Orsted has expanded its footprint in the US Southwest Power Pool (SPP) via the acquisition and final investment decision of the 298MW Haystack Wind project in Wayne County, Nebraska.
Situated next to Orsted’s 230MW Plum Creek wind farm, Haystack will utilise existing interconnection infrastructure in SPP North.
Haystack is expected to come online in fourth quarter 2021, adding further diversity to Orsted’s portfolio of onshore wind, solar PV, and energy storage across Texas, the Midwest and Southeast US.
Orsted Onshore CFO Vishal Kapadia said: “The acquisition of Haystack adds another large-scale project in a region with robust wind resource to our onshore portfolio and is a further reflection of our continuing strategy to supplement our core development activities with opportunistic acquisitions.”
On average, the project will contribute $4m per year in local taxes and landowner payments to the community and will employ 300 construction workers at its peak.
With the addition of Haystack Wind, Orsted’s onshore business has now reached 3GW of capacity in operation and under construction.