World’s second-largest wind farm to open in Oklahoma

Chicago-based Invenergy has joined forces with GE Renewable Energy to build the Wind Catcher facility in Oklahoma. Comprising 800 2.5MW GE wind turbines, the windfarm, being built in the Oklahoma panhandle, is expected to be fully operational by 2020.

The windfarm is part of a much larger project known as the Wind Catcher Energy Connection. Costing some $4.5bn, the project includes an extra-high voltage power line around 350 miles long that will connect the wind farm to some 1.1 million consumers in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Invenergy is asking utility regulators in those states to approve plans for the windfarm to be bought by the subsidiaries of generation and transmission company American Electric Power (AEP) which serve the region once it is completed; the plan is that those companies, Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and South Western Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), would then build the power line part of the project.