A third large wind power project has won a purchase agreement from Nebraska Public Power District, opening the way to building a wind turbine farm near Broken Bow, Neb., to generate electricity by the end of 2012.
NPPD said Tuesday it signed a 20-year agreement to purchase power from the wind farm, which could generate up to 80 megawatts of electricity. The agreement is with Midwest Wind Energy LLC and Edison Mission Group, both from Chicago, and Edison’s local affiliate, Broken Bow Wind LLC, which will own and operate the facility.
Construction is to begin in October 2011. Construction could cost about $160 million, said Edison spokeswoman Susan Olavarria. The number of turbines depends on each turbine’s size, which has not been determined, she said.
Edison is completing a 54-turbine project near Petersburg, Neb., of about the same capacity. The first NPPD-related project, near Bloomfield, Neb., and with the same capacity, began operating last year with 27 larger turbines.
Together, the three would generate about 5 percent of NPPD’s power. NPPD’s board set a goal of using renewable sources to generate 10 percent of its electricity by 2020, said Dave Rich, renewable energy development manager.
No other projects are pending, spokesman Mark Becker said, but NPPD would seek others in time to meet the goal.
NPPD reaches purchase agreements with outside developers on such projects because the state’s publicly owned utilities can’t benefit from federal tax incentives to build wind farms. The private developers receive the tax incentives instead.
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