The Black Oak Wind Farm announced last December that a long term Power-Purchase Agreement had been made with Cornell University for all of the turbine-generated electric production. In addition to the years of work by the project team to put it together and its investors (local and New York State), the agreement paved the way for the wind farm’s financing and execution of a seven-turbine (1.7 MW-rated) contract with General Electric. GE is the leading manufacturer for the wind turbine industry in the United States, with 41%.
Preliminary site work began earlier this year, and will ramp-up towards the Fall for turbine deliveries, installation, and final commissioning.
Below are a few screen shots in Google Earth from a 3D file courtesy of Noah Demarest of STREAM Collaborative. The turbine site is on Buck Hill in Enfield, just at the western edge of Tompkins County between Ithaca and Montour Falls, NY. The site is on a 1,000-acre lease from local landowners, and the seven turbines are spaced apart along the hill:
Each turbine will reach a height of 475 feet from the ground to blade-tip at full rotation. The annual power production would be enough to power about 5,000 households.
The turbines will be just-barely visible in the distance on clear days, from both Cornell’s east hill campus, and Ithaca College’s South Hill Campus:
