Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation, takes another important step toward bringing more renewable energy to customers by announcing the planned acquisition of the company’s largest-ever solar facility, a 200 megawatt (MW) solar installation in central Missouri that is expected to create more than 250 construction jobs.
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The facility will be acquired pursuant to a build-transfer agreement with EDF Renewables, a company with a longstanding track record of developing and building renewable energy facilities. Known as the Huck Finn Solar Project, it is planned to be constructed on the border of Missouri’s Audrain and Ralls counties. Huck Finn is expected to produce enough energy to power approximately 40,000 homes. With timely regulatory approvals, the project could begin generating clean energy as soon as 2024.
“Developing Huck Finn is good for all of our customers because it provides clean electricity, creates economic opportunity and injects millions of dollars into the community over the life of the project, which will have widespread additional benefits,” said Mark Birk, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri.
The facility is a step-change for solar generation in Missouri, and its announcement comes just days after Ameren Missouri updated its comprehensive plan to safeguard long-term energy reliability and resiliency for Missourians, a plan that also accelerates Ameren’s companywide net-zero carbon emissions goal to 2045, five years sooner than previously planned.
“We’re focused on the two items customers say are most important to them: reliability and affordability,” Birk said. “The thoughtfully planned additions of renewable generation over time keeps the grid reliable and resilient while also managing costs.”
Huck Finn is designed to generate more than 25 times the amount of energy of Missouri’s largest existing solar facility. It is the latest project to be part of Ameren Missouri’s planned addition of 2,800 MW in new, clean renewable generation by 2030 and the ninth solar facility that the company has announced or put in service since 2019. Together, these nine facilities represent more than 360 MW of clean energy generation capacity. In that time, Ameren Missouri has installed solar generation in underutilized locations including a parking garage, next to an airport runway and in partnership with community-based organizations working in underserved neighborhoods