The largest wind farm in West Virginia is currently entering the last stages of Phase I construction in Grant County. The project will come at a cost of $300 million and is jointly owned by Shell WindEnergy and Dominion Resources under the project name NedPower. This first phase consists of 82 wind turbines with a planned 40 turbines making up the second phase.

The project is running well behind schedule due to added construction required for the bases and because of the wind conditions. The construction cranes can’t operate if the wind gusts above 25 mph.

Each turbine towers are constructed in four sections that range from 65 to 90 feet in length and the turbine blades are 145 feet in length.

The turbines are made by Gamesa, a company with headquarters in Spain. The turbines the company is installing at Mount Storm are 2 megawatts and the cost is roughly $1 million per megawatt. This gives the Mount Storm Wind Farm a capacity of 244MW. The first phase should go into operation early in 2008 in groups of 5 or 6 turbines activated at a time.

The second phase of the project, which is described as the second largest east of the Mississippi River, will begin as the weather improves. That will be the installation of another 40 turbines south of the current location.

Oh, by the way, the opposition and criticism has been widespread as far as this project is concerned and, from my distant eye, appears more than justified. For one of the best short critical summaries take a look at the July post by the National Wind Watch site.

To read about more wind power developments, visit the Wind Power page.

If anyone connected with the Mount Storm Wind Farm project is aware of any updates to the details on this page please contact me so I can make the appropriate changes.