Through a wholly owned subsidiary, Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company LLC has purchased two operating wind assets in Murray County, Minn. from PRC Wind. With these projects – Ridgewind (25.3 MW DC) and WindShare (5.4 MW DC) – Greenbacker continues to diversify its wind portfolio in the Midwest.
Greenbacker now owns three wind farms in Minnesota, including CWS (30.8 MW DC) 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 MW DC, 42.5 MW DC and 50.0 MW DC, respectively.
“We’re excited to expand the renewable energy options available to Minnesotans,” says 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.”
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.
“At PRC, our mission is to develop renewable energy projects at scale,” states 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. WindShare, a three-turbine system that currently operates on a fully merchant basis, reached commercial operation in April 2006.
