Project profile: Mariah Wind Farm, Texas

The $22bn Mariah Wind Farm project is currently under construction in Texas, US. With a total power generation capacity of 10,000MW, the project will be completed in three phases and will help the state of Texas to meet the growing demand for energy

PROJECT TYPE

Onshore wind farm

PROJECT STAGE

Execution

PROJECT OWNER

Scandia Wind Southwest

PROJECT VALUE

$22bn

PROJECT CAPACITY

10,000MW

Scandia Wind Southwest (Scandia) is undertaking the Mariah wind farm project at Panhandle, Carson County in Texas, US.


The main purpose of the project is to generate electricity through clean and renewable sources, and to enhance the power generation capacity of the state to meet growing demand for power supply.


Scandia is a consortium comprised of Norwegian developer Havgul, Danish developer Alpha Wind Energy, Premium Wind Coalition of Bovina, and a group of Parmer County citizens.


The project involves the construction of a wind farm with a capacity of 10,000MW and will be developed in three phases.

Mariah wind farm project phases

The first phase of the project involves the construction of the wind farm with the capacity of 2,200MW. Currently, Scandia is developing 600MW of the first phase in two phases, namely Mariah North (Mariah del Norte Wind Project) and Mariah South, with a capacity of 230MW and 370MW respectively.


The second phase of the project involves the construction of a wind farm with power generation capacity of 2,800MW, while the third phase of the project involves the construction of a 5,000MW wind farm.


The project includes construction of substations and other related infrastructure facilities, the installation of wind turbines, and laying of power transmission lines.

Mariah wind farm key developments

Harvest Energy Services has been appointed as a developer, Mortenson Construction as a contractor for the Mariah del Norte Wind Project, and General Electric (GE) as turbines supply contractor.


The company leased about 182,108 hectares of land for the construction of the project in December 2010.


In March 2011, Scandia signed a term sheet with Tres Amigas. The anchor tenant agreement is to provide transmission services to Scandia.


In September 2013, Brightman Energy acquired the Mariah North project from Scatec Energy.


The Mariah del Norte project t includes the installation of 96 GE 2.4MW turbines, road upgrades, construction of access roads, foundations, collection system, substation, a 334.4m2 operations and maintenance building, and a 1m tower.


Construction activities commenced in November 2013 on Mariah North and Mariah South.


In May 2015, Brightman Energy bought the Mariah East project from Scatec Energy. In February 2016, First Reserve acquired the Mariah North project from Scandia. In March 2017, construction works were completed on the Mariah South project.


As of February 2018, construction works on the first phase were underway.

Cover image credit: Orsted/DONG Energy

renewables