Allete buys 101MW wind project from AES

OREANDA-NEWS. Renewable energy operator Allete Clean Energy is acquiring the 101MW Armenia Mountain wind farm in Pennsylvania from AES.

The facility in Troy, Pennsylvania dispatches into the PJM Interconnection grid, where it supplies generation through two power purchase agreements extending into 2025, Allete said. The deal is due to be finalized in July for \$108mn and will raise Allete's renewable energy portfolio to about 640MW. It is the fourth wind project deal between the companies.

"These acquisitions are consistent with Allete's strategy of investing in energy infrastructure to complement its core regulated utilities," Allete chief executive Alan Hodnik said.

In January, the company bought three wind farms totaling 231MW from AES, with a separate option to ultimately purchase the Armenia farm this year. The projects are in Minnesota, Iowa and Oregon.

The Allete-AES tieup represents divergent regional strategies being pursued by the two companies.

Since January, Allete has made regular acquisitions of renewable assets, particularly in the US midwest, including 97.5MW of wind capacity in Minnesota it bought from EDF Renewable Energy for \$47.5mn.

AES has steadily offloaded some of its older US renewable assets as the company pivots to investments in conventional generation projects in emerging markets, such as Brazil, Chile, India and Vietnam.

But the company is not exiting US renewables markets, particularly those driven by regulatory mandates, AES chief executive Andres Gluski said today.

"In markets like California and the UK, we see opportunities to replace older, less-efficient or non-compliant capacity," Gluski said. "We expect our future project mix to be heavily weighted towards natural gas, renewables and energy storage as we seek to match the needs of each market."