Sunflower Electric Power Corp. has signed a contract to purchase 24 MW of energy generated from the second phase of the Smoky Hills wind project, Smoky Hills II. The project site is located 25 miles west of Salina, Kan. Sunflower previously purchased 50.4 MW from the project's first phase.
TradeWind Energy is developing Smoky Hills II with an agreement to sell it to Enel North America Inc. Enel purchased Smoky Hills I from TradeWind in early 2007 and is now completing construction of the 100.8 MW project. The contract between Sunflower and a subsidiary of TradeWind Energy is a 20-year power purchase agreement. It is anticipated that construction will be completed and energy will be available to Sunflower prior to the end of the year, according to the utility.
Upon completion, customers of Sunflower's member cooperatives will receive wind energy equal to 13% of the company's peak demand. This exceeds Sunflower's voluntary commitment to have at least 10% of their peak demand from wind resources by 2010.
