Meadow Lake Wind Farm

Meadow Lake Wind Farm is an 801.25 megawatt (MW) wind farm near Brookston and Chalmers, Indiana, spreading over portions of White, Jasper, and Benton Counties. It is owned and operated by EDP Renewables North America. The facility currently has six operational phases, with 414 turbines, and is a prominent feature on both sides of Interstate 65 in western Indiana.

Phase I
Phase I consists of 121 Vestas V82-1.65 MW wind turbines, for a total nameplate capacity of 199.65 MW. Groundbreaking ceremonies occurred on April 14, 2009. Phase I became operational in October 2009.

Horizon built a substation next to an existing AEP substation which was already within the wind farm site area. This allowed the wind farm to connect to the power grid without the need to build lengthy new transmission line at a cost of $1 million per mile.

Phase II
Meadow Lake II Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 99 MW – enough to power approximately 27,000 average Indiana homes with clean energy. The wind farm, which consists of 66 Acciona AWs-1.5 MW turbines, achieved commercial operation in June 2010.

Phase III
Meadow Lake III Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 103.5 MW – enough to power approximately 28,000 average Indiana homes with clean energy. The wind farm, which consists of 69 GE Energy SLE-1.5 MW turbines, achieved commercial operation in October 2010.

Phase IV
Meadow Lake IV Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 98.7 MW – enough to power approximately 27,000 average Indiana homes with clean energy. The wind farm, which achieved commercial operation in October 2010, consists of 47 Suzlon S88-2.1 MW turbines.

Phases V and VI
Meadow Lake V and VI have installed capacities of 100 MW and 200.4 MW, respectively. Phase V came fully online in 2018 and consists of 50 Vestas V110-2.0 MW turbines. Phase VI came fully online in 2019 and consists of 61 turbines (12 Vestas V110-2.0 MW wind turbines and 49 Vestas V136-3.6 MW) that include some of the tallest and most powerful in the state.

Future expansion
In early 2010, an EDP Renewables representative and local renewable energy advocates scouted the Meadow Lake project area for a location to build a visitor center. One possibility was an unused building near the intersection of I-65 and US-231 (40.66769°N, -87.04073°W), near where a wind turbine will be installed within the next year.

Environmental impact
At a planned ultimate nameplate capacity of 1000 MW, EDP Renewables North America claims that Meadow Lake would be one of the largest wind farms in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that such facilities would generate enough electricity to power about 250,000 homes, annually saving 1,684 million gallons of water and eliminating 3.1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Horizon further estimates that Phases I and II should eliminate just under one million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Phase I spreads over 26000 acre a ten by six mile area since large wind turbines must be spaced at least 5 to 10 rotor diameters apart to avoid wind shadowing. Most of the land between turbines remains productive farmland; only about 250 acre of farmland have been taken out of production by the 121 turbines.

Electricity production
(*)  partial year of operation