The power of wind
For 15 years, PGE has been a regional leader in wind generation – one of Oregon’s newest forms of power production.
For 15 years, PGE has been a regional leader in wind generation – one of Oregon’s newest forms of power production.
Our wind fleet
Wind power offers unique benefits, including affordable emissions-free energy, family-wage jobs in rural areas and opportunities to support agriculture and local landowners.
In addition to long-term contracts with third-party wind energy providers, we own and operate three wind facilities:
Biglow Canyon – began operations in 2007
Tucannon River – began operations in 2014
Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility – wind portion operational in 2020, co-owned with NextEra Energy Resources
Biglow Canyon: a clean energy pioneer
PGE was an early adopter of wind energy in our state, starting with Biglow Canyon Wind Farm in 2007. This first-generation facility and was the largest project of its kind in Oregon at the time of its construction.
Since coming online, Biglow has generated more than 13 million megawatt hours of clean electricity. That’s enough to power about 120,000 homes per year.
Safety
Our team at Biglow Canyon has gone more than seven years without a lost-time injury. Biglow was also the first wind farm in Oregon to be recognized by OSHA’s Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program.
Innovation
We use remote diagnostics and predictive technologies to monitor the health of our equipment, allowing us to anticipate potential problems and prioritize maintenance tasks.
For this work, PGE was awarded the Electric Power Research Institute’s Technology Transfer Award for Wind Turbine Health Monitoring Tools – a national accolade honoring innovators transforming the future of energy.
Reliability and Consistency
Our wind fleet is consistently available to deliver reliable, renewable energy to customers, with both an availability factor and forced outage rate above the industry median.
Additionally, our team at Biglow has a combined industry experience of more than 140 years.
A clean energy future powered by wind
We hear our customers loud and clear: they want cleaner, greener affordable energy as quickly as possible. Wind power will continue to play an important role as we make progress toward our climate targets.
From pioneering plants like Biglow Canyon, to new sites like our innovative Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility, wind farms are playing an increasingly important role in our energy portfolio. Wheatridge brings PGE’s wind portfolio to more than 1,000 MW (one gigawatt).
Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility
Storing renewable energy for a rainy day
The wind and sun don't always cooperate when we want to use renewable energy. That's why we designed the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility. A first-of-its-scale resource for renewable energy generation and storage, Wheatridge combines wind power generation, solar power generation, and battery storage in one location, so we can harvest and store renewable energy for use when the sun and wind aren't generating energy.