57 turbines

Eleven years.

By the time Bluff Point Wind Energy Center in southern Jay and northern Randolph counties becomes operational in about seven weeks, the project will have been 11 years in the making — almost to the day.

Developer NextEra Energy Resources is committed to begin operating the wind farm no later than Nov. 6. Development of the project began on Nov. 5, 2006, when Indiana Michigan Power first expressed interest in gathering information about the feasibility of a wind farm in the area.

That’s a span of more than 4,000 days from conception to fruition, and it’s one of the most staggering numbers connected to the project.

••••••••••

Six — Months to complete construction. Site work began in May and has progressed faster than expected in part because of weather and in part because of efficient delivery of components. The planned date to make the facility operational has been moved up by more than a month since it was announced late last year.

200 — Peak number of construction jobs created by the project.

Eight — Full-time wind technicians who will be in charge inspecting the turbines and performing maintenance once the wind farm is operational. They will work out of a permanent operations and maintenance building next to a substation on the north side of county road 800 South about a third of a mile west of U.S. 27.

34 — “String roads” that lead to the sites of the 57 wind turbines. Some roads allow access to two or more turbines.

20 — Miles of access roads constructed.

16 — Width of the “string roads,” in feet, after construction is complete. Farmers will be able to plant crops right up to the edge of each road.

120 — Amount of power, in megawatts, that will be produced by the wind farm. Original plans called for as many as 80 turbines to be built in Jay County to create that amount of power, but improved technology has allowed that number to be cut significantly.

36,000 — Homes the wind farm is capable of powering.

Nine — Trucks it takes to haul the components of each wind turbine. That accounts for the base, three sections of the tower, three blades, the nacelle and the hub. The largest components require two private escorts and four state police escorts while en route.

308 — Height, in feet, of each wind turbine from its base to the center of the blades.

499 — Height, in feet, from the base of each turbine to the tip of the blade, fully extended.

600 — Closest distance, in feet, between any two turbines in Bluff Point Wind Energy Center. (Requirements call for them to be at least 1.1 times the height of the turbine apart.)

613,000 — Weight, in pounds, of each turbine once it is erected.

19 — States in which NextEra has an operational wind farm. (Bluff Point Wind Energy Center will be its first in Indiana, pushing the total to 20.)

9,300 — Turbines NextEra has operating in the United States and Canada.

12 — Operational large-scale wind farms in Indiana. Five of those are in Benton County, where local officials visited in 2007 during the early stages of discussion about a project in Jay County. Four more are in White County.

100,000 — Weight, in pounds, of the nacelle, the rectangular-shaped box that houses the generating components such as the gearbox, drive train and brake assembly. It is about the size of an RV.

660 — Lifting capacity, in tons, of the largest cranes being used in the construction process. There are two such cranes, one working on each side of U.S. 27. Each one has 562,000 pounds of counter weight. In addition, 90-ton cranes help to stabilize the components as they are lifted into the air.

2,500 — Amount of dirt and other material, in cubic yards, excavated at each foundation site.

2,850 — Total truckloads of concrete needed to pour the bases and pedestals. That’s 50 truck loads per turbine. Because of differing ground conditions, there are three different base configurations for the Bluff Point project. They average 500 cubic yards of concrete.

70,000 — Pounds of rebar required for each base.

10 — Height, in feet, of each concrete base.

$21 million — Estimated total in rent payments NextEra will make to landowners over the course of the 30-year project.

$30 million — Estimated tax revenue the wind farm will generate for Jay County over the course of the next 30 years.