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A planned wind farm in eastern North Carolina's Chowan County has signed a deal with Google for its entire output. Apex Clean Energy plans to build the Timbermill Wind project on about 6,300 acres in Chowan County, near Edenton. Google has signed a power purchase agreement for the project's full 189 megawatts, the companies said Tuesday.
Google said the electricity will support its data centers that operate on the PJM grid, which stretches from northeastern North Carolina to the Midwest. It's part of Google's goal to run completely on clean energy by 2030.
“Within the decade we have an ambitious goal for every Google data center to operate on clean electricity, every hour of every day,” Donna Calderon, energy senior lead at Google, said in the announcement.
Apex CEO Ken Young cheered the milestone. “Timbermill Wind demonstrates the Apex team’s unmatched ability to execute on our expansive portfolio, even in a region notoriously difficult to advance wind power.”
The Timbermill Wind farm will cost $350 million and have 45 turbines near Edenton. Spokesman Brian O'Shea said preliminary work is already underway and construction will continue through 2024. Construction of the turbines is expected to begin in May 2024.
About 300 workers will be on the construction site. A study for Apex estimated the project would have a $33 million impact on the area's economy.
North Carolina has one other operating wind farm, the 104-turbine project built near Elizabeth City in 2017 to power Amazon data centers. That's operated by Avangrid.
