Truscott, Texas, USA, October 25th, 2022 – Taaleri Energia, AIP Management (“AIP”), and Akuo, celebrated the inauguration of the 336 MW Escalade wind farm located in Truscott Texas. The inauguration, included a ribbon cutting at the first Vestas V162 wind turbine to be installed in North America. The inauguration and ribbon cutting was attended by Taaleri Energia, AIP, Akuo, Vestas, Mortenson as well as key representatives of the community tenson.  

 

The inauguration of the Escalade wind farm marks a successful milestone for the investment group and specifically the installation and commissioning of the 1st Vestas V162 turbine in North America. The Vestas V162 EnVentus represents the next generation in the evolution of wind turbines. Vestas EnVentus turbines offer a wide range of standard hub heights and modes of operation that can be combined with an extensive list of technology options to create customised solutions to suit the needs of each unique project. The V162 at 119m hub height is the biggest onshore turbine installed in the US to that date, on the Escalade Wind Project. In total the Escalade project consists of 45 Vestas V162 5.6 MW turbines and 20 Vestas V150 4.2 MW turbines, the wind farm, which is operational since May 2022, supplies around 115,000 households and offsets the equivalent of more than 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide during each year of operation. Its annual production of electricity is approximately 1270 GWh.  

 

Kai Rintala, Managing Director of Taaleri Energia, stated: “We are extremely proud of the Escalade wind farm. The onshore wind resource in Texas is excellent and the location of the wind farm, with connections to the large population centres, is also ideal. The fact that we developed this project in-house and succeeded in bringing on board such high calibre partners, co-investors and financers is a testament to the strength of our development, engineering and investment capabilities”.  

Domenico Tripodi, Partner for AIP, said: “It has been an incredible journey throughout construction into operations and we are happy to see Project Escalade being fully operational. The investment in Project Escalade underpins AIP’s investment strategy of generating long-term, stable returns for our investors while supporting the sustainable energy transition. At the same time, it will continue to impact positively the local community and help facilitate the ongoing de-carbonization of the energy mix in the area”.  

Thomas Coté, CEO of Akuo USA, Inc., stated: “We are proud to have participated in this project, our largest wind farm in the US, which will make a significant contribution to the energy transition in the US. Thanks to our partners and our team, we were able to harness collective expertise to commission this large-scale wind farm despite the challenges we faced.”

Texas is a leading state in wind energy production, claiming nearly 23,000 MW of wind representing 25 percent of the total installed in the U.S. The ability of Texas to avoid blackouts during this summer’s heatwaves is hinging largely on wind power.

 

In 2020, the Taaleri SolarWind II Fund together with Fund co-investors, AIP, and Akuo acquired 93% of the equity in the Escalade wind farm in Texas. Taaleri Energia, the project developer retained a minority stake in the project. The project has been developed in-house by Taaleri Energia since 2018, following an acquisition from its development partners NorthRenew Energy and Chermac Energy. The Balance of Plant contractor was Mortenson Construction. Akuo has been the Construction Manager and is the Technical and Commercial Manager for the project. Vestas provides Operations & Maintenance services for the project under a 30-year contract.