How much did Alta Wind Energy Center cost to build?
Alta Wind Energy Center is a group of eleven utility-scale wind projects in California's Tehachapi Wind Resource Area, rather than a single generating plant with one owner and one construction contract. Terra-Gen completed the development and construction programme after acquiring the underlying project rights in 2008. Alta I entered operation in late 2010, and the addition of Alta X and XI in the first half of 2014 brought the historical eleven-project centre to 1,548 MW. The U.S. Energy Information Administration later counted 586 turbines across those separate projects. A federal trial record states that developing the entire centre cost more than USD 4 billion; the widely repeated USD 2.875 billion figure instead adds several financing packages for selected phases and is not a documented total construction cost.
Final project cost
$4 billion
Cost basis: 2014
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
Project metrics
Key dimensions
- PowerU.S. Energy Information Administration
- 1,548 MW
Project record