Invenergy and 3M sign 120MW wind power purchase agreement

Invenergy, a US-based energy group, has signed a 120MW wind power purchase agreement (PPA) with global science-based company 3M to supply renewable energy to its operations located throughout North America.

Under the deal, Invenergy will sell wind energy to 3M from its under construction 120MW Gunsight Wind Energy Center in Texas, US.

Power, to be generated at the Gunsight project, will be supplied to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) regional electricity grid.

By adding Gunsight, Invenergy will operate over 1,700MW of power plants across the state of Texas.

Invenergy sales and marketing vice-president Craig Gordon said: "3M is a global company with a commitment to sustainability and we’re very proud to help them strengthen that commitment with this agreement.

"Corporate off-site renewable energy procurement is one of the most exciting changes we’ve seen recently in our industry as the sector nearly tripled from 2014 to 2015 with more than 3,400 MW announced.

"We expect 2016 to be another strong year for direct corporate procurement."

In January, Invenergy entered into a 225MW wind PPA to provide renewable energy to technology group Google’s all the data centres situated across the world.

Last year, Invenergy also revealed two separate wind power purchase agreements with Equinix and an undisclosed company to provide renewable energy.

Each of those two agreements, coupled with the recent PPA with 3M, have brought Invenergy’s total corporate renewable energy portfolio to 570MW.

3M environment, health, safety and sustainability vice president Jean Bennington Sweeney said: "This agreement is an important and significant step toward accomplishing our company goal of increasing renewable energy to 25 percent of our total electricity use by 2025.

"Perhaps even more importantly, this is an exciting step in helping to transform the way the world uses energy.

"Innovation and partnerships like this one with Invenergy are critical to improving our business, our planet and people’s lives across the globe."