Enel North America, Kansas’s leading wind energy operator, announced this week that it will provide $69,000 to eight organizations in the state to support COVID-19 preparedness and response. The support is a part of a $1.3 million community-based relief effort the company is initiating with over 75 local agencies across the US and Canada in response to the pandemic.
“At Enel North America we have always felt a deep responsibility to support the health and well-being of the communities where we live and work, and even more so during this crisis,” said Enrico Viale, Head of Enel North America. “COVID-19 has caused unprecedented economic challenges for critical service organizations in many communities and we hope our support can provide some sense of relief. From rural hospitals to first responders, local schools and foodbanks, these organizations and their workers are on the frontlines and we thank essential workers everywhere for their extraordinary and unwavering response to this crisis.”
Enel North America is committed to a multi-phase, community-based response to address both immediate health and social services needs, plus long-term socioeconomic impacts from this crisis. In Kansas, the company’s commitment to its host communities includes $20,000 to food security organizations in Tampa, Elk County and Ellsworth County along with $49,000 to first responders in Minneola, Englewood, Ashland and Marion County. To support the communities around its Lenexa regional office, the company will also provide $30,000 to metropolitan Kansas City-area social services organizations: Harvesters, Operation Breakthrough and City Union Mission.
In addition to supporting these local organizations, as an essential power generator, Enel North America has implemented enhanced safety measures and restructured its workforce plan to maintain physical distancing and teams separation across its portfolio of more than 80 renewable energy power plants. This restructuring will help to ensure a continued, reliable electricity supply to homes, businesses and critical services in the communities where it operates. Enel North America also plans to support the economy by moving forward with its 2020 hiring plan.
In Kansas, Enel operates six wind farms across the state through its renewables arm Enel Green Power, including Smoky Hills I & II (250 MW, Caney River (200 MW, Buffalo Dunes (250 MW, Cimarron Bend (400 MW) and Diamond Vista (300 MW). The company’s overall investment in Kansas amounts to more than 2.1 billion US dollars and 210 full-time employees working in the state. Since 2006, Enel’s growth in Kansas and throughout the U.S. has been supported by Tradewind Energy, a strategic partner and leading renewables developer based in Lenexa. With its acquisition of Tradewind in 2019, Enel has expanded its presence in Kansas where the company is the largest wind operator with more than 1.4 GW of operational wind capacity.