Enel Green Power officially opened its Red Dirt wind farm near Hennessey this week with an Open Plant event attended by 120 people.
Located in Kingfisher and Logan Counties, the wind farm consists of 95 wind turbines across 60,000 acres of land. Red Dirt has power purchase agreements with T-Mobile US, Inc. and the Grand River Dam Authority. The GRDA in turn sells the renewable energy to Google under a separate agreement. The wind farm produces enough energy annually to power 97,000 households.
Enel Green Power pointed out that Red Dirt is one of two of its Oklahoma wind farms built without any state incentives. The company said the farm is expected to invest nearly $35 million in property taxes over the life of the project.
“I believe it is important for Enel Green Power to initiate and support this type of event in our local communities,” said Mark McMillin, Red Dirt Site supervisor. “It’s a great chance to demonstrate to people here that we are part of this local community and we have this great opportunity to meet with our local stakeholders and help put a face to the names of Enel Green Power employees in this area.”
Landowners were among those who attended the event which included food and music.
“This site has been good for the county, the whole county has benefited financially,” said Ron Ingle, a landowner. “When they were building on my land construction workers supported stores in Hennessey, Kingfisher and Dover. The property taxes are going to help out the local economy a lot as well.”
Stephen Pollard is another landowner and he called Enel Green Power a good corporate neighbor.
“I think the Red Dirt wind farm has been great. They’ve done a good job in our community and everyone at the site has gone out of their way to make us happy.”