In good news for renewable energy, Arkansas announced a milestone moment for its energy landscape.
Electrek reported that officials powered up Arkansas' first utility-scale wind farm, a 135-megawatt project known as Crossover Wind located in Cross County, which is west of Memphis, Tennessee. Developed by Cordelio Power, the facility is already fully operational.
"We are proud to announce that Crossover Wind is now generating electricity as the first utility-scale wind project in the state of Arkansas," said Nick Karambelas, Cordelio Power's chief development officer.
One aspect that has made this clean-energy solution possible is a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft, which will receive 100% of the project's power over that time frame. However, the county and its residents are benefiting, too. Cross County will be paid about $950,000 a year, and local landowners participating in the project will receive more than $50 million.
While large-scale clean energy projects such as wind and solar farms can be problematic for landowners, particularly those in the agriculture industry, this project is set up as a win-win for all stakeholders.
Plus, the addition of a major wind power source reduces reliance on polluting energy sources such as coal and gas, lowers electricity costs, and strengthens grid resilience — especially in regions facing growing energy demand from data centers built by companies such as Microsoft and Google. That translates to one more step toward cleaner air for communities and a safer future for all of us.
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"Once you've built it, the wind is free. You just get to collect it and make some generation and sell that generation," Cordelio Power CEO John Carson told K8 News.
On a YouTube video covering the project, one commenter wrote: "Clean and green! It's not about have we got oil or fossil fuels! It's about the only thing we're on is fossil fuels."
"I worked on that project. It was fantastic!" someone else said on Facebook.
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