ENGIE North America Announces Construction of the Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas
HOUSTON: 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 a subsidiary of ENGIE North America from Infinity Renewables and MAP® Energy. The project is scheduled to come online in early summer 2019. The energy from the project will be sold to T-Mobile US, Inc. and Target Corp.
The project will use 105 Siemens Gamesa 2.625 MW turbines with 120-meter diameter rotors installed by the balance of plant contractor 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.
ENGIE purchased the project from Infinity Power Holdings, a joint venture between Infinity Renewables and MAP® Energy, in February 2018 and then completed development prior to starting 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, Senior Vice President and Head of U.S. Wind Development at ENGIE North America and former CEO of Infinity Renewables. “Solomon Forks is a testament to the benefits of wind energy for customers and local communities, and we expect to have even more success 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.
About MAP® Energy
MAP Energy is a leading investor in the development of renewable energy projects and has funded more than 10,000 megawatts of operating wind and solar generating capacity located across the United States. More information is available at www.map-energy.com.
