The company continues to scale up its operating wind fleet and deepen industry relationships in the Midwest
New York, NY, October 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC (“GREC” or “Greenbacker”), a leading owner and operator of sustainable infrastructure and energy efficiency projects, announced today that, through a wholly owned subsidiary, it has purchased two operating wind assets in Murray County, Minnesota, from PRC Wind. With these projects—Ridgewind (25.3 MWdc) and WindShare (5.4 MWdc)—Greenbacker continues to expand its presence in the North Star State and diversify its wind portfolio in the Midwest.
Greenbacker now owns three wind farms in Minnesota, including CWS (30.8 MWdc) in neighboring Nobles County, all of which are operational. Greenbacker also has three operating wind assets nearby in Iowa. These include Hawkeye, Elk, and Rippey, which have clean power–generating capacities of 37.5 MWdc, 42.5 MWdc, and 50.0 MWdc, respectively.
As Greenbacker continues to build out its operating wind portfolio in the area, the company benefits from greater economies of scale, helping it to generate cheaper clean energy for consumers. By deepening its relationships with regional service providers, Greenbacker can continue to optimize operations and maintenance expenses, both for these new assets and for its others in the region. The Ridgewind and WindShare projects also allow Greenbacker to build a relationship with PRC Wind, a company that has developed approximately 3.0 GW of wind energy projects since its founding in 1997.
“We’re excited to expand the renewable energy options available to Minnesotans,” said Charles Wheeler, CEO of GREC. “Our successful collaboration with PRC Wind—whose wind industry expertise was a substantial asset to this project—has enabled us to continue scaling up our wind operations and delivering clean, cheaper power to consumers in the Midwest.”
“At PRC, our mission is to develop renewable energy projects at scale,” said Paul White, Founder and CEO of PRC Wind. “We are thrilled that the wind farms we built will now benefit from Greenbacker’s strong ownership and asset management program.”
Ridgewind is an 11-turbine system that entered commercial operation in January 2011. It has a power purchase agreement in place with Xcel Energy – Minnesota. The company has a target to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2030 (from 2005 levels) corporate-wide and a vision to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity to its customers by 2050. (Greenbacker has also collaborated with Xcel Energy on renewable energy projects in the past). WindShare, a three-turbine system that currently operates on a fully merchant basis, reached commercial operation in April 2006.
Including the acquisition of these projects, Greenbacker’s fleet of sustainable infrastructure projects comprises approximately 2.2 GW of generating capacity (including assets that are to be constructed). Since 2016, Greenbacker’s real assets have generated 3.0 million megawatt-hours1 of clean energy, abating 2.1 million metric tons of carbon.2 Today these projects support 2,700 green jobs.3
1 Data is as of June 30, 2021.
2 Carbon abatement is calculated using the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator which uses the AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT) US national weighted average CO2 marginal emission rate to convert reductions of kilowatt-hours into avoided units of carbon dioxide emissions. Data is as of June 30, 2021.
3 Green jobs are calculated from the International Renewable Energy Agency‘s measurement that one megawatt of renewable power supports 3.8 jobs. Data is as of June 30, 2021.
