Two more Fortune 500 firms sign on to ALLETE’s Oklahoma wind projects

 

ALLETE Clean Energy says it has made two more renewable energy sale agreements with two more Fortune 500 companies to receive power from its Caddo wind site under construction in western Oklahoma.

Oshkosh Corporation and Hormel Foods agreed to receive a combined 100 megawatts from the wind farm once it is operational.

 

The 303-megawatt Caddo site, with renewable energy sale agreements with three investment-grade Fortune 500 customers, will double ALLETE Clean Energy’s capacity to serve the accelerating corporate demand for clean energy. The project is in Caddo County in the southwestern part of the state.

“We’re proud to work with two leading Upper Midwest corporations to help them achieve their sustainability goals with Caddo’s renewable energy,” said ALLETE Clean Energy President Allan S. Rudeck Jr.

The project has the support of local communities, where benefits include more than $50 million in tax revenue, $54 million in payments to landowners, and the creation of about 200 jobs during construction and 12 to 15 long-term operations jobs.

Global innovator Oshkosh Corporation has been named one of FORTUNE’s World’s Most Admired Companies, one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek, one of the Top 100 Most Sustainable Companies by Barron’s and is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Oshkosh has a goal of a 25% reduction in normalized greenhouse gas emissions at its facilities by 2024 when compared with 2014.

Hormel Foods, named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek and one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media, recently announced its goal to match 100% of its energy with renewable sourcing by 2030. The Caddo wind site will help the company achieve around 50% of its goal when the project is completed.

Caddo’s approximately 110 turbines will produce enough energy to power the equivalent of about 110,000 homes, and increases ALLETE Clean Energy’s total operating, under construction and build-transfer wind energy projects to more than 1,450 megawatts of nameplate capacity.

The company’s recent growth has come through serving new commercial and industrial customers through the Diamond Spring and Caddo projects in Oklahoma. ALLETE Clean Energy purchased both sites from Apex Clean Energy and, as at Diamond Spring, the two companies will work together to finalize development and construction of Caddo.

The Caddo site is expected to be operational by the end of 2021 and qualify for the safe harbor provision of federal renewable energy production tax credits. ALLETE Clean Energy continues to own an inventory of safe harbor turbines and is exploring additional opportunities to put more of them to use to serve customers.

ALLETE Clean Energy  headquartered in Minnesota acquires, develops and operates clean and renewable energy projects. ALLETE Clean Energy owns, operates, has in advanced construction and has delivered build-transfer projects totaling more than 1,450 megawatts of nameplate wind capacity across seven states.