POWER December 2016 - 25

TOP PLANTS
1. Grand opening dedication ceremony
at the 150-MW Amazon
Wind Farm Fowler Ridge. Courtesy:
Pattern Energy
Fowler Ridge consists of 65 Siemens 2.3MW
wind turbines whose turbine blades,
nacelles, towers, and transformers were
manufactured in the U.S. Turbine blades
were manufactured at the Siemens factory
in Ft. Madison, Iowa; nacelles were manufactured
at the Siemens factory in Hutchinson,
Kansas; turbine towers were made in
Wisconsin by Broadwind and in Michigan
by Ventower; and the 67 pad-mount transformers
came from the Siemens facility in
Richland, Miss.
cloud services. Though no specific date
has been placed on that " long-term commitment, "
the total megawatt
value of that
sourcing goal is likely a moving target as the
AWS business grows. The company says it
and other large-scale cloud-computing providers
already use a power mix that is 28%
less carbon-intensive than the global average.
By April 2015, roughly 25% of AWS's power
consumption globally was from renewable
sources. Its goal is to reach 40% by the end
of this year, and a wind farm in Indiana is
helping it get there.
Powering Clouds with Wind
It's poetically fitting that a cloud services
company is getting increasing amounts of
its energy from the wind and the sun. The
150-MW Amazon Wind Farm Fowler Ridge
(Fowler Ridge) is expected to generate approximately
500,000 MWh annually. All
of the project's output will be purchased by
AWS and fed to the local grid, which serves
AWS data centers in the area.
The project was developed by independent
power company Pattern Energy after
purchasing the project from Pattern Energy
Group LP (Pattern Development), the company's
main shareholder, in 2015. Fowler
Ridge was financed with equity rather than
debt: Pattern Energy has an owned interest of
116 MW, and institutional tax equity investors
acquired the balance.
The project was completed on schedule in
January and was officially dedicated on August
5 (see Table 1 and Figure 1).
December 2016 | POWER
" Siemens is proud that workers at our factories
in the Midwest produced the turbines
for the Amazon Wind Farm Fowler Ridge,
which continues an exciting trend of technology
companies and major corporations turning
to wind power for their energy needs. As
wind becomes an increasingly important part
of our nation's energy mix, we are pleased
to partner once again with Pattern Energy to
deliver sustainable and affordable wind energy, "
said Jacob Andersen, CEO Onshore
Americas, Siemens Wind Power and Renewables
Division at the dedication.
If you've only seen wind turbines in photos
or from a distance, they can seem deceivingly
simple and small-compared with traditional
power facilities-especially as they are often
spread out across wide open areas. But
up close, their size is substantial. The models
used for Fowler Ridge have a nacelle that sits
about as high as a 26-story building, and the
blades sweep an area roughly the size of a
football field.
An average of 175 workers were on site
during construction, which was managed
by Mortenson Construction, with up to 300
workers on site during peak construction activity.
Ten full-time permanent workers operate
and maintain the facility.
Fowler Ridge is expected to add an estimated
$45 million over 25 years to the regional
economy through property taxes,
landowner royalties, and support for local
causes, according to Pattern Energy.
An Industry-Changing Trend
In addition to the Fowler Ridge project,
Amazon signed three other power purchase
agreements in 2015 that launched these renewable
developments:
■ The 80-MW Amazon Solar Farm US
East is a photovoltaic facility in Accomack
County, Virginia, that is expected
to generate approximately 170,000
MWh annually.
■ The 208-MW Amazon Wind Farm US
East is located in Perquimans and Pasquotank
Counties in North Carolina and is expected
to generate approximately 670,000
MWh annually, starting in December
www.powermag.com
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
First of four significant
investments by a single nonutility
corporation in gridconnected
renewable capacity
American-made wind turbines
Exemplifies a growing trend
of corporations providing the
primary impetus for renewable
capacity development
2016. AWS notes that this will be the first
utility-scale wind farm in the state when it
is completed.
■ The 100-MW Amazon Wind Farm US
Central in Paulding County, Ohio, is expected
to generate approximately 320,000
MWh annually, starting in May 2017.
The trend of large corporations becoming
key renewable energy project partners
(see POWER Points sidebar) extends beyond
AWS. As Associate Editor Aaron Larson reported
earlier this year, Enel Green Power
North America (EGP-NA) began construction
on the 400-MW Cimarron Bend wind
farm in Kansas in the second quarter of 2016.
The project is EGP-NA's first to sell power
to a nonutility off-taker, which a company
spokesman said was a key factor in the development.
Half of the power will be sold to
Google, while the Kansas City Board of Public
Utilities takes the other half.
Hannah Hunt, senior
analyst with the
American Wind Energy Association told
POWER that 51% of contracted wind capacity
in 2015 was bought by nonutility corporations.
Early adopters included technology
companies, like Google, that wanted to supply
data centers with renewable energy. But
now, others, such as Dow Chemical, Proctor
and Gamble, and Target, are beginning to
view wind energy as a low-risk, cost-competitive
option, Hunt said.
At the dedication of Fowler Ridge, Pattern
Energy President and CEO Mike Garland
said, " We commend AWS on its vision and
leadership in cloud computing and its commitment
to sustainability. This demonstrates the
strong and growing appetite for wind power
from the country's leading corporations. " In
a video (see https://aws.amazon.com/aboutaws/sustainability/),
Garland went even further,
saying that AWS's commitment to 100%
renewables is " helping change the fundamentals
of the industry. " ■
-Gail Reitenbach, PhD is POWER's editor.
25
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POWER December 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER December 2016
