Avangrid Renewables has achieved commercial operation at its 200MW Golden Hills wind farm in Oregon, US.
The facility, in Sherman County, provides electricity to Puget Sound Energy (PSE), helping the supplier meet its goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while providing additional capacity to serve customers, particularly during winter periods of high electricity demand.
Golden Hills is Avangrid Renewables’ seventh wind farm in Sherman County, its eleventh in Oregon, and its fourteenth in the Pacific Northwest.
The power purchase agreement for the project was signed in May 2020 as part of PSE’s commitment to the environment and deep decarbonization by investing in more wind energy.
The addition of Golden Hills increases PSE’s owned and contracted wind fleet to over 1150MW.
Golden Hills is located near the town of Wasco and features 41 Vestas V150 4.3MW turbines and 10 GE 116 2.5MW turbines.
It is spread across grazing and dry-land wheat farmland held by 37 landowners.
Avangrid Renewables started construction on the project in May 2020.
“Delivering on this project represents an important milestone for Avangrid Renewables as we continue to build on our robust portfolio of project in the Pacific Northwest region and advance our position as a leading renewable energy developer in the US,” said Jose Antonio Miranda, Avangrid Renewables’ onshore president and CEO.
“We are pleased to work with Puget Sound Energy to help it meet its ambitious goals to reduce emissions and provide clean, reliable power to its customers.”
PSE energy supply vice president Ron Roberts said: “We are excited for this next step and what this partnership with Avangrid Renewables means as we continue to build on our history of championing renewable energy in the Pacific Northwest.
“This new wind project will enable us to expand our efforts toward providing clean, reliable electric service to all of our customers as we work together to create a clean energy future for all.”
Avangrid Renewables acquired the Golden Hills project in September 2017 from the original developer of the project, Orion Wind Resources, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group and Eolian.