The first phase of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm in Indiana is expected to produce up to 200MW of electricity when it is brought online. Horizon Wind Energy is the company behind the development and it has the potential of becoming the company’s largest wind farm with the possibility that it will be expanded to a capacity of up to 1,000MW.

The numbers of the first phase indicate that the wind farm will prevent the emission of 640,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. In terms of the equivalent number of cars, it equates to taking 64,000 cars off the road each year.

The Meadow Lake Wind Farm will also give significant economic benefits to the local community in the form of payments to landowners, well-paying jobs, local spending and annual community investment. Construction of the first phase of the wind farm will create about 400 temporary jobs and 20 permanent, full-time jobs.

A total of 121 wind turbine generators will be erected in farm fields and connected to a new electrical substation for integration into the transmission grid. The project will be completed by October, 2009. The company that will be performing the balance of plant contracting work on the development is Bowen Engineering.