Smithfield Foods joins corp duo in buying power from Allete wind park

The clean energy unit of Allete (NYSE:ALE) today announced the name of the corporate customer that will buy the remaining 75 MW of capacity from the 300-MW Diamond Spring wind farm in Oklahoma.

Allete Clean Energy said it has entered into a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with meat processing company Smithfield Foods Inc in relation to that portion of the wind park. As previously announced, coffee company Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) will purchase 50 MW of Diamond Spring for 15 years, while retailer Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) has a 15-year PPA for 175 MW.

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The purchase of electricity from that wind park will help Smithfield achieve a 25% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2025. Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables and hog production environmental affairs at Smithfield, commented that the contracted output of Diamond Spring will be enough to cover more than 15% of the food company’s total energy usage across the US.

Allete acquired the particular wind project in May from Apex Clean Energy. The company anticipates to begin construction later this year or in early 2020, with completion scheduled for 2020 still.