Danish energy giant Ørsted has inaugurated the 200MW Sunflower Wind project in Marion County, Kansas, US.
During its estimated 30 years of operation, the Sunflower Wind project will bring tens of millions of dollars in property tax revenue to the local government and generate enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes.
The final investment decision on the project was taken in April 2022. Ørsted acquired the project along with Lincoln Land Wind in November 2021.
This project is Ørsted’s fourth onshore wind farm in the Southwest Power Pool energy market and its 13th operational wind project in the US.
The company has also delivered renewable energy access and bundled renewable energy credits from the wind farm to nine companies.
It secured power purchase agreements with companies including Amcor, Citizens and Walmart's Project Gigaton Cohort, which includes Amy's Kitchen, Great Lakes Cheese, Levi Strauss, PepsiCo, Stryker, The JM Smucker and Valvoline Global Operations.
Ørsted group executive vice-president and Americas CEO David Hardy stated: “We are thrilled to celebrate this achievement and our first clean energy project in Kansas with the community, legislators and our participating landowners.
“With Sunflower Wind, we now have 13 operational wind farms in the US, generating 832MW in the Southwest Power Pool.”
The wind farm also uses a new aircraft detection lighting system, which enables the night-time lights on the turbines to blink only when aircraft are detected, reducing light pollution for residents.
The company now has 6GW of onshore renewable capacity in operation or under development. It aims to reach 17.5GW of global onshore renewable capacity by 2030.
