Project Overview
Top Crop Wind Farm consists of two phases and converts the wind blowing over the Cayuga Ridge into clean electricity. Located just northwest of Pontiac, the wind farm includes parts of Grundy and LaSalle Counties.
Energy Output
Top Crop Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). Top Crop's generation is equivalent to the consumption of more than 103,000 Illinois homes.
Benefits
Community
Top Crop Wind Farm yields significant economic benefits to the community in the form of payments to landowners, local spending, and annual community investment.
Top Crop represents a capital investment of approximately $669 million and has disbursed $24.8 million in cumulative payments to local governments through 2019. The project created 257 full-time equivalent jobs during construction as well as 20 permanent jobs. Through 2019, approximately $61.6 million has been spent within 50 miles of the wind farm.
Environment
Top Crop Wind Farm saves more than 533 million gallons of water each year and displaces carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants, a major contributor to climate change. Wind energy also enhances air quality by helping to mitigate the health effects of harmful air pollutants.
Landowners
Top Crop Wind Farm is compatible with other land uses and provides a stable form of income to local landowners. More than $33.9 million has been paid to the wind farm’s landowners through 2019. These supportive landowners participate in long-term lease and easement agreements that cover turbines, access roads, and transmission corridors.
Technology
Turbines
Modern wind turbine generators are sophisticated, high-tech machines designed to capture the kinetic energy of the wind and convert it into electricity. A turbine’s blades capture the wind and rotate an internal shaft connected to a gearbox spinning a generator to produce electricity.
Top Crop I Wind Farm consists of 68 GE sle 1.5 MW wind turbines, and Top Crop II Wind Farm consists of 132 GE sle 1.5 MW wind turbines.
Made in the USA
The vast majority of wind farm equipment is manufactured in the United States.
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