Buyer identified for wind power

Baltimore-based Constellation will be the buyer of 80 percent of the power generated by the 130 megawatt Bitter Ridge Wind Farm, which is expected to be operational by September 2020.

Scout Clean Energy, the wind farm’s developer, announced the signing and completion of a 15-year power purchase agreement this week.

Constellation is a subsidiary of Excelon Corporation, the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with revenues in 2018 of about $36 billion.

Scout will be installing up to 52 wind turbines on about 10,000 acres in southwestern Jay County. Delivery of the GE 2.82 series turbines is expected to begin in April.

Construction of roads, power lines and drainage systems will begin this fall and should be completed by year end. MA. Mortenson of Minneapolis is the contractor for the construction.

“We are excited to announce our agreement with Constellation,” Scout chief executive officer Michael Rucker said in a prepared statement. “Their long-term purchase commitment demonstrates why Constellation is one of America’s leading clean energy providers.”

Rucker said the agreement is one of the final steps before the beginning of construction.

“We expect to confirm the financing partners shortly and to move swiftly to financial close,” he said.

Scout is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, which is involved in clean power projects in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Walmart rifts?

Multiple business news outlets reported this week that Walmart’s efforts to compete with Amazon have led to tension at the top of the retail giant’s management.

The reason: The company’s e-commerce business is set to record a $1 billion loss, despite revenue of between $21 billion and $22 billion.

The division’s red ink has reportedly drawn the ire of Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and other top executives at the company, who are said to be pressuring Marc Lore, the Jet.com founder and current Walmart e-commerce chief, to cut down on losses, Vox reported. Walmart acquired Jet.com for more than $3 billion in 2016.

At least three of Walmart’s recent digital brand acquisitions – Bonobos, ModCloth and Eloquii – remain unprofitable, Vox said.

According to Vox, Walmart is likely to sell ModCloth later this year at a loss compared to its acquisition cost of roughly $50 million. The company has also discussed a sale of Bonobos.

Despite significant growth in its online sales, Walmart still trails Amazon, which controls about 38 percent of the U.S. market. Walmart’s share of the U.S. e-commerce market is about 4.7 percent.

Chamber lunch

The next networking luncheon for the Jay County Chamber of Commerce will be at noon on Tuesday, July 30, at Indiana University Health Jay Hospital.

Byron Silk of Next Level Jobs Indiana will be the featured speaker.

Reservations should be made by noon on Thursday, July 25, by calling (260) 726-4481 or emailing [email protected].

Hoosier customer

Ardagh, which has glass container manufacturing plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, has reached a long-term supply agreement with Oliver Winery of Bloomington to manufacture the majority of its wine bottles.

Oliver Winery started from modest roots back in the 1960s, as a hobby of Indiana University law professor William Oliver, until the official winery opened in 1972. Today, Oliver Winery is the oldest and largest winery in Indiana.

“Ardagh is pleased to partner with Oliver Winery – an icon in the Hoosier state,” John T. Shaddox, chief commercial officer for Ardagh Group’s North American Glass division, said in a prepared statement. “We are passionate about the success of the wine industry across the country, and are proud to support wineries with glass wine bottles made right here in the U.S.”

Looking east

Comcast is setting its sights on growth in India, according to that country’s Economic Times.

The media giant is reportedly leading a team of investors to buy Zee Entertainment Enterprises, one of India’s largest media companies. Zee owns newspapers, TV channels and other media properties.

Chicken envy

McDonald’s owners want a southern-fried chicken sandwich that competes with Chick-fil-A.

CNBC this week quoted an email from the board of the National Owners Association of McDonald’s franchisees as saying, "JFK called for a man on the moon, our call should be a category-leading chicken sandwich.”

Chick-fil-A recently became the third-largest fast food chain in the United States, behind McDonald's and Starbucks, according to the Washington Post. 

The Georgia-based chicken chain reported $10 billion in 2018 sales across 2,700 stores in 47 states and Washington, D.C. 

Scammers at it

Indiana Michigan Power is warning customers about scammers impersonating their employees.

While the scams can vary, they generally work like this:

•Customers receive calls from callers falsely identifying themselves as I&M employees.

•The caller claims the customer is late paying their bill, and their power will be disconnected soon – perhaps later that day – if the customer does not pay the bill immediately.

•Many scammers “spoof” the telephone number they are calling from to make it appear as a different number. In some cases, it may appear to be an authentic I&M phone number.

•Customers are usually instructed to call a different number to arrange payment.

•The scammers may seek personal credit card or banking information from customers. Some direct customers to buy a debit card and provide the debit card number.

•The utility said I&M employees never call customers demanding immediate payment. Nor does I&M disconnect service without prior written warning.

Anyone receiving such calls should hang up and call I&M’s Customer Operations Center at 800-311-4634 to report the scam.

Broin featured

POET Biorefining’s chief executive officer Jeff Broin is the subject of an extensive feature on CNN Business this week.

The feature, written by CNN Business reporter Parijia Kavilanz, traces the ethanol company’s history from the family farm in Minnesota to its position as the largest biofuels company in the world.

With $8 billion in annual revenue, the family-owned company, headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, operates 28 refineries in seven states and produces more than two billion gallons of biofuel annually.  It is parent of POET Bio-refining Portland.