VA’s first wind farm to begin construction
The Daily Press reports that construction is set to begin by early summer on Virginia’s first wind power farm. The wind farm in Highland County will consist of 19 turbines and is expected produce 38 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 15,000 homes. The $60 million project will be constructed on 220 acres on a 4,400-foot ridge in far Southwest Virginia. Construction could be completed as early as the end of the year.
While the Highland County wind farm will be Virginia’s first large-scale wind power project, it will soon be joined by two larger wind farms in Wise and Tazewell Counties. The Wise and Tazewell Counties wind farms are in the early planning stages and could generate as much as 25o megawatts of electricity, more than six times the capacity of the Highland County farm. Developers and wind power advocates are proposing a $1 billion monster wind farm 12 to 15 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach that would consist of 200 turbines, more than 10 times the size of the Highland County farm.
