A recent press release from Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES Americas) reveals completion of the sixth project built by RES Americas in Columbia and Garfield counties — the Tucannon River Wind Farm in Washington State. This valuable achievement in Washington’s Columbia County is on 20,000 acres of land. Thus, another renewable energy project supports and enhances the North Pacific region. A press release from RES Americas points out: “RES Americas served as the Balance of Plant (BOP) construction contractor for the project’s owner, Portland General Electric (PGE), an investor-owned utility in Oregon.”
RES Americas is a forerunner advancing expansion of wind, solar, transmission, and energy storage projects in North America. The press release continues, noting that this recent wind farm is a 267 megawatt (MW) project that consists of 116 2.3 MW Siemens turbines. Tucannon River Wind Farm expects to supply pure, renewable energy to power the homes of about 84,000 average residential customers. The project began in September 2013 with construction completed in December 2014. The press release notes this project had a fixed price budget of $500 million, excluding AFDC, and was promptly completed well within the expected time.
Wind farms invariably bring jobs to the region they develop. Economic progress increases. The wind industry and all of the renewable energy sector helped to restore jobs lost when other manufacturing industries and technical trades moved to other countries. Washington’s Columbia County found many jobs increase. Hundreds of construction workers gained work during the building stage of the project. Careers for continuous employment — 18 full-time operations staff including maintenance — are ongoing.
“RES Americas is pleased to have completed construction on the Tucannon River Wind Farm for our valued client Portland General Electric,” said Andrew Fowler, Chief Operating Officer of RES Americas. “We have significant experience in the Pacific Northwest and have seen, first hand; the benefits wind energy brings to the region. We are proud to be a part Washington’s energy community and look forward to its continued growth.”
“Tucannon River is a key infrastructure investment for PGE that brings increased diversity to our energy supply portfolio, and will serve our customers with clean, renewable energy for decades to come,” said Jim Piro, PGE’s president and CEO.
Not simply in the US, the RES Group now has more than 1,200 MW of wind and solar power under construction worldwide. RES is successfully expanding in areas of renewable growth. A recent post here on CleanTechnica reports on RES Americas developing 40 MW of energy storage systems in Illinois, a pioneering step forward in this realm of the energy industry. According to the article, this project will become one of the largest commercial energy storage projects on the continent.
To enjoy more wind projects in Washington check out our article, Touring Washington’s Wind Farms, Courtesy Of The USGS (Interactive Map), which links to an interactive map created by the US Geological Survey. The map operates so that a virtual visitor can follow along to any one of America’s 47,000 ground-based wind turbines. It’s a lot of fun.
Related Stories:
Wind Farms Affect Neither Health Nor Property Values
This App Puts 12,000 Wind Farms at Your Fingertips
Wind & Solar = 77% Of New US Electricity Generating Capacity In November (Exclusive)
A Bipartisan Group Of Senators Is Pushing For Distributed Wind — Here’s Why It Matters
Image: Wind Turbine in the Night Sky by portland general, via flickr
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