As per Acciona, the wind farm is being built at a total cost of €176m and will include 46 of Nordex’s wind turbines. The wind farm is expected to be connected to the grid by next November.
The wind farm is located in Cameron County, near the San Roman wind farm that Acciona commissioned in December 2016.
For this wind farm, Nordex, the German wind turbine-maker will supply its AW125/3150 model turbines. Each of these turbines will have a rotor diameter of 125m, which will be mounted on 87.5m steel tower.
The clean energy generated from the wind farm will be sold in the ERCOT-South Texas wholesale market.
This new wind farm will generate nearly 524GWh of clean energy per year. This is equal to the consumption of 43,000 US households, while avoiding emissions of nearly 503,000 metric tons of CO2. The wind farm will have a lifespan of 25 years.
During the construction phase, the Palmas Altas project will generate nearly 170 jobs. When completed, 10 permanent jobs will be created for operations of the site.
With the construction of this wind farm, Acciona will increase its US wind power capacity to 866MW.
Acciona Energy USA Global CEO Rafael Esteban said: “We are proud to be furthering our investment in the United States, one of our main strategic markets where we remain alert to any opportunity offered by this promising sector.”
The Palmas Altas is Acciona’s ninth wind project in the country. In April, the company stated that the wind farm could generate nearly $40m in local tax revenue and more than $44m in lease payments to local landowners.
Presently, the company owns and operates eight wind farms including 93MW San Roman, three wind farms in Oklahoma with 329MW, two in the Dakotas with 192MW, one in Illinois with 101MW and one in Iowa with 6MW. It also has a 64MW CSP plant in the Nevada Desert.
