Comments on: Big Sky Wind Farm in Illinois to get repowering facelift and increase output by 60% https://www.windpowerengineering.com/big-sky-wind-farm-in-illinois-to-get-repowering-facelift-and-increase-output-by-60/ The technical resource for wind power profitability Mon, 20 Sep 2021 10:23:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 By: Fred Golden https://www.windpowerengineering.com/big-sky-wind-farm-in-illinois-to-get-repowering-facelift-and-increase-output-by-60/#comment-651327 Mon, 20 Sep 2021 10:23:05 +0000 https://www.windpowerengineering.com/?p=48801#comment-651327 While they do not state the age of the units being removed, at only 10 – 15 years old, I hope that they can be repurposed, and not just recycled. Installing them in another location, perhaps with more advanced and longer wings would help out some country, and get them wind power.

It looks like these older wind turbines have a 80 meter rotor sweep area, and the replacements will be 110 meter models, of about the same 2.2 MW power output rating, with a reported 60% increase in expected annual electricity output.

Somehow leaving this wind farm alone, and installing the new 100 turbines in a new location might make more electricity in the long run (having the older 100 turbines still putting out some power). Yet it is a matter of getting locals to allow a new wind park, and this one only needs a short study to upgrade the turbines, without replacing any towers, thus very quickly upgrading, VS a year long process to install a new wind park.

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