French energy company Engie’s subsidiary Engie North America has broken ground on the 200MW Live Oak wind project in west Texas.

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Image: A wind farm in operation. Photo: courtesy of 2nix/Freedigitalphotos.net.

Estimated to cost around $200m, the new wind farm, which is being built in Schleicher County, near San Angelo, is aimed to be placed into operations by the year end.

The Live Oak wind farm will feature 76×2.625MW wind turbines manufactured by Siemens-Gamesa. These wind turbines will come with 120m rotors, said Engie which has appointed Blattner Energy to construct the balance of the wind project.

Engie North America senior vice president and US wind development head Matt Riley said: “We are thrilled to break ground on the Live Oak project so soon after completing our sale to ENGIE.

“It’s a testament to the strength of the acquisition and our collective drive to build the strongest wind portfolio possible in the United States. Live Oak is just the first of many successes we expect over the coming months and years.”

The Schleicher County wind farm is part of the Infinity Renewables portfolio, which was acquired by Engie North America for an undisclosed price in February.

Infinity Renewables, which is a California-based wind project developer, started developing the Live Oak wind project in 2009. Since then, it had engaged with landowners and the local community for a number of years to push the wind project towards construction stage.

By adding Infinity Renewables to its fold, Engie North America has grown its wind development portfolio by more than 8,000MW through the wind projects of the former. These wind facilities are in various phases of development.

Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Infinity Renewables had developed and sold almost 12 wind projects with a total capacity of over 1.6GW along with its funding and development partner MAP Renewable Energy.

Infinity Wind Power is also the developer of the 280MW Western Plains wind project, owned by Westar Energy, which was commissioned in 2016. The Engie North America subsidiary was also a co-developer of the EDF-owned 250MW Roosevelt wind farm, which was placed into service in 2015.