USA’s largest onshore wind farm is under construction

North American renewable energy company, Invenergy, and General Electric Renewable Energy, have begun construction on what will be the USA’s largest onshore wind farm, of 2 GW.

The Wind Catcher wind farm, located in Oklahoma, will host 800 General Electric turbines once completed, and should save energy users a total of $7 billion over 25 years.

The project will consist of 800 General Electric 2.5 MW turbines- these are the latest wind turbine model produced by GE and have increased energy efficiency.  

Once operational, it is predicted that these turbines will provide clean energy to over 1.1 million utility customers across 4 U.S states.  

Oklahoma has a high potential capacity for wind power, which makes it an ideal location for the project; in 2016 Oklahoma’s installed wind generation capacity was 6,000 megawatts, and supplied roughly a quarter of the state’s generated electricity.

According to Energy Live News, the project will support 4,000 direct jobs for each year of its construction, and 80 permanent jobs once it goes live in 2020.

The project is part of a larger, $4.5 billion project that includes a planned 350 mile long high voltage power line.

The wind farm will be the second largest wind farm in the world, after the non-operational Gansu Wind Farm in China, which has 7,000 wind turbines with the ability to generate enough energy to power a small country.  

China’s plans to dominate the global renewable energy market are demonstrated by the fact that one of every three wind turbines in the world is now in China.

To receive the weekly news from Climate Action straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.