Scottish Farm lands contract to build wind farms in U.S.
Staff Writer |
Scottish Power plans to build two winds farms in the United States that could eventually power 400,000 homes.
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The subsidiary of the Iberdrola Spanish utility company announced plans to finish constructions of the windmill off the coast of Massachusetts by 2022 and North Carolina by 2025.
The winning bid's amount wasn't announced.
"We as a country are seen to be the leaders in this type of technology," Keith Anderson, Scottish Power's chief corporate officer, said in a statement. "It's great to be creating opportunities and developing skills in the U.K., but also to see these being exported."
He said "colossal farms" are possible because of the "huge amount of land" available in the United States.
Each site is the size of the company's entire portfolio in the United Kingdom.
The Vineyard Wind project is 115 square miles located 14 miles south of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
The location in North Carolina wasn't listed but its eventual power is 2,500 megawatts compared with 1,500 MW in Massachusetts. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.
"The addition of North Carolina's first utility-scale wind project brings U.S. installed wind power capacity to 84,143 MW across 41 states," according to a report from the American Wind Energy Association on May 2.
That total wind capacity is enough to power about 8.4 million homes.
Texas is the No. 1 state for installed wind power capacity.
ScottishPower Renewables now has 30 operational windfarm sites producing over 1,600 megawatts, according to its website. ■
Modified arctic air combined with a moisture-laden area of low pressure along the Gulf Coast will continue to allow for a broad area of winter weather impacts from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Southeast today into early Saturday morning.