The project will be 30 MW and will be fully operational by the end of 2012. An interconnection agreement with PJM has been secured and power will be sold on the merchant market. The Patton project is located in Elder, West Carroll, and East Carroll Townships across approximately 2,700 acres of agriculture land. According to EverPower, the project will provide approximately 100 jobs during construction, and up to 10 full-time jobs required to operate and maintain the project over the next thirty years.
As a Community Wind turbines project, with local ownership of the farm, it enjoys unprecedented local support and will provide incremental economic development for the region. Many of the workers will be drawn from the local labor pool and non-local workers will require lodging, food and other necessities that will be also purchased locally, which will benefit local businesses. In addition to construction jobs, locally purchased goods and services will be needed. These construction materials include gravel, concrete, wood, fencing, steel rebar, cabling and fuel.
The development companies worked together to obtain funding in the amount of $3.2m from the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) under the Renewable Energy program. The award will improve the project’s viability in a challenging market environment and help enable the Patton Wind Farm to provide clean, renewable energy to more than 9,000 households and move Pennsylvania closer it its renewable energy targets.
The Community Wind power project was started by Saint Francis University’s Renewable Energy Center. The university installed a meteorological tower in Patton and Ebensburg and found that the area was suitable for a wind farm. The university requested proposals from Community Wind developers and in what was a highly competitive process OwnEnergy was ultimately chosen to develop the project. OwnEnergy then partnered with local entrepreneur Marty Yahner to secure land and begin development of the wind farm.
‘We’re the Sixth generation of Yahners to farm and live in the Patton community,’ said Marty Yahner. When I learned that a wind farm would be developed here, I was excited by the prospect, but wanted to make sure it would work for me and my neighbors. By taking this Community Wind development approach, OwnEnergy enabled us to get comfortable with the many aspects of the project, while getting involved in a more meaningful way and sharing in the profits.’
Jacob Susman, Founder and CEO of OwnEnergy, said, ‘This is an exciting opportunity for OwnEnergy, The Yahner Family and the local Cambria county community. EverPower will get this project built next year, which means the community will see the benefits of the wind farm immediately and for many years to come.’
The Patton Wind Project will be EverPower’s fourth Pennsylvania project and third in Cambria County. The 62.5 MW Highland Wind Farm, located in Adams Township became operational in 2009. The 75 MW Highland North Wind Farm is located in townships of Adams and Summerhill and will become operational by the end of the year. In 2012, EverPower hopes to be constructing the Twin Ridges Wind Farm, a 140 MW wind farm located in Somerset County. Combined, the three wind farms are expected to have an annual economic impact of over $4 million on the region’s economy.
‘I am very excited to announce the acquisition of the Patton Wind Project,’ said Jim Spencer, president and CEO of EverPower Wind Holdings. ‘This strategic acquisition solidifies our presence in Pennsylvania. It also helps us achieve a milestone of having over 300 MW of operating assets in Pennsylvania by the end of 2012 and to become the prominent wind energy provider in the Commonwealth.’
OwnEnergy is a Community Wind developer of mid-sized, utility scale wind projects that enable landowners and communities to build and profit directly from their own local wind farms. The Company works in partnership with its nationwide network of energy entrepreneurs to develop the approximately 30 community wind farms in its 1,500MW pipeline. OwnEnergy has a breakthrough business model for the profitable and capital-efficient development of these mid-size wind farms that involves a community ownership model and proprietary development systems. The company is based in Brooklyn, New York and is active in sixteen US states.
Founded in 2002, EverPower Wind Holdings, Inc., is a developer of utility-grade wind energy projects with offices in New York City; Pittsburgh; Portland, OR; and Bellefontaine, OH. EverPower has 17 projects in eight states in various stages of development totaling more than 2,100 MWs. Four projects are in the advance stage of development, three which are expected to be constructed in 2012 – The 72.5 MW Allegany Wind Project, the 30 MW Patton Wind Project and the 140 MW Twin Ridges Wind Farm. EverPower is owned by its employees and the private equity firm, Terra Firma, which has a range of institutional investors with the largest proportion being US-based.
Terra Firma is a leading European private equity firm which specializes in buy-outs of asset-rich businesses in essential industries. It creates values for those businesses by delivering improved strategy, operations and management. Since being set up in 1994, Terra Firma has invested over euro 13 billion of equity and completed transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of euro 44 billion. Terra Firma’s renewable energy businesses include Infinis which is the UK’s leading independent purely renewable energy generator, and RTR, which is the market leading solar photovoltaic (PV) generation business in Italy.
