A second wind farm is being planned for Hamilton County by Acconia Energy North America, a subsidiary of Acconia, based in Madrid, Spain.

Both projects still are on the drawing board, so details likely will change before construction begins, according to Eric Schneider, director of marketing and communications for Acconia. Schneider said he is a Topeka native living in Chicago.

The Solomon Creek wind project in the Colby area would include 72 1.5-megawatt towers. The turbines would produce 108 megawatts of power.

The nacelles -- the uppermost unit that houses the generating components -- would come from Acconia's manufacturing plant in West Branch, Iowa. The towers and blades would be purchased on the open market.

The Hamilton County wind farm, called the Bear Creek project, would be slightly larger, Schneider said, with 90 towers capable of producing 135 megawatts.

The number of towers at either location could change by the time construction begins, he said.

Schneider said Acconia is looking at the two projects because of the wind resources available in the western part of the state.

"We also have to have access to transmission lines," Schneider said.

In the Thomas County case, Acconia would tap into transmission lines owned by Sunflower Electric.

"We're getting pretty far down the path," he said. "We haven't broken ground, but we know wind capacity is good."

The Thomas and Hamilton county projects would be the first in the Kansas for Acconia, but not the first in the United States. It has four wind projects in Canada and two in the United States.

Acconia is an international company, with much of its work focusing on renewable energy projects, such as wind, solar and hydrogen projects. The company has desalinization projects in Florida and California.