Renewable Energy Systems (RES), a leader in the development, engineering, construction, and operation of wind, solar, transmission, and energy storage projects across the globe, has announced the sale of the Bluestem Wind Project to Exelon Generation, one of the nation’s leading power producers. Exelon Generation is the nation’s 12th largest wind producer with a combined 1,500 megawatts of wind generation and more under construction.
RES developed the project and is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. The transaction closed on December 24, 2015 with a notice to proceed for construction being issued at that time. RES simultaneously executed the turbine supply agreement with Vestas. Construction of the project will begin immediately, providing up to 300 jobs during the peak of construction.
The 198 MW project will consist of 60 Vestas 3.3MW V117 wind turbine generators (WTGs) and will be located in Beaver County, Oklahoma. Construction is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2016, bringing an approximately 845,000 MWh per year to the Southern Power Pool electrical system – enough to power over 77,000 U.S. homes. RES has been committed to bringing renewable energy to Oklahoma, having constructed over 850 MW of the wind in the state. Bluestem is RES’ seventh and will be Exelon Generation’s first wind project in Oklahoma. Wind and other clean energy sources are important elements of Exelon’s strategy to offer more low-carbon electricity in the marketplace.
A power purchase agreement for the project has been executed with Google and was announced on December 3, 2015 on Google’s Official Blog.
“RES is pleased to work with Exelon and Google in the pursuit of making data centers greener for the economy of tomorrow,” statedGlen Davis, CEO, RES, Americas. “Renewable energy generation will play a critical role for leading companies across the country as they strive to reduce their environmental footprint and secure long term economic renewable resources to power their industries.”
“We are excited about closing the Bluestem transaction and working with RES to add additional renewable and carbon-free generation to Exelon’s operating fleet,” said Corey Hessen, Vice President Generation Development, Exelon Generation. “We look forward to providing clean, cost effective energy to Google under this long-term agreement.”
“I am pleased to see the 3MW platform continuing to work as a solution for our customers in what traditionally has been a 2MW market. This speaks to the strength of the Vestas product portfolio, and our ability to find the right fit in all situations,” said Chris Brown, President, Vestas Americas.
Since 1997, RES has been providing development, engineering, construction, and operations services to the utility-scale wind, solar, transmission, and energy storage markets across the Americas. The company employs more than 500 full-time professionals and has over 8,000 MW of utility-scale renewable energy and energy storage projects and has constructed more than 700 miles of transmission lines throughout the U.S., Canada, and Chile. RES’ U.S. corporate office is located in Broomfield, CO with regional offices located in Austin, TX, Minneapolis, MN, Old Saybrook, CT, and San Francisco, CA.
Exelon Corporation is the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with 2014 revenues of approximately $27.4 billion. Headquartered in Chicago, Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Exelon is one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with more than 32,000 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to more than 2.5 million residential, public sector and business customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100. Exelon’s utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to more than 7.8 million customers in central Maryland (BGE), northern Illinois (ComEd) and southeastern Pennsylvania (PECO).