Acciona (Acciona SA) released a press release on May 24 stating that it has received the permit from the Kentucky Siting Board for building a PV power plant in Fleming County, Kentucky. The generation capacity of the PV power plant will be mainly used to meet the demand from Amazon’s facilities such as warehouses, data centers, etc. Based in Spain, Acciona is a multinational conglomerate that involves in the fields of renewable energy, basic infrastructure, and construction.
The PV power plant in Fleming County was originally developed by Tenaska, an energy company based in the US. In 2019, Acciona acquired Tenaska’s portfolio of greenfield PV and energy storage projects located in seven states including Kentucky. Spanning an area of 15,000 acres, the PV power plant in Fleming County is designed to have a generation capacity of 188MW. Acciona will invest nearly US$200 million into this project. The company has stated that the construction of the power plant will produce 300 new jobs. Furthermore, the revenue from the power plant will contribute to local taxes that support the administration of the county and local school districts. The construction of the power plant will take place between 2021 and 2022. Energy news outlet Solar Power World said that with this project, the installed PV capacity in Kentucky is expected to more than double.
In December last year, Acciona entered into a PPA with Amazon. Under the agreement, Acciona will provide Amazon with 614MW of generation capacity from four renewable energy projects located in Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. The PV power plant in Fleming County is one of these projects. Another related project is located in Illinois and designed to have a generation capacity of 100MW. Its construction will commence this June. The two remaining projects are still under review. According to reporting by other news outlets, the total investment in the four projects is estimated to reach almost US$1 billion. Acciona currently aims to add almost 1.2GW of installed PV capacity by 2023.