|
Wind Farm to sprout in Fayette
Wednesday, March 14, 2001
By Frank Reeves, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A private developer plans to build a wind-powered generating plant
in Fayette County that will be capable of producing enough electricity
for 5,700 homes.
Mill Run Windpower LLC intends to build the 15 megawatt "wind
farm," as the developers call it, along a mile of ridge-top pasture
running through Springfield and Stewart, about 40 miles southeast of
Pittsburgh. Construction is expected to begin early this spring.
When completed in the fall, the $18 million wind farm will generate
more electricity than any such facility in the eastern United States,
the developers said. Currently, the largest wind farm in Pennsylvania
is in Garrett, Somerset County. The 10.4-megawatt power plant, developed
for GreenMountain Energy, can produce enough electricity to power about
2,500 homes.
Mill Run Windpower is a joint venture of Atlantic Renewable Energy
Corp., based in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., and Houston-based
Zilkha Renewable Energy Corp., which owns wind energy projects in the
United States, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica.
The wind-powered turbines, which will be used to generate electricity
at the Mill Run facility, are descendants of an ancient technology.
For centuries, wind power has been used to grind wheat and draw water
from wells dug deep into the earth.
More recently, windmill farms have been cropping up in California and
other places as a lower-cost, more environmentally friendly way to produce
electricity, though to date, wind energy represents less than 1 percent
of the nation's energy production.
The Mill Run power plant will consist of 10 turbines, each capable
of generating 1.5 megawatts of electricity, sitting atop towers that
are 231 feet tall. The span of the turbines will nearly equal the height
of the towers.
About 52 percent of the electricity used in the United States is generated
from coal-fired plants. In Pennsylvania, the fourth largest coal-producing
state, the figure is about 60 percent.
Although plentiful, coal has its drawbacks. Mining coal often scars
the environment, and coal-fired power plants emit tons of pollutants
into the air.
Advocates of wind power note that wind is a renewable resource, and
wind-driven turbines produce electricity with no harmful emissions.
The electricity produced at the Mill Run facility will have a ready-made
market. Exelon Power Team, a division of Exelon Generation, has agreed
to buy the electricity from the Mill Run wind for 20 years.
Exelon Generation was formed last year following the merger of Philadelphia-based
Peco Energy Co. and Chicago's Unicom Corp.
back-->
|
