The King Mountain Wind Farm is a 278.2 megawatt (MW)
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
in
Upton County, Texas
Upton County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,308. Its county seat is Rankin. The county was created in 1887 and later organized in 1910. It is named for two br ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. 214
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
1.3 MW
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s are sited in rows along the south-eastern and north-western edges of a
mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...
surrounded by deep ravines. The project was completed in December 2001. Annual electricity production is more than 750
GW·h
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bi ...
.
[ King Mountain Wind Farm]
/ref> The wind farm is owned by FPL Energy and the customers for the electricity generated are Reliant Energy
Reliant Energy is an American energy company based in Houston, Texas.
History
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Reliant Energy, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, is one of the largest Texas electricity providers serving over 1.5 million Texans. Relian ...
(198.9 MW), Austin Energy
Austin Energy is a publicly owned utility providing electrical power to the city of Austin, Texas and surrounding areas. Established in 1895, the utility is a department of the City of Austin and returns its profits to the city's general fund to ...
(76.7 MW) and Texas-New Mexico Power Company (2.6 MW).
Dust, sand and high temperatures place extraordinary demands on the wind turbines. Consequently, the design was modified for the desert-like conditions, providing additional cooling and protection against wind-blown sand.[
]
See also
*Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2021, 379.8 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 9.23% of electricity in the ...
*Wind power in Texas
Wind power in Texas, a portion of total energy in Texas, consists of over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW (as of 2020).
References
External links
Renewable Energy Systems
{{Wind power in the United States
Energy infrastructure completed in 2001
Wind farms in Texas
Buildings and structures in Upton County, Texas