HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Siemens Renewable Energy has won another major contract that will involve 
Westar Energy.
The state’s largest utility has contracted with a California company to construct a new 280-megawatt wind farm in Ford County. The nacelles will be built in Hutchinson as Siemens will be the providers of the infrastructure.
Power from the $400 million-plus Western Plains Wind Farm, a development by Infinity Wind Power of Santa Barbara, will bring Westar’s renewable energy portfolio to more than 1,500 megawatts, according to the Kansas utility.
Westar also plans to pursue another 200 megawatts of wind energy, the company announced, with an option to own 50 percent of those additional megawatts. The Western Plains project will be composed of 122 of Siemens’ 2.3-megawatt nacelles.
Plans are to bring the project online at the end of 2016 or in early 2017, with construction starting in late spring or early summer.