southwest Kansas to begin raising the 389-foot-tall towers.
The $160 million project will eventually include 67 windmills capable of pumping out 100.5 megawatts of power. Duncan said the wind farm should be done in October, when it will begin supplying power to the company's general utilities network and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Overland Park campus.
The Reston, Va.-based telecommunications provider signed a deal with KP&L in April and expects the wind farm to provide more than three-fourths of the energy needed for its operational headquarters.
Sunday's arrival of the first pieces in Spearville drew dozens of curious onlookers, as trucks carried the blades and two massive generators were parked on Main Street.
"We were coming back from Dodge City when we saw them, and we weren't sure what they were," said librarian Leesa Shafer.
Mayor Ken Dormer had been expecting the equipment to arrive in June and didn't realize how big the components would be until they showed up Sunday.
Bernice Lea Groth and her husband, John, said they had seen similar wind farms in Iowa, but the size didn't compare. "These blades are so much bigger," Bernice Lea Groth said. "I had read the numbers about their size, but I couldn't visualize it until I saw it."
The project is being developed by enXco Inc., a wind power company based in Escondido, Calif. KCP&L had been interested in increasing its coverage area in southwestern Kansas and joined the effort.
The Kansas City-based energy supplier will employ five or six full-time workers at the site, which is being built on more than 5,000 acres of crop and pastureland.
The utility company is also eligible for a property tax break on the value of the wind farm equipment, under a state law aimed at encouraging wind power. Officials said money may go to the local school district and other entities as a goodwill gesture.
The Spearville Wind Generating Facility is the third wind farm to be built in the state. A 110-megawatt facility built in Montezuma began operating in 2001, and a 150-megawatt farm in Butler County opened last year.