Wisconsin Energy to buy wind farm with 20 wind turbines

Wisconsin’s largest electric utility will spend $27-million-to buy an existing wind farm in the southwest part of the state.

Wisconsin Energy, the parent of We Energies, has agreed to buy the Montfort Energy Center near Montfort in Grant County. Next-Era Energy Resources of Florida currently owns the facility. It opened 11 years ago, and it now has 20 wind turbines that provide enough power for about nine-thousand homes.

WE Energies’ CEO Gale Klappa says the wind farm will deliver positive benefits for both customers and shareholders. It will also help the utility meet its state-mandated requirement to produce eight-and-a-quarter percent of its power from renewable sources by 2015.

The Montfort site produces about 30 megawatts of electricity. Wisconsin Power-and-Light has bought four-and-a-half megawatts, and We Energies is getting the rest. The Power-and-Light deal expires in 2021.