Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of investor-owned Ameren Corporation, on May 21 said that it has entered into an agreement to acquire, after construction, a 400-megawatt wind farm in northeast Missouri, which Ameren said will be the largest ever in the state.
The facility will be built by an affiliate of Terra-Gen, LLC. and groundbreaking is expected in summer 2019.
The wind farm will consist of 175 wind turbines that will stand more than 450 feet above the ground. According to Ameren, the turbines will be among the most technologically advanced in the state.
The wind farm will benefit from expanded transmission capacity made possible by Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois' Mark Twain Transmission Project, which was approved in January by the Missouri Public Service Commission. The project is a 96-mile, 345,000-volt transmission line and substation to be built in northeast Missouri and has a targeted in-service date of December 2019.
The wind farm transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including timely approval from the PSC and obtaining a timely and acceptable Midcontinent Independent System Operator transmission interconnection agreement, Ameren noted
The company said that the wind farm deal t is the first major step in implementing Ameren Missouri's 20-year integrated resource plan. Ameren said the plan is consistent with Missouri's Renewable Energy Standard, which was passed by voters in 2008 and requires investor-owned utilities to utilize eligible renewable energy technologies to meet of 15% of annual retail sales by 2021.
Planned investments under the IRP include approximately $1 billion to build wind generation projects in Missouri and possibly neighboring states, resulting in at least 700 MW of new wind-generated energy by 2020. The new wind farm would meet more than half of that planned capacity.
Ameren Missouri also expects to add 100 MW of solar-generated energy over the next 10 years, with 50 MW targeted to come online by 2025.
