Jay County wind farm developer closes on financing

JAY COUNTY, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — The developer of a 130 megawatt wind farm in Jay County says it has secured $210 million in financing commitments for construction. Colorado-based Scout Clean Energy says construction on the Bitter Ridge Wind Farm, located on 10,000 acres in east central Indiana, is expected to be complete next year.

Scout says Bitter Ridge will have 52 of the latest-generation GE 2MW platform wind turbines, supplied by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). Michael Rucker, founder and chief executive officer of Scout, says Bitter Ridge is expected to be fully operational by September.

“Bitter Ridge is also the second greenfield project that the Scout team has developed from inception and it will support up to 200 jobs during construction and as many as five permanent jobs once operational,” added Rucker. “Bitter Ridge brings Scout’s operational and in construction wind portfolio to over 900MW. This is quite an achievement by the combined Quinbrook and Scout teams considering that we kicked off the program together less than three years ago.”

Scout Clean Energy is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, whose U.S. headquarters are located in Texas.

In July, Scout signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement with Maryland-based Constellation. The utility will purchase approximately 80% of the renewable energy and capacity generated by Bitter Ridge.

Scout says Bitter Ridge is predicted to offset more than 292,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator. The company adds Jay County will receive an estimated $18 million in tax revenue from the wind farm over its operating life, with more than half going to directly support local schools.