DOE Selects Missouri Cooperative as Wind Cooperative of the Year

March 16, 2007

Photo of an array of five wind turbines installed on a flat plain.

The Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm is the first of three 50-megawatt Missouri wind facilities that will be completed this year.
Credit: Bob McEowen, Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives

DOE, in partnership with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the Cooperative Research Network, announced on March 16th that they have selected the Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AECI) of Springfield, Missouri, as the recipient of the 2006 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award. The award, presented at the NRECA's TechAdvantage 2007 Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, recognizes AECI for leadership, demonstrated success, and innovation in its wind power program. AECI is the first to bring utility-scale wind power to Missouri through its three 50-megawatt wind projects, which are expected to be operational by the end of 2007. The cooperative serves six generation and transmission cooperatives and 51 electric distribution cooperatives in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Iowa.

Also recognized at the conference was the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, which has 990 kilowatts of installed wind power capacity, spread across 52 generating facilities that serve 52 small native villages in rural western Alaska. See the DOE press release, the AECI Web site, and the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative Web site.