The Wild Horse Wind Farm is a 229-megawatt 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...

 that generates energy for Puget Sound Energy

Puget Sound Energy

Puget Sound Energy is Washington state's oldest local energy utility providing electrical power and natural gas in the Puget Sound region of the northwest United States...

 that consists of one hundred twenty-seven 1.8-megawatt Vestas V80 turbines on a 8600 acres (3,480.3 ha) site in Kittitas County, Washington, 15 miles (24.1 km) east of Ellensburg, Washington

Ellensburg, Washington

Ellensburg is a city in, and the county seat of, Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 18,174 at the 2010 census. The population was 18,250 at 2011 Estimate from Office of Financial Management. Ellensburg is located just east of the Cascade Range on I-90 and is known as the...

.
The turbines are placed on the high open ridge tops of Whiskey Dick Mountain

Whiskey Dick Mountain

Whiskey Dick Mountain is located east of Ellensburg, in Washington state. It is in in the, , Whiskey Dick Unit of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area. It is the highest point on windy ridge alone which the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility is sited...

, which was
chosen for its energetic wind resource, remote location, and access to nearby power transmission lines. The towers are 221 feet (67.4 m) tall, and each rotor is 129 feet (39.3 m) long, with a total rotor diameter of 264 feet (80.5 m), larger than the wingspan of a Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

 747

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

. The turbines can begin producing electricity with wind speeds as low as 9 mi/h and reach full production at 31 mi/h. They shut down at sustained wind speeds of 56 mi/h. Average annual output is about 642,000 MW·h.

The wind farm was built by EDP Renewables, a subsidiary of Energias de Portugal S.A. (EDP), a world leading Portuguese utility. Construction began in October 2005 and was completed in December 2006.
There has been an application from Puget Sound Energy to add an additional 25 turbines. If approved these are planned to be active in 2010.

The Wild Horse Wind Farm also has a Renewable Energy Center that is open to the public everyday April 1 thru November 30 from 9:00-5:30.

External links

• Construction History of Wild Horse Wind Power Project, acpubs.com
• Wild Horse Wind Farm, Horizon Wind Energy
• Expansion plans, nwsource.com