Renewable Energy News

Minnesota Power completed commissioning the latest phase of its Bison Wind Energy Center. The 205-MW expansion makes it the largest wind farm in North Dakota. All 64 turbines within the 35-square-mile boundaries of Bison 4 are now generating renewable energy, which is delivered to the company's customers via a 465-mile direct current transmission line linking Center, N.D., and Duluth, Minn. In total, the nearly 500 MW produced by Bison's 165 turbines rank it as North Dakota's largest wind farm in terms of electric generating capacity. 

MidAmerican Energy completed work on four of the five wind farms that make up its 1,050-MW Wind VIII project. The three wind farms completed in 2014 - Lundgren in Webster County, Macksburg in Madison County and Wellsburg in Grundy County - account for a total of 511.4 MW of wind generation capacity, to go along with the 44.6 MW of generation capacity at the Vienna II wind farm in Marshall County, which was completed in 2013. The final piece of the Wind VIII project - the 495-MW Highland wind farm in O'Brien County - will be finished by the end of 2015.

RES America Developments entered into a 20-year PPA with Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative (Wolverine) for 114 MW of wind energy and associated renewable energy credits in the Thumb of Michigan. The wind power will be sourced from the Deerfield Wind Energy project, which is located in Huron County, Michigan. RES Americas developed and will construct the project and Wolverine, which is owned by and supplies wholesale electric power to seven members, will be the recipient of the 114 MW of electricity generated by the project.

Dominion closed on the acquisition of the CID Solar Project near Corcoran, Calif., from EDF Renewable Energy. The companies announced the purchase and sale agreement in June 2014. The 20-MW facility completed the conditions of the acquisition and closed on Dec. 11, 2014. It commenced operations on December 22. The project provides power to the San Francisco-based electric utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) under a 20-year PPA. Terms of the CID transaction are not available.

TerraForm acquired 21 U.S. distributed generation solar power plants comprising 26 MW from SunEdison through a series of transactions valued at $47 million. The 21 power plants have long-term contracts with an average remaining life of 20 years. The portfolio has high quality counterparties including municipalities, schools and businesses and is geographically diverse, with plants located in seven US states. TerraForm has funded the purchase of these call right projects with cash on hand.  

Duke Energy Renewables (Duke) acquired the Halifax Solar Power Project, a 20-MW solar project in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., from Geenex and ET Solar Energy Corp. Duke will own and operate the site. The project is located in Dominion North Carolina Power's service territory, and the energy generated from the solar site will be sold through a 15-year agreement with the utility. The system employs 866 AE 3TL string inverters of 23.2KW AC capacity each and has about 100,000 ET Solar and Chint solar modules.

ALLETE Clean Energy (ALLETE) finalized the acquisition of Storm Lake 1, a wind generation facility in Storm Lake, Iowa, adding another 108 MW to its renewable energy portfolio. ALLETE paid $15 million to NRG Energy to acquire the facility, which is adjacent to Storm Lake 2, a 78-MW wind farm purchased by ALLETE earlier this year. Both Storm Lake installations use 750 kW Zond turbines and are adjacent to each other in northwest Iowa.

Pattern Energy Group (the “Company” or “Pattern Energy”), acquired the 200-MW Logan’s Gap Wind project in Texas, which is currently under construction, from Pattern Energy Group LP (“Pattern Development”). The Company acquired the Logan’s Gap Wind project for a total cash funding commitment of approximately $113 million, a portion of which will be used to pay down construction debt upon the completion of construction. The acquisition will be funded from available cash and credit facilities.

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power plans to develop a 131- MW PV solar project in Georgia. The electricity and associated renewable energy credits (RECs) will be sold to three Georgia electric membership corporations. Southern Power has selected First Solar to be the EPC contractor for the facility. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in September 2015, and the project is expected to achieve commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2016.

IKEA plans to increase the solar array atop its Detroit-area store that opened eight years ago in Canton, MI. In September, IKEA began work on a 44,000-square-foot expansion to the store, atop which new panels will be installed beginning spring 2015, with a completion by summer. The 40,000-square-foot solar addition will consist of a 240.9-kW system built with 765 panels, and will produce 287,490 kWh more of electricity annually for the store.