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Existing Kansas Wind Farms

Map of Existing and Proposed wind projects in Kansas (PDF-497 kb), Source: Kansas Energy Information Network, May 2007.

Elk River Wind Project

Butler County, Kansas - Kansas' largest wind farm. This 150 MW wind farm came on-line in December 2005.  A project of Elk River Wind Farm LLC of Larkspur, CA. HMH Energy Resources of Larkspur, Calif. and Greenlight Energy, Inc. of Charlottesville, Virginia  co-developed the project and sold it to PPM Energy, Inc. of Portland, OR.  The one hundred 1.5 MW wind turbines are located several miles South of Beaumont.

On Dec. 13, 2004, it was announced that Empire District Electric utility of Joplin, MO, had contracted with PPM Energy, Inc. to buy 150 MW of electricity from Elk River.

Originally, the Butler County Planning Commission approved the project 5-2 at their Jan. 7, 2003 meeting. The Butler County Commission approved the project, 3-2, at their Jan. 28 meeting. On Nov. 24, 2003, a judge ordered a new vote on the project after throwing out the County Commission's previous decision. On Dec. 16, 2003 the Commission took another vote and approved the project 3-2. (May 2006)

Gray County Wind Farm

Gray County, Kansas - Kansas' first large-scale wind farm was erected near the town of Montezuma by FPL Energy in 2001. It produces 112 MW of electricity from 170 Vestas V-47 wind turbines.

Kansas-Smith Wind projects

Meade County, Kansas - In August 2005, Enertech Wind Systems of Wichita contracted and installed the two-turbine project totaling 240 kw at the Kansas-Smith hog farm in Southwestern Kansas near the town of Plains. The 120 kw Vestas V-20 wind turbines were remanufactured and commissioned by Halus Power Systems of Hayward, California. The energy produced is used to off-set the hog farms' electricity consumption.

Spearville Wind Project

Ford County, Kansas - A project of enXco will be 100.5 MW in size, located north of Hwy 50/56 near Spearville. The Ford Co. Zoning Board approved the project 5-0 on August 25, 2003. The Ford County Commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit and development plan for the project on September 15, 2003. It was announced on December 13, 2005, that enXco will develop and construct the project and KCP&L will own it. The project consists of 67 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines. Construction began in April 2006, finished in August 2006 with the formal dedication planned for October 2006. (Aug. 31, 2006)

Westar Wind Farm

Pottawatomie County, Kansas - This project includes Kansas' first commercial-scale wind turbines. In 1999, Westar (then Western Resources) erected two 600 KW turbines in the shadow of the Jeffrey Energy Center coal plant.

Proposed Kansas Wind Projects

(Projects are listed alphabetically by county)

Deer Creek Wind Project

Anderson County, Kansas - A 200 MW proposed project of TradeWind Energy of Lenexa, KS. Few details of this project have been reported. It's not expected that this project will be built during 2007.

Barber County Wind Project

Barber County, Kansas - A 250 MW wind project is being studied in Barber County. There is no other information on this project at this point. (July 6, 2006)

Leon Wind Project

Butler County, Kansas - A proposed joint project of Kansas Wind Power LLC (now TradeWind Energy), a Kansas-based company with offices in Lawrence and Overland Park, and Padoma Wind Power of La Jolla, CA. The plan was for 68 wind turbines to be located 3.5 miles south of Leon, 30 miles east of Wichita. Butler County Planning Commission approved the project 6-0. The County Commission denied permission for this project, 4-1. A lawsuit was filed to challenge this decision, though by 2005, it appears this project is dead.

Rosalia Wind Project

Butler County, Kansas - A proposed 73 turbine project of Zilkha Renewable Energy (now Horizon Wind Energy) to be located East of Rosalia, on either side of US-54. The project proposal  was withdrawn and is currently on hold. (2006)

Chase County Wind Project

Chase County, Kansas - A project of FPL Energy of Juno Beach, FL. Few details of the project were reported, though the project was to be built in Southern Chase County as early as Fall 2004. See the September 2 newspaper article in the Chase County Leader-News (PDF - 1.7 MB) for more. The Oct. 4 Wichita Eagle reported that FPL has shelved the plans for this project for now.

Cloud County Wind Project

Cloud County, Kansas - A proposed project of Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, Texas. The proposed project will involve 59 landowners in a 100- to 150-megawatt wind farm on 20,000-plus acres in the southeastern part of the county. The County Commission has approved a development agreement with Horizon.

Elk River II Wind Project

Cowley and Elk Counties, Kansas - A proposed project of Greenlight Energy, Inc. of Charlottesville, Virginia. The project could have as many as 167 wind turbines generating from 200-250 MW of electricity.  Two-thirds of the turbines are planned for Cowley County and will be located in the Northeast corner of the county. Both Cowley and Elk Counties are unzoned.

Caney River Wind Project

Elk County, Kansas - A project of TradeWind Energy of Lenexa, KS. Few details of this project have been reported. It's not expected that this project will be built during 2005.

Ellis County Wind Project

Ellis County, Kansas - Originally, a proposed 100-200 MW project of Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. (DISGEN) of Evergreen, Colorado, which was bought out by CPV Wind, which was bought out by Iberdrola Renewable Energies USA of Spain. (April 12, 2007)

Smoky Hills Wind Farm

Ellsworth/Lincoln Counties, Kansas - A proposed project of Lenexa-based TradeWind Energy will be located on the Ellsworth-Lincoln County line. The project will involve nearly 20,000 acres, 120 to 170 turbines each capable of producing from 1½ to 2 megawatts each. The total size of the project will be between 150-250 MW. On Dec. 13, 2006, it was announced that Sunflower Electric of Hays will purchase 50.4 MW of power from this wind farm.  On Jan. 5, 2007, it was announced that Kansas City Board of Public Utilities would purchase an additional 25 MW. The wind farm should be constructed and producing power by the end of 2007. (January 8, 2007)

Geary County Wind Ranch

Geary County, Kansas - A proposed 150 MW project of Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. (DISGEN) of Evergreen, Colorado.

Western Trail Wind Farm

Ford and Kiowa Counties, Kansas - A 400 MW project of Horizon Wind Energy. This project will be located in Ford and Kiowa Counties. (April 2007)

Hamilton County Wind Project

Hamilton County, Kansas - A 135 MW project is being studied in Hamilton County. This project entered the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) queue for a feasibility study in March 2007. No more information is known at this time.

Shooting Star Wind Project

Kiowa County, Kansas - A 105 MW project of Clipper Windpower Inc. of Carpinteria, CA. The proposed project location is South of Mullinville with plans to use 42 of the 2.5 MW Clipper Windpower C-93 wind turbines. Status of project is unknown.

Eagle Rock Wind Farm

McPherson County, Kansas - A proposed project of Gamesa Energía Southwest, an Austin, Texas based subsidiary of the Spanish Company Gamesa Energía. The project is planned for the Northeastern part of the county and could be between 100-150 MW. McPherson County passed wind turbine siting guidelines in Nov. 2005, which are available here. These guidelines were later revised. (Jan. 2007)

Nemaha County Wind Project

Nemaha County, Kansas - A 135 MW project is being studied in Nemaha County. This project entered the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) queue for a feasibility study in March 2007. No further information is known at this time.

Pratt County Wind Project

Pratt County, Kansas - A 150 MW wind project is being studied in Pratt County. There is no other information on this project at this point. (July 6, 2006)

Rawlins County Wind Project

Rawlins County, Kansas - A 300 MW project is being studied in Rawlins County. This project entered the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) queue for a feasibility study in March 2007. No more information is known at this time.

British Pastures Wind Project

Riley County, Kansas - A proposed project of Orion Energy of Oakland, CA. The project will be located in SE Riley County. There was a moratorium on wind farm applications in Riley County through Oct. 7, 2004.

Sherman County Community Wind Project

Sherman County, Kansas - ReNewable Energy Resources, a wind energy development company out of Tennessee, announced in Feb. 2005, that they would build a 10-turbine, 6 MW wind project 10 miles southwest of Goodland using NEPC India wind turbines. Originally, this project was scheduled to break ground in Summer 2005 and be completed by November with the City of Goodland purchasing some of the power and a group of irrigators purchasing the rest. However, due to delays there will now be 4 turbines generating 3 MW for the city of Goodland by Summer 2006 using wind turbines from Denmark.

Sherman County Wind Project

Sherman County, Kansas - An 81 MW wind farm is being proposed for Sherman County, southwest of the city of Goodland.  Competitive Power Ventures of Lakewood, Colorado is proposing the project, which will compete for the Sunflower Electric RFP, that was issued in August 2006.  (August 30, 2006)

Conestoga Winds

Stevens County, Kansas - A project of HMH Energy Resources of Larkspur, CA. The project has been proposed for up to 200 MW. Of this, 50 MW were recently proposed to Springfield City Utilities in an October 2005 RFP.

Colby Wind project

Thomas County, Kansas - A proposed project of JW Prairie Windpower LLC of Lawrence. The project is proposed for one mile south of I-70 and will include 8 wind turbines near Colby. John Deere may be the corporate owner for the first 10 years, in order to take advantage of the Federal production tax credit. After that, ownership could resort to the community, utility or individuals. Midwest Energy has sought wind energy proposals and this is one of four that is still in consideration (4/23/06).

Thomas County Wind project

Thomas County, Kansas - A 130 MW proposed wind farm of Air Stream Energy of Scottsdale, Arizona. The proposed project would be built between the towns of Colby and Mingo in Thomas County. This project was proposed to Westar Energy Request for Proposals in April 2007. (4/3/07)

Municipalities Wind Project

Several Towns - A project proposed by Kansas Wind Power LLC (now TradeWind Energy), where ten or more municipalities would have a relatively small number of wind turbines (10-20), rather than one huge wind farm.  By "spreading the wealth", multiple small projects can achieve the same scale of economy as a larger project, but without the limitations of transmission constraints.  Cities and towns that have been approached (as reported in local newspapers) include Anthony, Augusta,  Coffeyville, Greensburg, Herington, Hoisington, Larned, La Crosse, Lincoln,  Russell, and Winfield. See the TradeWind Energy web-site for more info.

Munkers Creek Windfarm

Wabaunsee & Morris Counties, Kansas - A 100-200 MW project proposed by JW Prairie Windpower LLC near Alta Vista. The Wabaunsee County Commission issued a decision on June 28, 2004 that effectively will not allow the construction of wind farms in the county.  This project also falls in the "Heart of the Flint Hills" (PDF, 1.7 MB)  area, that Governor Kathleen Sebelius' has discouraged wind farm developments.  Project awaits a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). (June 2006)

Wichita County Wind Project

Wichita County, Kansas - A 99 MW project is being studied in Wichita County. This project entered the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) queue for a feasibility study in March 2007. No more information is known at this time.

Sunflower Electric Wind Farm

Wichita County, Kansas - A project originally proposed in 2002-3 for 60-75 wind turbines by wind developer Renewable Energy Systems and Sunflower Electric Power Corp. utility. It was announced in July 2006 that this project has been shelved. The originally planned location was for Wichita County near Marienthal. (July 10, 2006)

Other Regional Wind Projects

Other regional wind projects - Information on wind projects in  Missouri and Nebraska. (KEIN)

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Last modified: 05/04/2007
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