EDF Renewables North America has closed the acquisition of the 300MW Milligan 1 wind farm in Nebraska from York Nebraska Wind Partners a partnership comprised of Aksamit Resource Management and York Capital Management.
Image: EDF buys 300MW wind farm in Nebraska. Photo: Courtesy of H Rotgers/FreeImages.com.
EDF Renewables stated that the Milligan 1 wind farm is currently under development and is expected to begin operations in the later part of next year.
The wind project will be located in the Saline County in southern Nebraska and will sell the electricity generated along with renewable energy credits (RECs) into the Southwest Power Pool. This is the first project for the company in the state.
EDF Renewables development senior director Matthew McCluskey said: “EDF Renewables is pleased to bring 30 years of expertise in development, construction, and operation to Nebraska.
“Nebraska’s abundant wind resource and supportive regulatory environment combine to create an opportunity for EDF Renewables to bring the benefits of jobs, landowner payments, and state and local tax revenue to the local community.”
Electricity generated from this wind farm will be enough to meet the power demands of up to 115,000 homes in Nebraska. The wind farm will help in avoiding more than 900,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually, which is equivalent of the emissions from 190,000 passenger vehicles driven in one year.
In this month, the company has already made two announcements for its North American wind operations. It secured an operations and maintenance contract from Phoenix Wind Repower a portfolio investment of a fund managed by the Infrastructure and Power strategy at Ares Management.
As part of this agreement, EDF Renewables will provide Asset Management, Balance of Plant (BOP) Management, Remote Monitoring and NERC Compliance Services for the wind projects including 225MW Trinity Hills, 145MW Sherbino Mesa II and 60MW Silver Star projects currently operate with Clipper C96-2.5 machines and will be repowered with Vestas V110-2.2 technology by 2020.
Recently, the company stated that its 80MW Copenhagen Wind Project is fully operational, generating electricity from 40 of Vestas turbines. This wind farm is located in Lewis and Jefferson counties in upstate New York.
Electricity from this wind farm will be enough to power nearly 35,000 American homes, while avoiding more than 177,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions from entering into the atmosphere.