Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) has entered an agreement to sell wind-generated renewable energy credits (RECs) to Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD), a medical technology company, for 20 years.
Through a previously established power purchase agreement, NPPD is buying all the output and associated RECs from NextEra Energy Resources' 75 MW Steele Flats Wind Farm. The project, located between Steele City and Odell, Neb., came online earlier this month.
Headquartered in Franklin Lakes, N.J., BD is the first industrial customer to receive the benefit of the output from a wind farm operating in Nebraska, NPPD says. The agreement enables BD to utilize 30 MW of generation from the wind farm to offset electricity use from its manufacturing facilities in Columbus and Holdrege, Neb., and is an important milestone for the company's worldwide sustainability program.
According to NPPD, BD has already met four out of five of its 2015 Sustainability Goals, including a target to source 25% of its global electricity use from renewable energy. This agreement will further increase BD's global renewable energy consumption, which is currently 35%.
"This opportunity with BD was a unique situation where an industrial customer of our wholesale customers was seeking the opportunity to meet its sustainability goals," says NPPD President and CEO Pat Pope. "Through many discussions and negotiations, we were able to get BD what they were seeking for their Nebraska operations and their sustainability goal, while at the same time adding to our energy portfolio and moving us closer to our board-established goal for renewable energy."
With the addition of the Steele Flats Wind Farm, coupled with the planned Broken Bow II Wind Farm to be completed by the end of 2014, NPPD says it will be within 45 MW of its target of having 10% of its energy resources come from renewable energy.
