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Windpower

© Peggy Hoehne

Wisconsin pioneers built windmills to pump water and for power to run machines. These windmills were in use until about the 1950s. Today windmills are having a comeback, but now they are multi-million dollar machines providing power for millions of people. Look at the new era of wind farms springing up on the Wisconsin countryside.

The first of the new style windmills, or wind turbines, were built in early 1998 on a farm near Green Bay. The two wind turbines are owned and operated by Wisconsin Public Service Corporation which provides electricity and natural gas products and services to residential, farm, commercial and industrial customers in northeastern Wisconsin and an adjacent portion of Upper Michigan. They were erected to determine the feasibility of generating electricity from the wind in Wisconsin.

Three more wind farms went into production in June of 1999. The first was at Rosiere in Kewaunee County. These seventeen turbines are owned by MG&E (Madison Gas & Electric). The 11.22-megawatt wind farm produces enough electricity to power 3,300 homes.

Saturday, June 26, 1999, fourteen large wind turbines began making electricity for customers of Wisconsin Public Service. This 9 megawatt project is in the Kewaunee County Town of Lincoln. This project enabled WPS to comply with the Governor's Electric Reliability Law of 1998 (1997 Wisconsin Act 204). When operating at full power, the wind turbines should be able to power 3,600 typical homes.

To enable the Wisconsin Energy to meet its self-imposed goal of using renewable energy for 5 percent of its retail sales by 2011, it erected two 660-kilowatt wind-power turbines south of Fond du Lac. Going on-line in June of 1999, these will provide only a very small portion of the power needed for the company to meet its goal.

WE also buys 25 megawatts from the Montfort Wind Farm in Iowa County, which went on-line in July of 2001. The Montfort Wind Farm, owned by FPL Energy, has 20 turbines and is the largest in Wisconsin, providing energy to both WE and Alliant Energy. The 20-turbine installation provides enough clean, renewable electricity to serve approximately 6,000 average Wisconsin homes each year.

Construction began on the Montfort Wind Farm in December of 2000 with grading of construction roads and crane pads for the first 17 turbines. In January of 2001 foundation and electrical collection work commenced. By February 2001 the grading and foundation work was completed for first 17 turbines (25.5 MW); tower and turbine erections begin; and the first turbines came on-line.

old style windmill		row of wind turbines	windmill during construction
an old windmille

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