innogy SE continues to advance its renewables expansion strategy for the US market: The company has acquired the equity interests in two solar farms in North Carolina with a total capacity of around ten megawatts (MW). Construction of the plants will begin in the second quarter of this year with commissioning targeted for the fourth quarter of 2019. The facilities will generate enough green energy to supply the equivalent of over 2,000 US homes. Both plants have a committed offtake via 15-year power purchase agreements with Duke Energy Progress.

Thorsten Blanke, Head of Solar at innogy SE, explains: "Last year in June we joined forces with the US-developer Birdseye. With Tamworth and Tanager we now realise the first two projects from our US solar development pipeline. And not just anywhere, but in North Carolina, which is expected to be a hotspot for solar due to its high solar irradiance, competitive cost environment, growing appetite for renewables and positive macroeconomic outlook."

Establishing a strong presence on the US market for renewable energy sources

In parallel, innogy continues to drive the expansion of its US onshore wind business forward: At the end of November 2018, innogy took the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the 250 MW Scioto Ridge onshore wind farm located in Hardin and Logan Counties, Ohio. It is expected that the wind farm will reach commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2020. Furthermore innogy plans to meet the FID for the New York projects Cassadaga (~126MW) and Baron Winds (~240MW) in 2019 and place them in service also in the fourth quarter of 2020.

innogy took the important strategic decision to increase its interest in developing renewable activities in the US when it founded its subsidiary Innogy Renewables US, LLC in August 2016. The company is based in Chicago and Pittsburgh focused on opportunities for utility scale solar as well as onshore and offshore wind.

Building up a value-adding solar business

innogy continues to actively develop and invest in solar projects in several countries. Some recent highlights include the acquisition of solar projects with a total capacity of over 50 MW in Germany.In Spain and Canada, innogy is currently realising three solar projects without the aid of state subsidies. This solar plants have a total capacity of more than 100 MW. In addition innogy has established itself in the Australian market and has started construction of a large-scale solar farm with a capacity of 349 MW in New South Wales. innogy is committed to further growing its solar presence, bringing cost-effective renewable solutions to these and other markets.

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