Blue Creek onshore wind farm

Blue Creek, a benchmark in the development of onshore wind in the US

The Blue Creek wind farm in Ohio is the state's first modern, commercial-scale wind project. With a total installed capacity of 304 megawatts (MW), it generates enough energy to power about 76,000 homes per year.

Blue Creek onshore wind farm
Operating plant

Blue Creek wind farm

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Location: Van Wert and Paulding (USA)
Total installed capacity icon.
Total installed capacity: 304 MW
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Commissioning: 2012
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Offsetting CO2 emissions: 725 thousand tonnes per year

Our presence in the United States is part of a growth story with facilities such as Blue Creek, which became operational in 2012 in northwest Ohio through our US subsidiary, Avangrid*. This wind farm has a total installed capacity of 304 MW and can power around 76,000 homes per year. Avangrid Renewables was the first company to start construction in a state that lacked modern, commercial-scale wind projects.

The Blue Creek wind farm takes advantage of Ohio's intense winds and coexists with agricultural fields in the townships of Tully, Union and Hoaglin in Van Wert County, and in the towns of Benton, Blue Creek and Latty in Paulding County. At the time of its completion in early 2012, it was the largest single-phase project in the US wind fleet powered by Avangrid Renewables among a total of 50 projects.

Blue Creek consists of 152 Gamesa G90 wind turbines, each of which has an output of 2 MW and can power about 500 Ohio homes. Most of the equipment was manufactured and assembled in Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and North Dakota.

Although the project covers an area of almost 80 square miles (207.2 square kilometres), the total impact of the project is less than 1 acre (equivalent to 4,047 square metres) per turbine, including access roads and the maintenance building.

* AVANGRID, Inc. is 81.50 % owned by Iberdrola, S. A.

Local economic benefits and environmental friendliness

Blue Creek represents a $600 million private investment. The project pays around USD 2 million annually in lease payments to local landowners and USD 2.7 million to local taxing bodies. Avangrid Renewables is the largest taxpayer in Van Wert County, where 75 % of the Blue Creek wind farm is located. 

In addition, our commitment to environmental friendliness is present in each of our projects. That's why Blue Creek offsets its customers' carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 725,000 tonnes per year. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, this is equivalent to planting approximately 138,000 acres of trees, taking 114,000 cars off the road or eliminating the consumption of more than 2.1 million barrels of oil. The project also avoids the consumption of 408 million gallons (more than one trillion litres) of water per year.

Iberdrola, world leader in renewable energies

At Iberdrola, we dare committed to renewable energy more than two decades ago as a fundamental pillar on which to build our safe, clean and competitive business model. Thanks to this vision, we are today world leaders in renewables, reaching 44,148 MW of clean energy in operation at the end of september 2024.

This commitment is reflected in our Strategic Plan, in which we will allocate €15.5bn gross to renewables. More than half of this amount is focused on offshore wind in the US, UK, France and Germany; 28% on onshore wind and 18% on solar.

10 years of West of Duddon Sands

In 2024, ScottishPower Renewables celebrates a decade of delivery in offshore wind as West of Duddon Sands windfarm marks its tenth year of operation.

Built and operated as a 50/50 partnership, the West of Duddon Sands windfarm was brought to life in 2014 and since then it has been powering a cleaner and greener future from the Irish Sea, around 14km off the Cumbrian coastline.

Over the last ten years, it has produced enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of around 340,000 homes each year – that’s the same as the size of the city of Leeds.

The project marked investment of more than £1 billion and supported more than 1,000 jobs at peak construction, with around 40 long-term skilled jobs created at its operations and maintenance base in Barrow-in Furness.

It also supported multi-million investment, jobs and growth at Belfast Harbour – the first purpose-built offshore wind installation and pre-assembly harbour in the UK and Ireland. 

In its ten years of existence West of Duddon Sands also marks a milestone in the advancing construction technology of offshore wind. At the time of construction, the windfarm benefitted from using two of the world’s largest and most advanced vessels to install the foundations and turbine components, allowing work to continue offshore during one of the worst winters for storm force winds.

As its first-ever offshore windfarm, it has cemented its place in Iberdrola history and paved the way for ScottishPower to become one of the biggest players in the UK.