High Lonesome Wind Project

PROJECT DETAILS

The High Lonesome wind farm, owned and operated by Enel Green Power, is approximately one mile south of the city of Rankin and 15 miles east of McCamey, Texas. With 164 turbines and a total capacity of 500 MW, High Lonesome is one of the largest operational wind projects in North America. The High Lonesome Wind Project spans a 200 square mile footprint in Upton and Crockett counties in West Texas.

Construction began in January 2019 and operations at the first 450 MW portion of the project started in December 2019. The wind project can generate 1.9 TWh annually while avoiding the emission of 1.2 million tons of CO₂ per year.

There were multiple coordinated phases of construction on this project. Dykon performed the drilling and blasting on two consecutive projects. One project was the North to South connector road that joined the southern end of the project with the northern. This connector was required to conduct the generated electricity from the southern portion of the project to the substation built on the northern portion. This phase of the project was the critical path for getting the power generated by the entire southern half of the project to the grid.

Another blasting contractor onsite was incapable of meeting the production schedule so Dykon Blasting was called in to do the job. The drilling and blasting for the road was completed in 1 month and required pioneer blasting on steep and rugged terrain. The total production quantity for the project was 69,488 cubic yards of rock.

The resident blasting contractor was drilling and blasting foundations for the wind turbine generators and they were 1 month behind schedule. Dykon Blasting was asked to help get the schedule back on track. In one week of drilling and blasting, Dykon caught the schedule up and were asked to stay on until the end of the project to make sure the production schedule was met. Dykon Blasting drilled and shot 17 windmill foundations in one week to get construction back on schedule. For the next windfarm projects following the High Lonesome Wind Project, Dykon took over the drilling and blasting and became the sole blasting contractor for the Heart of Texas and Maverick Creek Wind projects.

Renewable Energy Systems (RES), the world’s largest independent renewable energy company was the General Contractor under Enel Green Power and they successfully completed the project safely and on schedule.

Dykon Blasting under contract with Sanderfoot Wind worked alongside several companies to complete this project safely while on an aggressive timeframe.

Green Energy or Renewables is a fast-growing method of energy production.  Wind generator and solar electricity plants are being built all across the nation as our society transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

Wind and solar power plants are typically constructed in remote, hard to access locations which require road construction.  Blasting is a far more cost effective and reliable method of rock excavation for these types of projects.  An access road to a wind turbine or solar site can take months to construct, but blasting can reduce road construction time to a few weeks instead.

Wind turbine generators are constructed on large bases buried deep in the ground for stability. A typical foundation for a large wind turbine generator is about 80 feet in diameter and 10 to 12 feet deep.  Where a single foundation could take weeks to excavate, multiple foundations can be blasted and excavated every day on most projects.