The Mendota Hills Wind Farm is a wind farm

Wind farm

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 near the village of Paw Paw

Paw Paw, Illinois

Paw Paw is a village in Lee County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census the village was home to 870 people, up from 852 at the 2000 census. It was settled in the mid 19th century and by 1878 the village had a railroad connection. Paw Paw is home to a house which is listed on the U.S...

 in Lee County. It consists of 63 operating wind turbine

Wind turbine

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

s. Each wind turbine stands 214 ft (65.23 m) tall and has three 85 ft (35.91 m) long blades. The wind farm was constructed from June 2003 to November 24, 2003. Mendota Hills was the first utility-scale wind farm in the state of Illinois.

Description

The Mendota Hills Wind Farm consists of 63 Gamesa

Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica

Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica , is a manufacturing company principally involved in the fabrication of wind turbines and the construction of wind farms....

 G52-800 kW wind turbines, each costing around US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1 million. Each turbine stands 214 ft (65.23 m) tall and has a diameter of 171 ft (52.12 m) across the rotor, the two ton rotors spin at 25 rpm. Each of the three blades measure 83 ft (25.91 m) long. The turbine towers are spread out over 2200 acres (8.9 km²) of Lee County, Illinois, near the village of Paw Paw and adjacent to Interstate 39

Interstate 39

Interstate 39 is a highway in the midwestern United States. I-39 runs from Normal, Illinois at Interstate 55 to Highway 29 in Rothschild, Wisconsin, approximately six miles south of Wausau. I-39 was designed to replace US Highway 51, which in the early 1980s was one of the busiest two-lane...

. The wind farm is owned and operated by Navitas Energy. Energy produced at Mendota Hills is sold to Commonwealth Edison

Commonwealth Edison

Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...

. Each tower has a 0.82 megawatt capacity giving a total capacity at Mendota Hills Wind Farm of 51.66 megawatts. The site produces enough power (approximately 110 million kilowatt hours annually) to power about 13,000 homes.

History

The Mendota Hills Wind Farm's beginnings are rooted in the spring of 2002 when land owners were first approached about the wind towers. For the two years previous to that wind metering

Wind resource assessment

Wind resource assessment is the process by which wind power developers estimate the future energy production of a wind farm. Accurate wind resource assessments are crucial to the successful development of wind farms.- History :...

 had been taking place in the area where the wind farm is located today. Construction could only begin, in June 2003, after a series of environmental and archaeological tests and approval from the Lee County Zoning Board. Construction on the wind farm was complete by November 2003 and the Mendota Hills Wind Farm officially went online on November 24, 2003. Landowners and farmers are compensated by the developer, Navitas Energy of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, on a contractual basis. Most landowners are paid US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1,200 to $1,500 per megawatt of electricity produced on each tower.