Dive Brief:
- Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power acquired its biggest renewables project and its first wind capacity:Oklahoma’s 130 turbine, 299 MW Kay Wind facility. Kansas’ Westar Energy and Oklahoma’s Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) are the offtakers under 20-year power purchase agreements.
- Apex Clean Energy is the developer and will operate and maintain the project. Blattner Energy will be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. The deal will close late this year on completion of construction. The acquisition price was undisclosed but Apex announced closing a $397 million construction loan.
- Westar, the dominant electricity provider in Kansas, will take approximately 199 MW of the project’s output and GRDA, Oklahoma’s state-owned utility, will take the approximately 100 MW balance. Both have the option to keep or sell the renewable energy credits (RECs).
Dive Insight:
Southern Power will now own 970 MW of renewables capacity that is either in operation or development, including seven solar projects in partnership with Turner Renewable Energy and one solar project in partnership with First Solar.
Gulf Power, another Southern Company subsidiary, recently purchased 180 MW from the Kingfisher Wind project being developed by Apex Clean Energy in Oklahoma. Gulf Power has also proposed 120 MW of solar development in partnership with the Air Force and Navy.
Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power has a 20 year PPA signed in 2013 for 250 MW from Oklahoma’s Blue Canyon II and Blue Canyon VI wind projects, to be delivered beginning in 2016.
Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power is now getting 404 MW of wind power from Oklahoma’s Buffalo Dunes Wind Project and Chisholm View Wind Project through PPAs signed and approved by regulators in 2012.
These commitments suggest a significant inflection point for Southern Company, which has traditionally relied on fossil fuels.
