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A wind of economic development is blowing through Pike County, Illinois. Officials with the Prairie Power Energy Group in Jacksonville announced plans to build a $60 million dollar wind farm west of Pittsfield.
KHQA found out where it will be and what it will mean for your electric bill for this KHQA FactFinder report.
You'll see a lot more turbines on the horizon West of Pittsfield in the next couple of years. But instead of crops, Prairie Power will harvest wind with 20 new turbines.
Pike County was chosen because the land lays in such a way that the wind energy is conducive to electricity generation.
The turbines in the new wind farm will stand 150 feet high and they'll look much like the one located on the West side of Pittsfield.
When the farm is up and running in 2011, the wind farm will produce 30 mega watts of electricity at full capacity. That's enough power to provide 16,000 rural electric customers with electricity continuously.
From the turbines, power will run through transmission lines to eleven member electrical cooperatives all over Illinois. Adams electrical cooperative in Camp Point is one of the co-ops to benefit. It's customers will see their bills hold steady or go down because of the wind farm here.
Robert Reynolds is the Senior Director of Planning and operations for Prairie Power. He says this project is a win win for everyone.
Are you riding the green wave?
Reynolds said, "We're certainly interested in that but we're also aware of rising energy prices and wind is free."
It's also a win for Pike county which will see 15 million dollars in property tax revenue coming in throughout the course of it's operation.
Stephanie Sorrells, Coordinator of Pike County Economic Development Corporation said, "By bringing in this wind energy project, we're hoping to bring more attention to Pike County and //hopefully more projects will come to our area."
And that means more jobs, more local revenue and tourism dollars from folks coming in to see the turbines.
Construction is set to begin in 2009 with a completion date two years later in 2011.
By the way, there have been other plans to bring wind energy to this area before that were never brought to fruition.
Officials say this one is a sure thing because Prairie Power actually owns the transmission lines already in place along the road where this farm will be built.
