Ninety-four giant wind turbine blades were unloaded over the weekend at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor for one of the world’s largest wind farms, under construction in Northern Indiana.

According to a statement released on Friday, the blades were brought from Europe by the ship BBC Rhine and will be used in Phase I of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm, a 26,000 acre “clean energy” project in White and Benton counties which, at full build-out, could have 600 turbines powering more than 250,000 homes.

The weekend’s shipment, chartered by Baltship out of Denmark, is being unloaded by port stevedore Federal Marine Terminals with dockworkers from International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1969 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

The turbines were built by Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, the statement said, which has installed 38,000 turbines in over 60 countries since 1979. The Meadow Lake Wind Farm is owned by the Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy, which operates more than 15 wind farms across the country.

An earlier shipment of turbine components for the project arrived at the port on June 1. It contained 30 power generators and 30 turbine hubs but no blades.

Posted 6/19/2009