The components, brought from Europe on the ship BBC Amazon, will be used in Phase I of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm, a 26,000-acre “clean energy” project in White and Benton counties that at full build-out could have 600 turbines powering more than 250,000 homes. This shipment included 30 power generators and 30 turbine hubs, which connect the 120-foot-long blades scheduled to arrive at the port on a second ship in mid-June.
The BBC Amazon, operated by Baltship out of Denmark, is being unloaded by port stevedore Federal Marine Terminals with dockworkers from the International Longshoremen’s Assoc. Local 1969 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. The 60 components, totaling more than 2,000 tons, will be unloaded in less than two days.
The turbines were built by Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, which has installed 38,000 turbines in over 60 countries since 1979. The Meadow Lake Wind Farm is owned by the Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy, which operates more than 15 wind farms across the country.
