ENGIE North America has announced the start of construction on the 276MW Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas, US.
Image: A wind farm in operation. Photo: courtesy of 2nix/Freedigitalphotos.net.
The wind project was recently acquired by a subsidiary ENGIE North America from Infinity Renewables, which is a joint venture between Infinity Renewables and MAP Energy.
Located in Thomas County, near the city of Colby in northwest Kansas, the Solomon Forks project will feature 105 Siemens Gamesa 2.625 MW turbines with 120-meter diameter rotors installed by the balance of plant contractor MA Mortenson Company.
The wind project, which is scheduled to come online in early summer 2019, is expected to require a total capital investment of $334m.
The power generated by the wind farm will be sold to T-Mobile US and Target.
The Solomon Forks project is anticipated to provide significant benefits to the local area, with annual payments to landowners under land easements, and local jobs created during both construction and commercial operation.
In May, the French energy company Engie’s subsidiary Engie North America has broken ground on the 200MW Live Oak wind project in west Texas.
Estimated to cost around $200m, the new wind farm, which is being built in Schleicher County, near San Angelo, is aimed to be placed into operations by the year end.
The Live Oak wind farm will feature 76×2.625MW wind turbines manufactured by Siemens-Gamesa. These wind turbines will come with 120m rotors, said Engie which had appointed Blattner Energy to construct the balance of the wind project.
The wind farm was also part of the Infinity Renewables portfolio.
By adding Infinity Renewables to its fold, Engie North America expanded its wind development portfolio by more than 8,000MW through the wind projects of the former.
Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Infinity Renewables had developed and sold almost 12 wind projects with a total capacity of over 1.6GW along with its funding and development partner MAP Renewable Energy.
ENGIE North America is involved in a range of energy businesses in the US and Canada, including clean power generation, cogeneration, and energy storage; and retail energy sales.