The wind farm will be located on 19,000 acres of privately-owned lands in McDonough and Warren Counties, Illinois. The total cost of the wind farm is estimated to be between $236m to $246m.
In April 2018, Capital Power announced that construction on the Cardinal Point Wind Project would begin once all the regulatory approvals are in place. The wind farm is expected to begin operations in next March.
Black & Veatch renewable energy group global director Dave Leligdon said: “Sustainability and resilience have become market drivers that are reshaping how the industry views the economics of renewable energy.
“Growing demand for wind and solar PV and the need to integrate renewable solutions with conventional generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure have changed the dynamics of the power market and are introducing incredible new opportunities.”
As per Black & Veatch, the project underscores its expertise in executing wind farms and the contract was received after it recently reorganized its Power business. Under the new vertical, the company will provide full spectrum services to EPC solutions across the entire product life cycle for onshore wind, repowering and offshore wind applications.
Earlier, Black & Veatch partnered with Capital Power to provide engineering solutions on the company’s Clover Bar Energy Centre, a 243MW natural gas facility in Alberta.
Capital Power said that it will operate the wind farm under a 12-year fixed price contract with a US financial institution covering 85% of the facility’s output. Additionally, the company had secured 15-year, fixed-price Renewable Energy Credit (REC) contracts with three Illinois utilities.
Capital Power operations, engineering and construction senior vice president Darcy Trufyn said: “Adding Cardinal Point Wind to Capital Power’s generation assets continues the growth of our renewable portfolio across North America and demonstrates continued execution of this core element of our strategy.
“We are excited to work with Black & Veatch again to deliver this wind power project in Illinois.”
