US healthcare co to buy 220 MW of green power from NextEra, NRG Energy

US non-for-profit healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente said Wednesday it will buy solar and wind power from NextEra Energy Resources and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) in deals for over 220 MW of capacity.

The healthcare company has agreed a 20-year contract to purchase the output of 110 MW at NextEra Energy Resources' 485-MW Blythe solar power plant in California. It will also buy from the company the electricity generated by 43 MW of wind turbines at a repowered wind farm on the Altamont Pass in California. Kaiser Permanente will start receiving power from the two parks in 2016.

Separately, Kaiser Permanente will buy up to 70 MW of solar power from a project to be implemented by NRG Energy. It involves the installation of solar arrays at some 170 hospitals and other campuses of the healthcare provider in California. Construction will start this year and all systems are expected to be completed by the end of 2016. NRG will finance, build, own and operate the systems. It will sell the power to Kaiser Permanente under a 20-year fixed-cost contract.

Kaiser Permanente said the renewable energy it will buy will meet half of its electricity needs in California and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions nationwide by 30% in 2017, three years earlier than it previously planned.

NextEra Energy Resources is the clean energy unit of NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE).

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