INDIANAPOLIS, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. (NASDAQ: IEA) (“IEA” or the “Company”), a leading infrastructure construction company with renewable energy and specialty civil expertise, today announced that the Company has been awarded the Big Sky Repower balance of plant (“BOP”) project valued at approximately $70 million. Vitol, a leading energy company awarded the project to White Construction, a subsidiary of IEA that manages utility-scale renewable energy and heavy civil infrastructure projects.

The award is for the repowering of a 240 megawatt (MW) utility-scale wind farm in the Bureau and Lee Counties of Illinois. Work on repowering the Big Sky Wind Farm will begin in August 2021 and is expected to be completed in July 2022. IEA will self-perform all of the engineering, procurement and construction needs of the project, including full decommissioning and foundation removal of five wind turbine generators (WTG) and the repowering of 109 WTGs, including the replacement of nacelles, hubs, blades and adaptor rings. By the end of the construction, it is expected that the project will increase the wind farm’s annual output by approximately 60 percent.

Roughly 40 gigawatts (GW) of U.S. wind power capacity, including that of the Big Sky Wind Farm, are over a decade old. With wind farm lifespans of typically 20 years, the U.S. repowering market continues to grow. Wood Mackenzie reports that the United States ranks fourth amongst the top 20 wind repowering markets by capacity, with 6.1 GW of wind power expected to be repowered between 2026 and 2030. The National Renewable Energy Lab estimates that the market for repowering will reach $25 billion by 2030.

“White Construction originally built the Big Sky Wind Farm in 2010, and we are very excited to partner with Vitol to repower this project,” said JP Roehm, IEA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “As the wind energy industry matures and turbine technology improves, we anticipate repowering projects will become more common—it’s a great way to increase clean energy production without having to construct a new farm from scratch.”

Wind turbine repowering includes the dismantling and replacement of turbine equipment. In certain instances, not all of the equipment needs to be replaced and existing towers are leveraged as will be the case with Big Sky. Illinois, where the project is based, is one of the United States’ key wind generators with wind farms dating back nearly two decades. Since the opening of its first wind farm in 2003, Illinois now powers over 6,500 MW of wind and solar combined, ranking it sixth in the country for total renewable generation and storage according to the most recent data available from the American Clean Power Association.

To date, IEA has constructed more than 20 GW of renewable energy projects across North America. The Company was ranked second for wind construction amongst Engineering News-Record’s 2020 Top 400 Contractors. For more information on IEA’s ENR rankings please visit enr.com.

About IEA

Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. is a leading infrastructure construction company with renewable energy and specialty civil expertise. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with operations throughout the country, IEA’s service offering spans the entire construction process. The Company offers a full spectrum of delivery models including full engineering, procurement, and construction, turnkey, design-build, balance of plant, and subcontracting services. IEA is one of the larger providers in the renewable energy industry and has completed more than 240 utility scale wind and solar projects across North America. In the heavy-civil space, IEA offers a number of specialty services including environmental remediation, industrial maintenance, specialty transportation infrastructure and other site development for public and private projects. For more information, please visit IEA’s website at www.iea.net or follow IEA on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest company news and events.

About Vitol

Vitol is a leader in the energy sector with a presence across the spectrum; from oil through to power, renewables and carbon. It trades around 7 million barrels per day of crude oil and products, and charters around 6,650 ship voyages every year. Vitol’s clients include national oil companies, multinationals, leading industrial companies and utilities. Founded in Rotterdam in 1966, today Vitol serves clients from some 40 offices worldwide and is invested in energy assets globally including: circa 16mm3 of storage globally, 500 k b/d of refining capacity, 7,000 service stations and a growing portfolio of transitional and renewable energy assets. Revenues in 2020 were $140 billion. Vitol is investing across the energy transition having committed over $1 billion to renewable projects. For more information: www.vitol.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of words such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “could,” “may,” “intend,” “plan” and “believe,” among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on currently available operating, financial, economic and other information, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual future results or events to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements in this release. For a full description of the risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements, please refer to IEA’s periodic filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission including those described as “Risk Factors” in IEA’s annual report on Form 10-K filed on March 8, 2021 and any quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed thereafter. IEA does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

Contact:

Kimberly Esterkin
ADDO Investor Relations
[email protected]
310-829-5400