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Avangrid, member of the Iberdrola Group, announced the signing of a new power purchase agreement (PPA) with Amazon to source renewable energy from an Avangrid wind farm located in Gilliam County, Oregon. The Amazon Wind Farm Oregon – Leaning Juniper IIA will have a capacity of 98.4 MW.
Leaning Juniper project. Credit: Avangrid
“We are proud to have signed this agreement with Amazon, a company that shares our commitment to accelerating the global transition to renewable energy,” said Pedro Azagra, Avangrid CEO. “With projects like this, we are not only supporting Amazon’s climate goals, but creating jobs and contributing to local communities.”
“Amazon is excited to announce our first utility-scale renewable energy project in Oregon,” said Abhishek Sharma, Head of Energy Strategy for Amazon Web Services (AWS). “The project adds to the 2 GW of renewable energy capacity Amazon has already enabled across the western U.S. grid. This has contributed to Amazon being the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for four years running, and will help Amazon remain on a path to utilizing 100% renewable energy for the electricity powering its operations by 2025.”
Amazon Wind Farm Oregon – Leaning Juniper IIA is a repowering project that will significantly extend the life of the existing wind farm (built in 2006) and make it work more efficiently. Consisting of 40 turbines, the wind farm will produce enough energy to power 22,800 homes every year. During construction, the project will support about 200 jobs.
Additionally, Avangrid has executed contracts to recycle all turbine blades that will be decommissioned with this project, which is estimated to divert more than 1,000 tons of mass from landfill.
“Repowering represents a tremendous opportunity for Avangrid to capitalize on benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Azagra. “Avangrid’s large existing onshore wind fleet will enable many more repowerings like this one over the next decade. In doing so, we take advantage of improving technologies to generate more renewable power more efficiently and extend the positive impact these projects deliver locally.”
Through the Avangrid Community Sponsorship Program, the wind farm has contributed to local libraries, pre-schools, and firefighters. Repowering the project through Amazon’s investment ensures this work can continue. The project has also paid more than $11 million in local property taxes to date, supporting public services like education and safety, and these tax contributions will continue after repowering.
News item from Avangrid
Filed Under: News, Projects, Repowering
