World's Largest Wind Farm Opens in Roscoe
Chicago-based E.ON Climate and Renewables completed what it has called the world’s largest wind farm outside of Sweetwater near the community of Roscoe.
The Roscoe wind complex has an installed capacity of 781.5 megawatts, generating enough electricity to power more than 230,000 homes.
According to E.ON, completing the wind farm required more than $1 billion, coordination with more than 300 landowners and management of more than 500 workers.
The project spans parts of four Texas counties and covers nearly 100,000 acres. The wind farm has a total of 627 wind turbines manufactured by Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens.
The wind farm produces enough to produce green electricity for 265,000 Texas households. The first two of Roscoe’s four phases entered service in September 2008.
Five of our the company’s six U.S. wind farms are in Texas.
In the past three years, the United States has surpassed Europe to become the world leader in wind power. According to an estimate by the American Wind Energy Association, the U.S. has added 7.5 gigawatts of new capacity, increasing its total capacity to 24 GW.
Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Texas leads the nation’s wind power production with more than 8,600 MW of wind generation operating in the state as of Jan. 1.
