Capital Power recently announced its participation in a groundbreaking 10 year hedge product which protects wind projects’ revenues against the variability of intermittent wind resources,
Siemens receives order for 280-MW wind project from Westar Energy
Siemens has been awarded an order from Westar Energy to supply, install, and provide service for 122 wind turbines for the Western Plains Wind Farm. The project will be located near Spearville, Kansas, approximately 100 miles west of Hutchinson. Turbines installation is scheduled to begin in early summer 2016, with the start of operations expected…
EDF Renewable Energy announces commercial operation of Slate Creek Wind Project
EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) announced that the 150-MW Slate Creek Wind Project in Kansas reached commercial operation in late December. The project, located within Sumner County which is approximately 50 miles south of Wichita, commenced construction of its 75 Vestas 2-MW wind turbines in April, 2015. Great Plains Energy, parent company of Kansas City Power…
Westar Energy expands with wind power from Kingman Wind Farm
Westar Energy has reached an agreement with an affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources to purchase another 200 MWs of Kansas wind energy. The Kansas utility will purchase energy generated at the Kingman Wind Energy Center in Kingman County, which will be in service by early 2017. As part of the transaction, Westar will have the option…
Westar Energy to lower customer costs by adding more Kansas wind energy
More Kansas wind will help power the homes and businesses of Westar Energy’s customers by early 2017. Westar Energy, Kansas’ largest electric utility, recently announced an agreement that will add nearly 300 MWs to its growing wind energy portfolio. In collaboration with Infinity Wind Power, the utility will construct the Western Plains Wind Farm, a 280-MW…
NJR Clean Energy Ventures completes 48.3-MW Kansas wind farm
NJR Clean Energy Ventures (NJRCEV), the unregulated distributed power subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, announced the completion of the Alexander Wind Farm — its third and largest onshore wind project. Located in Rush County, Kansas, approximately 120 miles northwest of Wichita, the $83 million project consists of 21 turbines with a total capacity of 48.3 MW,…
Vestas receives 72-MW turbine order for Marshall Wind Farm in Kansas
Vestas has received a U.S. order for 36 V110-2.0 MW turbines to power the Marshall Wind Farm in Marshall County, Kansas. The order was placed by RPM Access LLC, an independent developer, owner and operator of wind farms in the Midwest. The project’s scope includes supply and commissioning of the wind turbines as well as…
Wärtsilä supplies more flexible generation to the real-time electricity market of Southwestern USA
Wärtsilä has been contracted to supply a 56-megawatt (MW) Smart Power Generation power plant to Coffeyville Municipal Light and Power (CMLP) in Kansas, USA. The power station will consist of three gas-fired Wärtsilä 50SG engines, and is scheduled to start commercial operation in January 2017. The new power plant will improve CMLP’s position in the…
Mortenson Construction to build Slate Creek Wind Project in Kansas
Mortenson Construction’s Wind Energy Group announced its selection as EPC contractor to build the Slate Creek Wind Project by long-term partner, EDF Renewable Energy. Located in Geuda Springs, Kansas, the Slate Creek Wind Project will consist of 75 Vestas 2.0 megawatt (MW) wind turbines. The project marks the 26th wind project Mortenson will construct for…
Tired of reading? Try a Wind Talk podcast
Tired of reading? Me, too. Why not just listen to an insightful Wind Talk Podcast? Here are the last five your peerless editors have recorded with wind-industry luminaries. 1 How data visualization and analytics can improve grid stability. https://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/business-news-projects/data-visualization-and-analytics-software-increases-grid-stability/ 2 Siemens’ windpower CEO discusses 10-MW turbines, energy policy, and domestic manufacturing https://www.windpowerengineering.com/construction/wind-talk-siemens-windpower-ceo-discusses-10-mw-turbines-energy-policy-domestic-manufacturing/ 3 Wind industry…
New poll data shows Kansas supports renewable energy law
The Wind Coalition and the Climate and Energy Project released new poll data showing that Kansans overwhelmingly support the development of renewable energy resources in Kansas and the state’s 2009 renewable energy law. The poll, conducted by North Star Opinion Research, shows that Kansans support increasing renewable energy development and that the state’s Renewable Portfolio…
Turbine OEM wins “cool building” certification
Siemens Energy has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification for its recently opened wind-turbine-nacelle assembly plant in Hutchinson, Kansas, for its environmentally responsible design and efficient operations. The 300,000-square-foot facility is Siemens’ first LEED Gold certified production facility in the U.S. It also holds the distinction of being the first…
Kansas aviation research center benefits wind energy industry
As the state of Kansas diversifies its historically aviation-based economy to include industries like wind energy and bioscience, Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is following suit.
Plenty of room for wind power as gov expands tall-grass area
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to double the size of the “Tallgrass Heartland” area in the Flint Hills. A voluntary agreement recently worked out with landowners, power companies, and preservationists protects the area from future wind farm development by holding almost 11,000 mi2 of the only remaining expanse of tall-grass prairie in the United States.…
Kansas utility to add 200 MW from wind
Kansas City Power & Light is blowing up its wind power portfolio by more than 65% by agreeing to buy power from a project slated for Western Kansas. The Kansas City-based electric utility signed a power purchase agreement for about 131 MW from the CPV Renewable Energy Co. LLC wind farm in Cimarron, Kan., on…
Kansas City Power & Light Co. gets $34.8M rate increase
KCP&L can’t seem to stay out of the news. The latest is a requested a $34.8 million rate increase which was approved by Missouri regulators. The Missouri Public Service Commission said it has recently granted the utility’s request for the increase, which will add $4.85 a month just more than 5% to electricity costs for…
Where the winds are – in Kansas
The Department of Energy’s Wind Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published a wind resource map for the state of Kansas showing a predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-m up. It’s presented with a spatial resolution of about 2 km (interpolated to a finer scale for display). Areas with annual average…
Building a Kansas sized wind-data network
Clean Line Energy Partners LLC of Houston, Texas and WindPole Ventures in Arlington, Mass. Say they’ll build a wind-resource-monitoring network in southwestern Kansas to support the planned Grain Belt Express Clean Line transmission project, which will deliver thousands of MW of low cost, renewable energy from Kansas to Southeastern Missouri and points farther east. Clean…