Central Illinois Wind Farms

Central Illinois Wind Farms

A few weeks ago I was driving down Veterans Parkway and saw one of those very kool looking 120’ blades for a windmill. Not having much of a life, I decided to fallow it and see where they are building this wind farm I’ve been hearing about. So I get on Route 9 and drive for about 8 miles and off to my right I see these giant wind mills. I do have to say that the site is pretty awesome to see.

So now I come home and decide to look on the internet and see if I can find out more information about these things like how big are they, how much power will they produce, how many will there be, and how much energy will they create for our county. Well I did find a few articles on the “Twin Groves Wind Farm” and the “Blackstone Wind Farm” (Building begins in 2008). They will build 240 towers and they will generate 1.65 megawatts each with a total of 396 megawatts of combined power, which is pretty good because that should power about 120,000 homes. To me that’s awesome! ! ! Where do I plug in at?

Now for the shocking news. . . We will not get any of the power generated by the two wind farms being built in the area. Both farms are being built to send power to the Chicago area (Windy city). What the hell? ? ? Our electric bills are going up somewhere around 50% and I would think it would be short term to help build these towers and they get turned on. Ha! Boy was I wrong. . . So you’re telling me that with all of this flat boring farm land we have between B/N and Chicago that they couldn’t build them closer to Chicago and or give us our own wind farm? Does anyone but me have anything to say about this? ? ? How do they get to use our county to power Chicago? Shouldn’t we get a portion of the power generated?

Here are a few links with information on the local wind farms:

Horizon Wind Farms Wind farm construction to begin Twin Groves Wind Farm