German insurance and asset management company, Allianz and Japanese bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) have together invested tax equity in EDF Renewable Energy’s 225MW Great Western wind farm in the US state of Oklahoma.

The wind farm is located in Ellis and Woodward Counties, around 200km north-north west of Oklahoma City.

It will generate enough energy to power about 70,000 US households.

During its life time of 25 years, the wind farm is expected to generate more than $25m in property taxes for the Ellis and Woodward counties.

Allianz Capital Partners renewables head David Jones said: “We are delighted to partner with MUFG and EDF RE on this project.

“It is a valuable addition to our renewable energy portfolio, which now exceeds €3.5bn and offers a stable and uncorrelated return to Allianz.”

MUFG leasing and asset finance head Lance Markowitz said: “The Great Western wind farm is a great example of three organizations coming together to help create an energy project that will provide clean, competitively priced and affordable power to Oklahoma residents for many years to come.

“Further, this partnership is a clear illustration of MUFG’s strategy to be the leading financial solutions provider for renewable energy."

The wind farm will provide clean energy to Google’s data centre and help the tech-giant reach its goal of powering its operations through sustainable energy. It consists of 30 of 3.3MW and 63 of 2.2MW wind turbines supplied by Vestas.

It is expected to offset about 600,000 metric tons of CO2 emission annually. The start of operations of the wind farm has increased EDF’s renewable portfolio to about 2.6GW.

EDF Renewable Energy has signed power purchase agreement with Google to supply 201MW of energy from the wind farm in December, 2015. The PPA was signed as part of Google’s commitment towards green energy and during the historical Paris Climate Agreement.

Recently, Allianz through its Allianz Renewable Energy Fund 2 (AREF2), acquired three solar plants in the UK with a total capacity of 100MW.


Image: Allianz and MUFG make investment in EDF’s wind farm in Oklahoma, US. Photo: Courtesy of Allianz.