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Thornapple

Hydro power plant · Rusk County, Wisconsin

Nameplate capacity
1.4 MW
Rank in Wisconsin
#254
of 278 plants
In service since
1927
January 1927

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Northern States Power Co - Minnesota
County
Rusk County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.01%
Rank among hydro plants in Wisconsin
#51 of 61
EIA plant code
3988

Generating units

Individual generating units at Thornapple
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric0.7 MW0.4 MW1927Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric0.7 MW0.4 MW1929Operating

Nameplate is the maximum rated output; summer capacity is what the unit can reliably deliver on a hot day, which is typically lower.

Similarly sized plants in Wisconsin

OgemaSolar1.4 MW
Rock County Customer Hosted SolarSolar1.4 MW
Potato RapidsHydro1.3 MW
Clam River DamHydro1.2 MW

About this data

From EIA’s inventory of operable generators, May 2026 release. Capacity is nameplate — the maximum rated output of the equipment, not what the plant actually generates over a year, which depends on how often it runs. A 1.4 MW solar plant and a 1.4 MW nuclear plant have the same entry here and produce very different amounts of electricity.

“In service since” is the earliest in-service date among the units still listed, so a site rebuilt around newer equipment can read as younger than the site itself. All Wisconsin power plants · What Wisconsin actually generates