ENGIE Announces Construction of the Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas
September 25, 2018 – Houston, TX – ENGIE North America Inc. today announced the start of construction of the Solomon Forks Wind Project, located in Thomas County, near the city of Colby, in northwest Kansas. With a total capacity of 276 MW, Solomon Forks is part of the Infinity Renewables portfolio recently acquired by ENGIE North America. The project is scheduled to come online in early summer 2019. Off-takers of the energy from the project are T-Mobile US, Inc. and Target Corp.
The project will use 105 Siemens Gamesa 2.625 MW turbines with 120-meter diameter rotors. The balance of plant contractor is MA Mortenson Company. The total capital investment in the project is approximately $334 million, and the project will generate significant benefits to the local area, with annual payments to landowners under land easements, local jobs created during both construction and commercial operation, purchases of local goods and services, donations to Colby Unified School District No. 315, and a scholarship fund established by Solomon Forks with Colby Community College.
Infinity Renewables acquired the development rights for the Solomon Forks project in 2016, and since that time has worked diligently with landowners and the local community to advance the project to construction.
“We are excited to break ground on a second major project after completing the sale of our development portfolio to ENGIE just this past February,” said Matt Riley, former President of Infinity Renewables and now Senior Vice President and Head of U.S. Wind Development at ENGIE North America. “It’s a testament to the benefits wind energy can deliver for customers and local communities, and we’re working to make this project a harbinger of many more successes in expanding the use of wind energy in the United States in the coming years.”
About ENGIE North America Inc.
ENGIE North America manages a range of energy businesses in the United States and Canada, including clean power generation, cogeneration, and energy storage; retail energy sales; and comprehensive services to help customers run their facilities more efficiently and optimize energy and other resource use and expense. Nearly 100 percent of the company’s power generation portfolio is low carbon or renewable. Globally, ENGIE is the largest independent power producer and energy efficiency services provider in the world, with operations in 70 countries employing 150,000 people, including 1,000 researchers in 11 R&D centers. For more information, please visit www.engie-na.com, @ENGIENorthAm, and www.engie.com.