Six 100MW-plus projects come online in September

At least six 100MW-plus onshore wind farms in three different countries were brought online in September, despite challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Windpower Intelligence.

Four of these large projects were in the United States, while the other two 100MW-plus projects were commissioned in Sweden and China last month.

These six wind farms had a combined capacity of more than 1.1GW, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly, and accounted for just over a third of the capacity brought online globally last month.

This month of large project-commissioning came despite the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and social distancing measures disrupting supply chains and hindering project executions.

Analysts have downgraded forecasts for capacity installations this year due to the pandemic.

Global capacity reached at least 653.7GW by the end of September, according to provisional figures from Windpower Intelligence – an increase of 60.5GW on the preceding 12 months, with 3.2GW added in the last month.

The largest onshore wind farm coming online last month was Xcel Energy’s 500MW Cheyenne Ridge Cheyenne Ridge (500MW) OnshoreCheyenne Wells, Colorado, USA, North America Click to see full details in Colorado, with 229 turbines supplied by Vestas.

The three other US projects were commissioned in three different states: Scout Clean Energy’s 130MW Bitter Ridge Bitter Ridge (130MW) OnshoreJay County, Indiana, USA, North America Click to see full details in Indiana, Alliant Energy’s 130MW Richland Richland (130MW) OnshoreSac County, Iowa, USA, North America Click to see full details in Iowa and Ørsted’s 103MW Willow Creek Wind (South Dakota) Willow Creek Wind (South Dakota) (103MW) OnshoreButte County, South Dakota, USA, North America Click to see full details in South Dakota. Developers in the US have been scrambling to start construction or secure tax relief by other means ahead of the impending phaseout of the country’s main support scheme at the end of 2020.

Outside of the US, the largest wind farms to come online in September were Eolus Vind’s 130MW Bäckhammar Bäckhammar (130MW) OnshoreKristinehamn, Varmland County, Sweden, Europe Click to see full details project in central Sweden and the Chinese State Power Investment Corporation’s (SPIC’s) 130MW Gaoshanzhang Gaoshanzhang (130MW) OnshoreJi’an, Jiangxi, China, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details in the south-east of the country.

Chinese developers also face a phaseout of the country’s feed-in tariff by the end of the year.