152 MW Wind Project of rPlus Energies Acquired by Clearway

In late 2021, rPlus Energies sold its interest in the approximately 152 MW ‘Cedar Creek Wind’ project to Clearway Energy Group. This announcement follows Clearway’s recent statement that it has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) between Cedar Creek Wind and PacifiCorp.

Clearway is one of the largest renewable energy players in the USA.

rPlus said that the signing of the PPA marks a major step forward for the project, which was originally developed by the RE developer and is now slated to be completed in 2024.

The Project

The official statement by rPlus Energies held that it acquired development rights from the originators of Cedar Creek Wind in early 2019. The project is located in Bingham County, Idaho outside of Idaho Falls, an area familiar to wind development. Between Cedar Creek’s original concept and 2019, wind turbine technology had advanced significantly, enabling the greater extraction of energy and overall viability of the project.

rPlus said that it saw the opportunity to reinvigorate development efforts, and over the course of 18 months, essentially re-developed Cedar Creek Wind including new land agreements, environmental studies, permits, interconnection and modernized design.

With a revamped project, rPlus submitted a bid into PacifiCorp’s 2020 All-Source Request for Proposals (RFP) which was subsequently shortlisted and awarded through a competitive process. Then, in late 2021, rPlus sold Cedar Creek Wind to Clearway, who finalized the development, engineering, and equipment procurement and executed the PPA with PacifiCorp.

Clearway began construction in September 2022, and the project is expected to create more than 175 jobs during construction and represents a $250 million investment in Idaho’s economy.

The Players Involved

rPlus Energies is a key player in America’s energy infrastructure growth as it partners with private sector, municipalities, and utilities to develop utility-scale power plants. rPlus Energies has over 30 projects across 15 market areas in the U.S. in active development including solar, wind, pumped storage hydro, and solar plus battery. Across all technologies, the portfolio represents over 12 GWs of power output and over 7.5 GWs and 60 GWh of storage capacity.

Clearway Energy Group owns and operates over 8 GW of renewable and conventional energy assets across the USA. It has a renewable energy pipeline of 5.7 gigawatts in wind, solar, and energy storage. This year, France’s TotalEnergies bought 50 per cent of one of the largest renewable energy firms in the USA.

PacifiCorp claims to be one of the lowest-cost electrical providers in the United States, serving 2 million customers.