December 1, 2009

Top Plants: Fowler Ridge Wind Farm, Benton County, Indiana

Angela Neville, JD

Owners and Operators: Dominion and BP Wind Energy

The tractors and combines on Indiana’s farms are getting some competition from a new harvesting technology — powerful turbines that harvest wind. This March the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm opened its first phase, which consists of 222 wind turbines with a total capacity of 400 MW. Phase II is currently under construction and will use 133 wind turbines with a total capacity of 200 MW. A future, third phase will add another 150 MW and give the completed facility a total capacity of 750 MW, which will make it one of the largest wind farms in the world.

Working together to reap the benefits of Indiana’s newest cash crop, Dominion and BP Wind Energy are using hundreds of wind turbines at the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm to harvest the state’s plentiful wind resources for electricity generation. The project will be built in multiple phases.

The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm’s first phase, which is located in Benton County about 90 miles northwest of Indianapolis, became fully operational in March 2009 (Figure 1). Phase I uses 222 wind turbines — 182 Vestas V-82 1.65-MW turbines and 40 Clipper C-96 2.5-MW turbines — for a total capacity of 400 MW. BP Wind Energy and Dominion are partners for 301 MW of Phase I, and BP retains sole ownership of 99 MW. The second phase of the project, to be located west of the existing wind farm, will use 133 GE 1.5-MW wind turbine generators and is expected to be online in the first quarter of 2010. It will be a partnership of BP Wind Energy and Sempra Generation.


1.    Green acres. Located in western Indiana farming country, the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm Phase I uses 222 wind turbines for a total capacity of 400 MW. Courtesy: Dominion and BP Wind Energy