The Sunflower State’s wind power continues to grow.
As The Wichita Eagle reports, according to a first-quarter report from American Wind Energy Association, Kansas will reach 5,000 megawatts of wind power generation capacity this year, behind only four other states – Texas, Oklahoma, California and Iowa.
Two wind farms in western Kansas account for much of the increase in wind energy – the 200-megawatt Cimarron Bend II wind farm in Clark County and the 280-megawatt Western Plains wind farm in Ford County – both of which came on line during the first quarter of 2017. According to AWEA, that brings Kansas’ wind generation capacity to 4,931 megawatts.
The 178-megawatt Bloom Wind Farm south of Dodge City in Ford and Clark Counties is currently under construction and the 400-megawatt Iron Star wind farm near Dodge City will likely be built this year, meaning that Kansas’ wind generation capacity over the past six years has quadrupled.
AWEA calculates the total investment in Kansas at $8.4 billion,
