juwi Holding AG (juwi) plans to set up their first large-scale wind farm a total capacity of 60 MW in south-eastern Nebraska, US. From 2010, 40 wind turbines each with a capacity of 1.5 MW will generate around 200 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity, covering the annual requirements of around 80,000 of the region’s inhabitants. juwi’s subsidiary Flat Water Wind Farm LLC has concluded a power purchase agreement with the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD).
OPPD will purchase and feed into the public grid all electricity produced by the wind farm over a 20-year period.
As juwi Executive Board member Matthias Willenbacher explained, “This is a major milestone for the project and for our US-based activities overall. Now that President Barack Obama has instituted a turn-around in energy policy, the market is opening up huge opportunities for renewable energies. And juwi plans to make the most of these opportunities – we have a whole host of projects in the pipeline.”
Fred Ulrich, Board Chairman at OPPD, is pleased with the development: “For generations, the land has provided food for local people. And now the wind will provide the energy to supply power for future generations.”
Recently, the company’s subsidiary, juwi Solar concluded power purchase agreements for photovoltaic farms with a multiplicity of US energy providers, and has secured the corresponding project rights: A 12-megawatt solar installation is planned for Ohio, and a 15-megawatt capacity is to be set up in Florida. In the coming years juwi plans to connect up wind and solar installations with a total capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts to the US grid, ultimately making the US one of juwi’s most important markets.
In addition to Flat Water, juwi intends to develop wind farms in the US over the next three years, namely in Minnesota (around 20 megawatts), in Ohio (around 50 megawatts), and in Kansas. The Kansas project (at capacity of 130 megawatts) will be more than twice the size of Flat Water, and will also be located in the wide prairies of America’s heartland. In terms of solar power, juwi has a range of projects in the pipeline for North America, each with a capacity of more than 10 megawatts. Currently, juwi Solar US is constructing an open-space installation in New Jersey with a capacity of two megawatts.