With a total installed capacity of approximately 200MW, the wind farm is expected to provide clean power to approximately 60,000 households. With a diameter of 101mt, the rotor of the new turbine has a swept area of 8,000sqmt.
Delivery is expected to begin in May 2010 and the wind farm is expected to be commissioned in the fall of 2010. Siemens also will provide service and maintenance for two years.
Steve Trenholm, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables North America, said: “We are delighted to partner with Siemens in the next phase of our Papalote Creek II wind farm in south Texas.
“This project will create more than 300 temporary jobs and provide an investment of more than $300m to the local tax base. E.ON is pleased to make this investment and help further the growth of the US renewables market.”
E.ON and Siemens have partnered on several US wind farm projects in the past. Siemens supplied 54 2.3MW units for E.ON’s Forest Creek wind farm near Big Spring, Texas, in 2006 and 55 2.3MW wind turbines for the Champion wind farm in Nolan County, Texas, in 2007.
Siemens is currently constructing its wind turbine assembly facility in Hutchinson, Kansas, which is scheduled to become operational in December 2010. The 300,000sqft wind turbine nacelle facility is expected to employ up to approximately 400 ‘green-collar’ employees.
Siemens also recently expanded its 600,000sqft blade manufacturing facilities in Fort Madison, Iowa, which it opened in 2007. The blades for the Papalote Creek II wind power plant will be manufactured in Fort Madison, Iowa.
