EDF Renewable Energy, EDF Energies Nouvelles’ subsidiary in North America, has signed an agreement to supply Google, a subsidiary company of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) with 200 megawatts (MW) of wind energy generated from the new Glaciers Edge Wind Project in Iowa.
Glaciers Edge Wind Project, located in Cherokee County in the northwest portion of the state, is expected to create more than 150 jobs during the construction phase along with millions of dollars injected into the local economy. Once the wind farm comes online, anticipated in December 2019, the additional capacity will help Google reach its goal of purchasing enough renewable energy to match its energy consumption for global operations.
Dai Owen, Director, Power Marketing for EDF RE commented, “The strong U.S. wind market relies in part on America’s corporate sector and companies like Google, who through the purchase of wind energy demonstrate leadership in the drive for a low-carbon economy. Their commitment allowed Glaciers Edge to proceed, providing an economic boost to the Iowa economy, through new construction and operations jobs, expanded tax base, and recurring, long-term income for participating landowners.”
“Renewables from projects like Glacier’s Edge bring value to our business as we scale and accelerate investment in the communities where we operate,” said Gary Demasi, Google’s director of global infrastructure. “With solar and wind declining dramatically in cost and propelling significant employment growth, the transition to clean energy is driving unprecedented economic opportunity and doing so faster than we ever anticipated.”
EDF RE and Google forged a relationship in December 2012, when Google made an approximately $200 million equity investment in EDF RE’s Spinning Spur Wind Project, located in Oldham County, Texas. The business partnership progressed in 2016 with the power purchase agreement for the Great Western Wind Project in Oklahoma which supplies Google with 225 MW of clean electricity.
EDF RE is a leading developer among corporate buyers of renewables which demonstrates the trust that sustainability-conscious companies place in EDF RE to deliver value. The Company’s growing North America portfolio of corporate purchasers including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Walmart and Yahoo.
Glaciers Edge will bring the EDF RE’s portfolio of wind project development in Iowa to 1.1 GW.
EDF Renewable Energy is a leading US independent power producer with over 30 years of expertise in the renewable industry, covering all range of services from project origination, development, sales and marketing, to long-term asset management. EDF Renewable Energy specializes in wind and solar photovoltaic with presence in other segments of the renewable energy market: distributed electricity, storage, biogas, and biomass. EDF Renewable Energy’s North American portfolio consists of 9 gigawatts of developed projects with 4.4 gigawatts of installed capacity throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. The operations and maintenance subsidiary, EDF Renewable Services, operates 10 gigawatts throughout North America. EDF Renewable Energy is a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles. EDF Energies Nouvelles is the renewable energy arm of the EDF group, the leading electricity company in the world.
EDF Energies Nouvelles is a market leader in renewable energy electricity, with a portfolio of more than 10 GW gross installed capacity focused for the most part on wind (onshore and offshore) and solar photovoltaic energy. Mostly operating in Europe and North America, EDF Energies Nouvelles continues its development by taking strong positions in promising emerging areas such as Brazil, Chile, China, India or South Africa. The Company is also present in other segments of the renewable energy market: marine energy, distributed energies and energy storage. EDF Energies Nouvelles manages renewable energy projects’ development and construction as well as operation and maintenance for its own account and for third parties. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of the EDF Group dedicated to renewable energy.
