Oklahoma to be home to the largest wind farm in the US
GE Renewable Energy and Invenergy are building the largest wind farm in the United States (construction at the McAdoo Wind Energy Center pictured) (Credit: GE Renewable Energy)
The Oklahoma panhandle will soon be home to the largest wind farm in the United States, and the second largest in the world. GE Renewable Energy and Invenergy have announced the new 2,000-MW facility will be built over the next few years as part of the Wind Catcher Energy Connection project.
Currently, the largest onshore wind farm in the world is the Gansu Wind Farm in China, with a capacity of 6,000 MW, and that's planned to grow to a whopping 20,000 MW by 2020. That same year, the Oklahoma Wind Catcher facility is scheduled to boot up, pipping the Alta Wind Energy Center in California, the current largest in the US with a capacity of 1,550 MW.
The Wind Catcher will consist of 800 turbines of 2.5 MW, connected to 350 miles (563 km) of extra-high voltage power lines to supply electricity to 1.1 million people in the South Central United States. Altogether, the "giga-scale" infrastructure is projected to cost US$4.5 billion, but should save the customers it serves over $7 billion over the next 25 years.
Construction began in 2016, and the Wind Catcher facility is expected to be up and running by the middle of 2020.
Source: GE