Orsted acquired the already operational 302MW Lincoln Land Wind onshore array in the state of Illinois, as it expanded its US footprint with a project that has long-term power purchase contracts with Meta (the newly-renamed Facebook group) and McDonald's.
The Danish utility bought the wind farm from fund managed by Ares Management Corporation’s Infrastructure and Power strategy. The name is unrelated to the former Lincoln Clean Energy, which Orsted took over in 2018 before fully integrating it into its own operations.
“I’m delighted that we’re acquiring Lincoln Land Wind and that we continue to expand our footprint in the US,” said Vishal Kapadia, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Orsted Onshore.
“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.”
The project in Morgan County, which reached commercial operations last week, is Orsted’s first expansion into the US MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) power market, which covers 15 states in the Midwest and South.
Meta (formerly the Facebook company) and McDonald’s have both signed long-term fixed-price PPAs to purchase approximately 175MW and 126MW, respectively, of clean power output from Lincoln Land Wind.
“At Meta, we’re committed to not only supporting our operations with 100% renewable energy, but to helping accelerate the transition to renewable energy,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Meta.
“With our new data centre being built in DeKalb in Illinois, we’re excited to help bring new renewable energy to the Illinois grid."
The acquisition brings Orsted’s total US capacity to over 4.2GW in operation and under construction.
