Great River Energy issues RFP for renewable energy resources
Maple Grove, Minn. – Great River Energy has issued a request for proposals for renewable energy resources (RFP) and other power generation resources with low or no net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Great River Energy is subject to the Minnesota Renewable Energy Standard, which requires electric utilities to supply an increasing percentage of their energy sales from renewable energy, reaching 25 percent by 2025. Eligible energy technologies include: wind, solar, hydroelectric of less than 100 megawatts (MW), biomass, municipal solid waste, landfill gas and anaerobic digesters, and hydrogen produced from any of the previous resources.
Great River Energy would need about 1,200 MW of wind resources by 2025 to meet the new standard entirely with wind energy resources. Great River Energy currently has slightly more than 300 MW of wind resources in its energy portfolio, which is sufficient to meet the standard through approximately 2013.
“We’re issuing this RFP to bring value to our member cooperatives and to stay well ahead of the Renewable Energy Standard requirements,” says Glen Skarbakka, Great River Energy manager of resource planning.
Great River Energy is seeking approximately 1.6 million megawatt-hours per year of new resources from eligible energy technologies.
“We are most interested in projects entering commercial operation late in the 2010-2012 timeframe,” says Skarbakka. “Proposals for resources qualifying as Community-Based Energy Development (C-BED) are particularly encouraged, as are proposals from our member cooperatives.”
In addition to renewable energy projects, Great River Energy is interested in proposals for other resources with low or no net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions relative to coal or natural gas fueled resources. Related resources will also be considered; these include wind turbine generator supply, wind power related development assets and renewable biomass fuel supply.
Proposals are due on Monday, June 8, 2009. A copy of the complete RFP is available on Great River Energy’s website at: http://www.greatriverenergy.com/makingelectricity/renewables/. For more information about the RFP, contact Mark Rathbun at 763-445-6104 or mrathbun@grenergy.com.
About Great River EnergyGreat River Energy is a not-for-profit cooperative which provides wholesale electricity to more than 630,000 member-consumers, or approximately 1.7 million people, through 28 member distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. With $2.8 billion in assets, Great River Energy is the second largest utility in the state, based on generating capacity, and the fifth largest generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative in the United States. Great River Energy’s member cooperatives range from those in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Arrowhead region of Minnesota to the farmland of southwestern Minnesota. Great River Energy’s largest distribution cooperative serves more than 120,000 member-consumers; the smallest serves just over 2,400. For more information, visit www.GreatRiverEnergy.com.
