Evergy to buy Oklahoma wind farm, says resulting power to be used in western Missouri

Kansas City-area utility company Evergy announced Tuesday the purchase of a 199-megawatt wind farm in Oklahoma that will be used to generate renewable energy for part of the company’s service area.

The company, one of the region’s largest electric providers, purchased Persimmon Creek Wind Farm for about $250 million in partnership with Scout Clean Energy and Elawan Energy. Energy produced by the wind farm will help power the Evergy’s Missouri West service area, which includes St. Joseph and Clinton.

“Evergy continues to tap into the Midwest’s affordable renewable energy resources to serve our customers,” said David Campbell, Evergy president and CEO in a news release. “Expanding our portfolio of renewable generation positions us to ensure customers receive the long-term benefits of these assets.”

The announcement comes several months after a study by a UK-based policy think tank found Evergy opposes climate protection measures aligning with the Paris Climate Accords.

The study published in April by Influence Map ranked Evergy 18th out of 25 on its alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement and called the company “laggard” on climate progress.

Evergy has objected to several measures in Kansas City’s Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan, which aims to make the city carbon neutral by 2040. The plan called for Evergy to close its coal-burning Hawthorn power plant in northeast downtown by 2025, a major goal of environmental groups in the city who say the plant causes air pollution and slows the city’s transition to renewable energy.

The company said at the time that coal plants provide “a valuable, dispatchable source for the system” and argued that the decision to close the plant should be up to its state regulator, not the city where the plant operates.

Evergy has said it plans to retire more than 1,900 megawatts of coal-based fossil generation and add more than 3,500 megawatts of renewable energy over the next 10 years. The company hopes to reduce its carbon emissions 70% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.

The Persimmon Creek Wind Farm first opened for commercial operation in 2018 with 80 General Electric turbines on 17,000 acres across Dewey, Ellis and Woodward counties in Oklahoma, according to the news release.

Company officials expect to close the deal by early 2023, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.