Google to Buy Power From Future Beaver County Wind Farm

Beaver County will play home to a wind farm which helps powers Google. Renewable Energy Systems (RES) announced Wednesday it had sole the Bluestem Wind Project to Exelon Generation.

RES developed the project and is the contractor for its engineering, procurement and construction. The deal was closed on December 24, 2015, with construction ordered to begin. A deal for the turbines with Vestas was also closed that day.

The construction project is expected to provide about 300 jobs and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The northwest Oklahoma wind farm will be 198 megawatts from 60 turbines. RES has developed seven wind farms in Oklahoma. The Bluestem is the first project for Exelon.

Google has signed a power purchase agreement for the project. It is part of Google’s plan to buy more renewable energy.

“RES is pleased to work with Exelon and Google in the pursuit of making data centers greener for the economy of tomorrow,” said RES, Americas Chief Executive Officer Glen Davis. “Renewable energy generation will play a critical role for leading companies across the country as they strive to reduce their environmental footprint and secure long term economic renewable resources to power their industries.”

“We are excited about closing the Bluestem transaction and working with RES to add additional renewable and carbon-free generation to Exelon’s operating fleet,” said Exelon Generation Development Vice President Corey Hessen. “We look forward to providing clean, cost effective energy to Google under this long-term agreement.”

The project will bring a total of 845,000 MWh per year to the Southern Power Pool electrical system, enough to power 77,000 homes.