World Largest Wind
Power Plant
The Roscoe Wind Farm in Roscoe, Texas, owned
and operated by E.ON Climate & Renewables is the world's largest
wind farmwith 627 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 781.5 MW,
which surpasses the nearby 735.5 MW Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center. The
project cost more than $1 billion and provides enough power for more than
250,000 average Texan homes. It is located about 200 miles (320 kilometers)
west of Fort Worth. Coordinates 32°26'44.93"N, 100°34'41.13"W. The
wind farm area spans parts of four Texas counties and covers nearly 100,000
acres, several times the size of Manhattan.
Cliff Etheredge, a local cotton farmer, helped to organize
the project, and in addition to its large size, is also notable for the large
number of individual land owners (as many as 400) who are expected to share in
royalties from the project. Wind farms are helping to revive the local economy
in remote areas of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.
Unlike fossil-fueled power plants, wind farms require no
water and generate no carbon dioxide -- a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that is
a major contributory component for global warming.
Roscoe wind farm construction
The Roscoe wind farm project was built in four phases. Of its
total installed capacity of 781.5MW, about 209MW and 126.5MW are generated in
the phase I and phase II units respectively. Phase III and phase IV together
generate 446MW.
"Roscoe wind farm (RWF)
is the largest onshore wind farm in the world."
Construction work was carried out by leading renewable energy
developer and operator E.ON Climate and Renewables. It is the third wind farm
project carried out by Airtricity in the state of Texas.
The Roscoe wind complex opened in February 2008 upon the
commissioning of phase I. Phases II and III went live in March 2008 and March
2009 respectively. The operations of the first two phases began in September
2008.
Phase IV was completed in October 2009, opening for
operations the same month, along with phase III.
Plant details
The wind farm employs 627 turbines, supplied by Mitsubishi,
Siemens AG and General Electric. From the start of the wind farm's
construction, a turbine was installed at the farm every day until completion.
The turbines installed at the farm range in between 350ft and
415ft tall, and stand 900ft apart. Out of the total number of turbines
employed, 209 were the Mitsubishi 1000A model, with a rated output of 1.0MW.
Distribution
The power generated by the wind farm under phase I will be
supplied to TXU Corporation's subsidiary TXU Wholesale, under a five-year sales
contract. The entire complex is capable of supplying power to 265,000 homes,
while the power generated in its first two phases was distributed to 100,000
homes.
Approximately 375,000t of greenhouse gas emissions will be
saved each year though the use of the wind farm, when compared with plants that
generate fossil fuels.
RWF finance
"Construction on RWF
began in May 2007, and it has been operational since October 2009."
The first phase of the project involved an investment of
$300m. Approximately $1bn was invested in all four phases in total.
GE Energy Financial Services invested 50% of the structured
equity in the 209MW first phase, along with a subsidiary of Wachovia
Corporation. The Roscoe wind farm is the second project that was carried out
jointly by E.ON Climate and Renewables and GE Energy Financial Services in West
Texas. The remaining 50% of the equity is held by E.ON Climate and Renewables.
The Texas power market
Texas has an installed capacity of 7,907MW in wind power
generation. It is the leading state in the US in renewable energy development,
having the highest wind generation capacity in the country.
The American Wind Energy Association stated that about
2,800MW of new generating capacity had been installed in the US during the
first quarter of 2009.
Marketing commentary
E.ON Climate & Renewables operates six wind farms in the
US, five of which are in Texas. RWF hopes to accomplish an additional power
generation of 5,000MW from renewable sources in Texas by 2015.