#180. “Wind”-y City
Posted on | The Agurban
Everyone showed up.
It wasn’t a ribbon cutting ceremony; it wasn’t a ground breaking. It was all about throwing a switch.
Rock Port, MO, became America’s first ever community to be completely powered by wind in April 2008. Rock Port has a population of 1,316, with 715 or so households. Four Suzlon 1.25-MW turbines deliver 5 MW of electricity into the grid that serves the community. It takes winds of up to 9-miles per hour to get the blades of the turbines spinning.
“With wind you need a windy area. Fortunately for northwest Missouri, the bulk of it is here, but there are other places where this can be done,” said Tom Carnahan, president of the Wind Capital Group, one of 3 partners in the Rock Port project.
In addition to Wind Capital Group and the town of Rock Port, John Deere Wind Energy worked with the group to make the project a reality.
We are seeing more and more wind farms cropping up throughout the United States. With increasing energy costs, it makes more and more sense.