Orsted has acquired the 302MW Lincoln Land onshore wind farm in the US state of Illinois from funds managed by Ares Management’s Infrastructure and Power strategy.
The project, located in Morgan County, is fully contracted via power purchase agreements with Meta, formerly the Facebook company, and McDonald’s, which have signed for approximately 175MW and 126MW of electricity respectively.
Lincoln Land reached commercial operation last week and was previously purchased by Ares from US developer Apex Clean Energy.
The PPAs with McDonald’s and Meta were entered into in 2020 and are effective as of the project’s commercial operations date.
The Danish developer has set an ambition to reach a global onshore capacity of 17.5GW in 2030 and aims to deliver approximately 1.5GW of additional capacity annually.
The acquisition of Lincoln Land brings Orsted’s total US capacity to over 4.2GW in operation and under construction, the developer said.
Orsted senior vice president and chief commercial officer Vishal Kapadia said: “This transaction represents the continued successful execution of our strategy of complementing our robust organic growth with opportunistic acquisitions in attractive new markets.
“The project is of significant scale and benefits from PPAs with Meta and McDonald’s, and we’re excited to be able to support both companies in their decarbonisation journeys.”
Ares Infrastructure and Power partner and co-head Keith Derman said: “We’re pleased to have reached this agreement with Ørsted, and we believe this demonstrates the continued benefit of a value-add strategy in North American renewable energy.
“We’re proud to have worked with Apex, Meta, McDonald’s, and Morgan County to support their sustainability objectives and bring jobs to the local community.”
Meta head of renewable energy Urvi Parekh said: “At Meta, we’re committed to not only supporting our operations with 100 % renewable energy, but to helping accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
“With our new data centre being built in DeKalb in Illinois, we’re excited to help bring new renewable energy to the Illinois grid.”
McDonald’s global renewable energy lead Emma Cox said: “As a Chicago resident, McDonald’s is incredibly excited to be a part of a project in Southern Illinois and help generate renewable energy close to home.
“This project represents another important step towards our ambitious climate action goals and brings to life our values around supporting the communities we serve.”