Two New Wind Farms for Oklahoma

In Oklahoma, Enel Green Power North America, Inc. (EGP-NA) has completed and connected to the grid the Drift Sand and Chisholm View II wind power plants, marking a major milestone for the company of more than 1 GW of installed capacity in the state.

Located in Grant and Garfield counties, Chisholm View II is an expansion of the existing 235 MW Chisholm View wind farm, bringing the site’s total installed capacity to 300 MW. The Drift Sand wind project is located in Rush Springs, in Grady County, Oklahoma and has installed total capacity of 108 MW.

"These projects signify our growing strength and presence in the state of Oklahoma and across the US," said Rafael Gonzalez, Head of Enel Green Power North America. “We will continue to be long-term partners in the state both in supporting Oklahoma’s energy economy and its local communities that we call home.”

The Chisholm View II wind farm is expected to generate over 240 million kWh annually – equivalent to the energy consumption needs of over 19,000 U.S. households – while avoiding the emission of over 126,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Drift Sand is expected to generate annually around 480 million kWh, enough to energize over 39,000 U.S. households and avoid the emission of about 348,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually.

Both the Drift Sand and Chisholm View II wind farms were developed in partnership with leading renewable energy developer Tradewind Energy, a strategic partner of EGP-NA.

“Tradewind Energy has developed over 1,000 MW of wind energy projects in Oklahoma, and we are proud to have reached this milestone in growing the renewable energy economy in the state. We are committed to growing local and state economies and driving energy independence across the United States,” said Rob Freeman, chief executive officer for Tradewind Energy.

The wind projects will provide low cost, renewable energy and a boost in economic development to its local communities.Already, EGP-NA operates six other wind farms in Oklahoma representing an overall investment of more than $1.8 billion, the creation of more than 1,600 construction jobs and 80 full-time jobs and millions in local, long-term community investments and partnerships that address local needs and economic development opportunities.

“This investment from Enel Green Power North America is welcome news to the Enid community and Northwestern Oklahoma,” said Brent Kisling, Director of the Enid Regional Development Alliance. “We welcomed our first wind farm, Chisholm View, to the area a few years ago because of the strong economic impact we knew it would provide for decades to come.  Now, we are pleased that this wind farm has expanded with Chisholm View II, which will once again provide revenue to our landowners and will provide much needed tax dollars to our communities and schools.”

Recently, at its Drift Sand wind project in Rush Springs, EGP-NA has partnered with Rush Springs Schools to support the district’s One-to-One technology program that provides laptops to students. Through its partnership, EGP-NA made financial and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) based educational resource commitments to Rush Spring Schools, enabling the school to purchase 50 Chrome Books to help drive innovation in the classroom. Additionally, EGP-NA is planning to organize renewable energy-based teacher training to support the expansion of STEM based learning.

With the start of operations of the Chisholm View II and Drift Sand wind farms, EGPNA now manages the second largest wind capacity in Oklahoma with a total of eight wind sites including Rocky Ridge (150 MW), the aforementioned Chisholm View, Origin (150 MW), Osage Wind (150 MW), Little Elk (74 MW) and Goodwell (200 MW). Since EGPNA entered the Oklahoma wind market in 2012, the company has experienced a six-fold increase in capacity in the state.

EGP-NA operates more than 100 renewable energy plants across 23 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces representing a total installed capacity of more than 2.6 GW produced by geothermal, hydro, solar and wind technologies.