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Wind Farms, like
Greed, Are Never Satisfied.
1. In March 2007, Horizon built the
Twin Groves Wind Farm with 120 turbines (1.65 MW each).
2. Less than a year later (in early
2008) Horizon added Twin Groves II, an expansion that doubled the first
wind farm with an extra 120 turbines of the same size.
3. The McLean County Board just
approved, with construction expected to begin before the end of this
year, 223 more turbines by Horizon in what will be called the Bright
Stalk Wind Farm.
4. In 2011, Horizon also plans to
build the Black Prairie Wind farm, with 333 more turbines--again, the
project is already approved.
5. Invenergy, a new wind developer to
McLean County, is either constructing now, or will soon, the White Oak
Wind Farm, with 100 turbines to get started.
Thus, in 2007 McLean County began with
one wind farm of 120 turbines, and in less than four years, they already
have approvals and immediate construction plans for a total of 896
turbines. These 896 turbines are probably not the last.
In the process of building wind farms, is there ever a stopping point before all rural land is converted to wind farms?
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Livingston County
will, with their series of recent major expansions, be 45% covered with
turbines already.
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Ford County has already approved seven wind farms, and now they are starting to wonder aloud how many is too many. ______________________________________________________________________________________ It is highly likely that the proposed Adams County Prairie Mills Wind Farm will not be the only wind farm developed in Adams County...Acciona has already told the county board that they have 77 leaseholders representing 12,000 acres, and that they wanted another 6000-8000 acres. But even without the additional acres, the 77 leases average about 150 acres each (enough for 2-4 turbines per leaseholder on the average). Therefore, it seems obvious that the wind developer in Adams County is already planning for additional phases; wouldn't it be responsible development to be straightforward about the true scope of the project with the people, as well as public officials? After all, with the 12,000 acres they already have and the 6000-8000 acres they say they want to add, they will have enough ground for as many as 500 turbines (assuming 40 acres per turbine), which is a far cry from the 96 so far under discussion for the east side of Adams County. That doesn't include the other wind farm that is also under development in western Adams County.
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In the State of Illinois, as long as there is still land, evidently, it is not complete unless it is covered with wind turbines. The following article written in October, 2010, says that Illinois currently has 705 turbines, but that number is expected to quadruple in the next five years to 2772 (and keep growing after that). The article, however, underestimates the growth; it only lists completed and pending projects for the counties tracked by ISU, but that does not include all Illinois counties where wind development is underway (it leaves out Adams, Brown, Sangamon, Macon, Ogle, Winnebago, Pike, Lee, and DeKalb Counties, for example--meaning the 2772 number is radically understated). Meanwhile, if you are one of the apparent minority who like to look at a sunset over the Illinois prairie without seeing it through a forest of rotating wind turbines, get your photographs soon. Here's the article: |
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