Bright Stalk Wind Farm will be located 20 miles northeast of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Located entirely within McLean County, the wind farm will complement the area’s corn and soybean fields, providing local communities and farmers with a stable, drought-resistant cash crop in the form of property taxes and landowner lease payments.
Bright Stalk Wind Farm will have an installed capacity of 205 megawatts (MW) – enough to power over 71,000 average Illinois homes with clean energy each year.
Bright Stalk Wind Farm yields significant economic benefits to the community in the form of payments to landowners, local spending, and annual community investment.
Bright Stalk represents a capital investment of approximately $348 million and will pay up to $2.6 million in per year in local taxes. The project will create hundreds of full-time equivalent jobs during construction as well as several permanent jobs. Through the project’s lifecycle, millions of dollars will be spent within 50 miles of the wind farm.
Bright Stalk Wind Farm will save more than 314 million gallons of water each year and displaces carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants, a major contributor to climate change. Wind energy also enhances air quality by helping to mitigate the health effects of harmful air pollutants.
Bright Stalk Wind Farm is compatible with other land uses and provides a stable form of income to local landowners. Millions of dollars will be paid to the wind farm’s landowners through the life of the project. These supportive landowners participate in long-term lease and easement agreements that cover turbines, access roads, and transmission corridors.
Modern wind turbine generators are sophisticated, high-tech machines designed to capture the kinetic energy of the wind and convert it into electricity. A turbine’s blades capture the wind and rotate an internal shaft connected to a gearbox spinning a generator to produce electricity. Tubular steel towers support a hub with three attached blades and a nacelle, which houses the shaft, gearbox, generator, and controls. Wind measurements are collected to automatically rotate the turbine to face the strongest wind and angle or “pitch,” its blades to optimize the energy captured. Electricity must be produced at just the right frequency and voltage to be compatible with the utility grid.
Bright Stalk Wind Farm will consist of state-of-the-art, modern wind turbines using cutting edge technology.