Ameren Missouri plans to build a 400-megawatt wind farm in rural northeast Missouri, creating enough power to serve 120,000 homes within two years, the company said Monday.
St. Louis-based Ameren said its High Prairie Wind Farm near Kirksville will be the largest in the state. Ajay Arora, vice president of power operations and energy management at Ameren Missouri, called it a significant step toward Ameren’s goal of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.
“What’s most important for our customers is to have a balanced energy mix,” Arora said in an interview. “That would be a combination of hydro, nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind, solar. Our portfolio has it all. And that provides the affordability and reliability that our customers expect.”
Plans call for 175 450-foot-tall wind turbines on land in Adair and Schuyler counties, near the Iowa border about 200 miles north of St. Louis.
Groundbreaking is expected in summer of 2019, and the turbines are expected to be operational by 2020, Arora said.
The wind farm will create hundreds of construction jobs and fewer than 100 permanent jobs, Arora said. The project must still be approved by the state Public Service Commission.
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