IEA Awarded $70M to Retool Illinois Wind Farm

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Indianapolis-based White Construction, a subsidiary of Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc. (Nasdaq: IEA), has been awarded a $70 million contract to repower a 240-megawatt wind farm in northwest Illinois. Repowering a wind farm involves replacing various components of wind turbines, including the blades.

IEA says White Power originally built the Big Sky Wind Farm in 2010. The company says wind turbines can have a lift expectancy of up to 20 years, but eventually need to be replaced.

“As the wind energy industry matures and turbine technology improves, we anticipate repowering projects will become more common—it’s a great way to increase clean energy production without having to construct a new farm from scratch,” said JP Roehm, IEA’s president and chief executive officer.

Work on the project will begin in August and is expected to be completed in July 2022.

IEA says it will remove five wind turbine generators on the farm but replace the power-producing parts on 109 other turbines. IEA says the changes will increase the wind farm’s output by approximately 60% annually.