$300 Million Wind Farm Proposed For Greenbrier County

An Illinois company is looking to invest $300 million to build a major wind power farm in southeastern West Virginia. Invenergy Wind plans to request a state permit to build 124 electricity-generating wind turbines on 500 acres in northwestern Greenbrier County. The 186-megawatt project would produce enough electricity for about 50,000 homes. The $300 million project, called the Beech Ridge Wind Farm, would be about three times the size of the state’s only existing wind energy project in Tucker County. If constructed, the wind farm would be one of the largest wind-power projects east of the Mississippi River.
The wind-turbine towers would be about 260 feet tall, each with three blades about 130 feet long. The company, which has worked on the project for more than two years, plans to build the turbines on the higher ridges north of U.S. 60 at Rupert, south of Monongahela National Forest. The company plans to buy most of the land from Connecticut-based MeadWestvaco.