257 MW Texas Wind Power Project Arranges Financing
Invenergy Wind has arranged construction financing for its 257 MW Wake Wind Energy Center project located in Texas, about 50 miles east of Lubbock. “We’re pleased to have reached financial close for our Wake Wind project in Texas, the nation’s top state for installed wind. Wake Wind adds to our growing portfolio in Texas, bringing our total wind generation to nearly 2,000 MW in the state,” explained Jim Murphy, CFO and COO at Invenergy.
150 GE 1.715 MW wind turbines will be used at the site, and the wind farm is expected to begin commercial operations in the third quarter of this year.
About 200 jobs will be created during the construction phase and another dozen will be required when the wind facility begins to operate. Dickens, Crosby and Floyd counties are where the turbines will be installed and each county will receive annual payments. Lease payments will be made to individual land holders as well.
Two contractors are participating in the construction phase: Blattner Energy and EPC Services. Blattner is taking care of the mechanical and civil aspects and the transmission line. EPC is responsible for the electrical substation.
Invenergy has already signed a PPA for 125 MW with Owens Corning to deliver electricity to the manufacturer.
Invenergy also completed financing for a separate Texas farm in 2016. The Gunsight Wind Energy Center site is in Howard County, Texas, and it is expected to have a capacity of 120 MW. It will also use GE turbines.
Invenergy Wind has developed over 5,539 MW of wind power projects in North America and Europe. It has also developed many solar, natural gas and energy storage projects. The company’s home office is located in Chicago.
It’s great to see a very large American wind power farm being developed by an American company which also chose to purchase and install American wind turbines—especially for a project located in a state very well-known for fossil fuels. Texas has plenty of natural wind power resources—and solar power—so it very well may become a renewable energy leader some day. In fact, it is already doing well in wind power; about 40% of the whole state’s electricity was generated by it for a brief period.
Image Credit: Leaflet, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
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