Farmland Partners leases land for Amazon’s wind farm

Real estate investment trust (REIT) Farmland Partners has leased two of its farms in North Carolina to house a portion of the 208MW Amazon Wind Farm US East.

A 25-year lease agreement was signed with the developer of the wind farm Iberdrola Renewables for around $2,600 per acre.

Farmland Partners CEO Paul Pittman said: "Renewable energy projects have the potential to increase the returns we generate from our farm holdings. We are highlighting this transaction for investors because it is illustrative of the upside opportunities that our stockholders may derive from our ownership of farmland.

"This and other renewable energy projects under consideration are examples of how we pursue opportunities to increase rents on our land by finding additional revenue sources beyond traditional farm leases."

Iberdrola will build, own and operate the wind farm located in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties. The farm will supply electricity to Amazon Web Services cloud data centres.

The wind farm, which began construction in July, will have 150 turbines to generate 300MW of power at full capacity. The 208MW first phase will feature 104 wind turbines.

According to Iberdrola, the total landowner payments and taxes for the first phase of the project will inject more than $1.1m into the local economy each year.