Sunflower's Wind ResourcesSunflower's involvement with wind power can be traced back to the early 1990s with our participation in the Kansas Electric Utility Research Program (KEURP). Sunflower, along with other Kansas utilities, researched the wind power potential for Kansas by mapping most of the state's wind energy sites. Gray County Wind Farm Sunflower's Member cooperatives, through Mid-Kansas Electric Company, LLC, purchase 50 megawatts of wind energy from the Gray County Wind farm located near Montezuma, Kansas. Smoky Hills Wind Farm TradeWind Energy developed this project for Enel Energy, the largest utility in Italy. Phase 1 took approximately 60 acres of land out of service to build, including all land for roads, turbine foundations, and maintenance buildings. The rest of the approximately 10,000 acres leased for the Phase 1 is farmed and ranched exactly as it was before the project was constructed. All total, both phases, which total 20,000 acres, take only about 2 percent of land out of service for roads, turbine foundations, and maintenance buildings.
With the completion of this project, Sunflower accomplished Governor Sebelius' goal of 10% renewable energy production by 2010.
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Phase 1 is comprised of 56 Vestas 1.8 megawatt turbines that sit atop 80 meter (262 ft.) towers and feature blades of approximately 130 ft, longer than the wing of a Boeing 747 jetliner. Phase 2 consists of 99 General Electric wind turbines that together have a 148.5 megawatt nameplate. The155 wind turbines are said to stand on one of the windiest--if not the windiest areas--in the entire state.
