Article by Sheila Stogsdill for Tulsa World
A contract with Google for power at the Red Dirt Wind Farm is one more step for Grand River Dam Authority in its quest to increase its operation of renewable energy, said Justin Alberty, GRDA spokesman. GRDA announced [recently] the agency’s contract with Google is for 140 megawatts.
Red Dirt Wind Farm, a 300-megawatt plant in Kingfisher and Logan counties, is the largest wind farm project in Oklahoma. It is being built by Enel Green Power North America, which has several wind farms in Oklahoma. The wind farm is expected to be operational early next year, Alberty said.
GRDA also has a power purchase agreement with the Canadian Hills Wind Farm.
“That agreement was the first time Google directly contacted a utility provider to increase its renewable energy consumption,” Alberty said. “It was also GRDA’s first wind energy power purchase agreement … The combination of several wind farms in the state will bring GRDA’s total wind generation capacity to around 385 megawatts,” Alberty said.
Clean energy is driving a unique economic opportunity, he said.
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The additional capacity will help Google reach its goal of purchasing enough renewable energy to match its energy consumption for global operations, [GRDA CEO Dan Sullivan] said.
“Renewables from projects like Red Dirt bring value to our business as we scale and accelerate investment in the communities where we operate,” said Gary Demasi, Google’s Global Infrastructure director in a statement.
GRDA has been supplying Google’s power at the Mid-America Industrial Park in Pryor since 2011.
