ENGIE North America Inc. says construction has begun on its Solomon Forks Wind Project in northwest Kansas.
Located near the city of Colby in Thomas County, the 276 MW project is scheduled to come online in early summer 2019. Energy from the project will be sold to T-Mobile USA 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 Co. With a total capital investment of approximately $334 million, the project is expected to generate significant benefits to the local area, including annual payments to landowners under land easements, local jobs 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 and then completed development prior to starting construction. ENGIE’s total acquisition included more than 8 GW of projects in various stages of development.
“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,” says 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.”
Interesting fact. Kansas is the first state in the U.S. to have wind power as its dominate source of electric generation.