The ten largest wind farms Windpower Intelligence has identified as coming fully online in June all have a capacity of 100MW or more and are all onshore wind projects.
Global capacity reached 641GW by the end of June, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly — an increase of 63GW in the preceding 12 months.
In a bumper month of commissioning, five 100MW-plus wind farms were added to the grid in the US, meaning those projects accounted for 1,254MW of the roughly 4GW brought online globally last month.
The largest project coming online last month was the 118-turbine 419MW Mesquite Star Mesquite Star (419MW) OnshoreFisher County, Texas, USA, North America Click to see full details in Texas, developed by Clearway Energy with turbines supplied by Siemens Gamesa. Another Lone Star state wind farm that came online last month was the RES Group’s 180MW Heart of Texas Heart of Texas (180MW) OnshoreMcCulloch County, Texas, USA, North America Click to see full details project comprising 64 GE turbines.
Outside of the US the next largest wind farm to come online was Voltalia's 163MW Ventos da Serra do Mel 1 (Serra Branca Complex) Ventos da Serra do Mel 1 (Serra Branca Complex) (163MW) OnshoreSerra do Mel, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Central & South America Click to see full details in Brazil followed by the Guangdong No.2 Hydropower Engineering Bureau’s 60MW Dabu I Dabu I (60MW) OnshoreShaoguan, Guangdong Province, China, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details & 120MW Dabu II Dabu II (120MW) OnshoreShaoguan, Guangdong, China, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details cluster in China
Meanwhile Fortum and Rusano’s 197.6MW Gukovskaya aka Vtoroy Gukovskaya aka Vtoroy (197.6MW) OnshoreRostov Oblast, Russia, Europe Click to see full details wind project in Rostov Oblast in Russia, near the Ukraine border, brought up the rear of the WPI’s top ten projects.
Wind farm | Capacity (MW) | Country |
Mesquite Star | 419 | United States |
Plum Creek | 230 | United States |
Roundhouse | 225 | United States |
Reading | 200 | United States |
Heart of Texas | 180 | United States |
Ventos da Serra do Mel 1 | 163 | Brazil |
Dabu I & II | 160 | China |
Cavar | 111 | Spain |
Shanghe I | 100 | China |
Gukovskaya | 100 | Russia |
Analysts have warned that Covid-19 has disrupted supply chains and construction process, but all of these projects were finally commissioned during the coronavirus pandemic.