ENGIE North America Inc. has begun construction of the Jumbo Hill Wind Project, located in Andrews County, Texas.
With a total capacity of approximately 160 MW, Jumbo Hill is scheduled to be online by spring 2020. The wind farm will provide energy and renewable energy credits to a corporate customer under a virtual power purchase agreement.
The West Texas project has also entered into a proxy revenue swap (PRS) for a portion of its generation with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s weather risk team in collaboration with Nephila Climate. REsurety Inc. provided risk analytics supporting the PRS transaction and will serve as the calculation agent on an ongoing basis.
Jumbo Hill will use 57 GE Renewable Energy turbines, each with a 127-meter rotor and a capacity of more than 2 MW, and the balance of the facility will be built by Wanzek Construction Inc. The total capital investment of the project is over $150 million, and there will be up to 250 people employed at the site during the height of construction.
In addition, annual payments to landowners will total millions of dollars over the life of the project, combined with purchases of local goods and services, and nearly $30 million in payments to the various taxing entities. The project is expected to employ up to 12 workers over the long term.
The wind farm is part of a portfolio acquired in 2018 by a subsidiary of ENGIE North America from Infinity Power Partners, a joint venture between Infinity Renewables and MAP Energy.
“ENGIE is thrilled to be announcing our fifth wind project to start construction over the past year,” notes Emily Cohen, vice president of commercial strategy within ENGIE North America’s wind development team. “The construction of the Jumbo Hill Project will take ENGIE North America’s renewable generation built or under construction to more than 1.5 GW of capacity. It is a strong project in a unique location in West Texas, and we expect it to complement and help grow the evolving industries in the region.”
