Leeward Renewable Energy has successfully completed the full-scale repowering of its Mendota Hills Wind Farm in Lee County, Illinois. The repowering of Mendota was completed on March 21, 2019.
Through the construction phase of Mendota, Leeward generated about 250 jobs and will increase its contribution to Lee County in the form of property tax payments.
The full-scale repower of Mendota included the decommissioning of the existing wind turbines and the installation of new foundations and WTGs to maximize efficiency and extend the life span of the wind farm. In addition, the 63 legacy Gamesa turbines were replaced with 29 of Siemens Gamesa‘s SG2.6-126 wind turbines, increasing the capacity from about 50 MW to 76 MW.
With turbine technology improvements, the Mendota wind farm is expected to increase its reliability and performance while reducing operational cost.
“This was an ambitious project that is creating tremendous benefits and efficiency for our customers and Lee County,” said Greg Wolf, Leeward Renewable Energy CEO. “The Mendota project illustrates the innovation that Leeward is striving for in both our development initiatives as well as management of our existing assets to build and maximize our portfolio.”
Leeward achieved a financial close with a subsidiary of Citi, which provided tax-equity financing for the project. Leeward also entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with Digital Reality and will provide approximately 276,000 megawatt-hours of renewable wind power annually.
In addition to working with Leeward on the repowering initiative, Siemens Gamesa provides operations and maintenance for the sites.
Filed Under: News, Projects, Repowering
