CARLOCK -- Construction on a 100-turbine wind farm in the Carlock area is expected to start later this year.

"We hope to start construction this year and be online by 2010," said Gina Wolf, director of business development for Invenergy of Chicago, which is developing the White Oak Energy Center.

Ground grading is under way for a substation that will collect the wind turbine power and send it to the purchaser.

Wolf said Invenergy is negotiating a power purchase agreement. She would not release the name of the potential purchaser.

While a map with the exact locations of the wind turbines has not been released, Wolf said they will be built in an area bordered by Woodford County on the north, Interstate 39 on the east and Interstate 74 on the south and west. The property involves about 100 landowners, she said.

Jim Gillmeister, chief financial officer for Unit 5 school district, said the 100 turbines could bring $815,000 a year in tax revenue for Unit 5, which serves school children in the area. Wind companies pay between $12,000 and $16,000 in taxes per turbine annually.

Under the current development plan, the first tax revenue would be available in 2011, Gillmeister said.

Invenergy original plan to place 10 turbines in Woodford County was dropped in October after the company and a group of homeowners reached an out-of-court settlement.

The landowners, through a group called Information is Power, filed a civil lawsuit in McLean County arguing the McLean County Zoning Board did not give them the opportunity to express their concerns during hearings on a special-use permit for the then-planned $250-million project.

The settlement was reached just days before a planned bench trial. The agreement calls for parties not to disclose the terms of the settlement.

Wolf also would not comment about the agreement.

The White Oak Energy Center is expected to create 150 megawatts of energy, enough to provide electricity for 40,000 houses annually, said Susan Dennison, communications manager for Invenergy.

Phil Dick, director of the McLean County Building and Zoning Department, said Invenergy currently only has permission to grade the ground for the substation. Permits will be needed before turbines are constructed.

Wolf said turbines for the project should start arriving in the fall/winter.