Enel Green Power North America has started operations at its 450MW High Lonesome wind farm in Texas.
The $720m project is expected to generate about 1.9 terrawatt-hours of electricity a year.
A 12-year power purchase agreement has also been signed for 20.6MW to supply Danone North America, meaning that the project, located in Upton and Crockett Counties, will be expanded by 50MW to 500MW.
Construction of the additional capacity is currently underway and is due online in the first quarter of 2020.
The agreement between Enel and Danone North America will provide enough electricity to produce the equivalent of almost 800 million cups of yogurt and over 80 million gallons of milk each year.
It will support the food and beverage company’s commitment to securing 100% of its purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Enel Green Power chief executive Antonio Cammisecra said: “The start of operations of Enel’s largest wind farm in the world marks a significant achievement for our company and reinforces our global commitment to accelerated renewable energy growth
“This milestone is matched with a new partnership with Danone North America to support their renewable goals, a reinforcement of our continued commitment to provide customers with tailored solutions to meet their sustainability goals.”
Danone North America president and chief executive Mariano Lozano said: “This is an exciting and significant step as we continue to advance our 2030 renewable electricity goals.
“As a public benefit corporation committed to balancing the needs of our business with those of society and the planet, we truly believe that this agreement makes sense from both a business and sustainability point of view.
“We’re delighted to be working with Enel Green Power to expand their High Lonesome wind farm and grow the renewable electricity infrastructure here in the US.”
A 295MW portion of the electricity produced by the project will be hedged under a proxy revenue swap (PRS) with insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s alternative risk transfer unit and Nephila Climate, a provider of weather and climate risk management products.
The PRS is a financial derivative agreement designed to produce stable revenues for the project regardless of power price fluctuations and weather-driven intermittency, hedging the project from this kind of risk in addition to that associated with price and volume.
Under the PRS agreement, High Lonesome will receive fixed payments based on the expected value of future energy production, with adjustments paid depending on how the realised proxy revenue of the project differs from the fixed payment.