ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLET, announced its plan to build, own and operate a 100-megawatt wind farm in Morton and Mercer counties in North Dakota.
The company has also signed a20-year power purchase agreement to supply electricity to Xcel Energy.
Under development since 2011, the Clean Energy 1 project located north of Glen Ullin, North Dakota, has been permitted by the North Dakota Public Service Commission and has landowner agreements in place. Construction is expected to begin in 2018.
The project is expected to be complete in 2019.
ALLETE Clean Energy also supplies wind power to Xcel Energy through purchase agreements at ALLETE Clean Energy’s Chanarambie/Viking and Lake Benton wind farms in Minnesota.
ALLETE Clean Energy owns and operates wind generation facilities in Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon and Pennsylvania that were purchased from other companies. It also developed the 107.5-megawatt Thunder Spirit wind farm in North Dakota, which was sold to Montana-Dakota Utilities in 2015.
ALLETE Clean Energy in January 2017 announced a plan to expand Thunder Spirit to about 150 megawatts through a PPA with Montana-Dakota Utilities, which also has an option to purchase the expansion.
“Wind prices are at historic lows and we’re taking advantage of these low-cost projects to transition our energy fleet and secure these prices for our customers,” said Chris Clark, president, Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. “Our customers count on us to provide reliable and affordable energy and this investment will do just that.”
ALLETE Clean Energy was established in 2011 to acquire or develop capital projects to create energy solutions by way of wind, solar, biomass, hydro, natural gas, shale resources, clean coal technology and other emerging innovations.
When Clean Energy 1 is complete, ALLETE Clean Energy will own and operate about 640 megawatts of wind generation capacity in five states while adding a long term PPA to its sales portfolio.