General Motors and Bloomberg LP have invested in long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Enel’s new wind farm, which is under construction in Illinois.
Enel, through its US renewable company Enel Green Power North America, Inc. (EGPNA), started construction of the 185 MW HillTopper, its first wind farm in the US state of Illinois.
Bloomberg will purchase power generated from a 17 MW portion of the wind farm. The wind energy will help the global business and financial information and news leader reach their 100% renewable energy goal by 2025. GM will purchase power generated from a 100 MW portion of HillTopper. The wind energy will provide 100 percent renewable electricity to all of General Motor’s Ohio and Indiana manufacturing facilities.
“Our agreement with HillTopper is part of our strategy to generate or source all electrical power for our global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2050,” said Rob Threlkeld, global manager of renewable energy, General Motors. “When the turbines come online later this year, we will be 20% of the way to our goal.”
“Our agreement to buy energy from the HillTopper project reflects our commitment to sustainable business practices that benefit our bottom line," said Michael Barry, Head of Sustainable Business Operations at Bloomberg.
GM and Bloomberg have ramped up their commitment to clean energy in recent years. In 2016, GM joined the RE100 initiative, committing to reaching 100% renewable energy for its global operations by 2050. In September 2017, the company announced that all of its Ohio and Indiana manufacturing facilities will meet their electricity needs through 100% renewable energy.
In 2015, Bloomberg signed a power purchase agreement with SunEdison to buy 2.9 MW of DC solar energy for its Rockland County, NY, data center, which offsets more than 5% of the data center’s total energy needs and save the company more than $2 million.
The project was acquired from developer Swift Current Energy and is expected to enter into service by the end of 2018. Once fully operational, HillTopper will be able to generate around 570 GWh annually.
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