State's largest wind farm yet proposed in southwest Minnesota

The largest wind farm in Minnesota is being proposed in Nobles and Murray counties.

Project Resources Corp., a renewable energy company based in Minneapolis, plans a 300-megawatt wind farm with 88 to 150 turbines on 69,476 acres in the two southwest Minnesota counties, according to a regulatory filing. One megawatt is 1 million watts.

The project, called Nobles 2 Power Partners, would be 50 percent larger than Minnesota's current largest wind generator, the 205-megawatt Fenton Wind Farm completed in 2007 in the same counties, according to state data. The Nobles 2 site is near the 201-megawatt Nobles Wind Farm built by another company in 2010 for Xcel Energy.

In a filing with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Wednesday, the independent power company said it intends to sell the electricity from Nobles 2 to an electric utility, but did not specify a buyer. The project is expected to be completed in 2018, the filing said.