A wind farm that will be built near Milligan will help a corporate food giant reduce its carbon footprint.
Hormel Foods Corp. announced Wednesday that it has signed a virtual power purchase agreement with Kinect Energy Group for power generated by a wind farm scheduled to open next year near Milligan.
The virtual power purchase agreement allows Hormel to pay a fixed rate for power produced by the wind farm, which is then sold at market rates. If the power sells for more than what Hormel is paying, it gets the excess, but if it sells for less, Hormel must make up the difference.
"We were excited to partner with Hormel Foods to help them meet their renewable energy and sustainability goals," Nicholas Franco, director of sustainability services at Kinect Energy Group, said in a news release. "We were able to leverage our deep electric market experience to assess the project economics and negotiate a VPPA agreement that worked perfectly for Hormel Foods."
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Hormel said the energy generated by the Milligan wind farm will bring the portion of its energy generated by wind power to nearly 50 percent. In addition, the company said the project will result in a reduction of about 197,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The wind farm will produce 74 megawatts of power annually. Milligan is about 60 miles southwest of Lincoln.