A newly proposed wind farm for Indiana has been suggested for Lake County by Australian-based global wind energy development company Windlab. The original proposal suggested that the development would cover 10,000 acres of land and would involve 50 wind turbines. This original proposal has since been expanded to be a 23,000 acre site with up to 198 turbines installed.
The final capacity of the wind farm, which will be known as the Eagle Creek Wind Farm is expected to be 295MW should the entire proposal be approved.
Windlab has already been collecting data for months to determine whether a wind farm would be feasible and the wind conditions are extremely favourable so much so that it has prompted the request to increase the size of the project to take advantage of them. A request has been made to erect a 196 foot meteorological tower to gather further wind readings. The company would also like to erect two more towers to effectively gauge the conditions over the entire site.
The proposed site for the Eagle Creek Wind Farm is on land that extends from north of the Kankakee River to north of Hebron and from just east of Interstate 65 heading east to a point just west of US 231.
Locals To Benefit
A meeting has already been held with local property owners and according to documents released by Windlab could make at least $15,000 per year if there were two wind turbines located on their land. They would also stand to receive income based on the output from each turbine.
The state of Indiana currently has five privately developed wind farms operating that generate over 1,000 MW of wind power. In three years time the Indiana wind projects will be capable of generating around 3,000 MW of power.
Filed Under: Projects
