Wind farm to receive $300M expansion
A $300 million wind energy farm in rural eastern Indiana is expected to help power Facebook’s Midwest data center in Ohio.
Houston-based alternative energy company EDP Renewables North America announced Thursday that it plans to build 50 new turbines throughout Randolph County in the next year, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported.
The Headwaters II wind farm will produce enough electricity to power about 52,000 homes annually.
EDP Renewables says Facebook will purchase much of that power for its New Albany, Ohio center. The social media company has agreed to purchase 139 megawatts annually from the wind farm for the next 15 years.
Noblesville to open up 125 acres for development
A $7 million to $8 million investment in Olio Road could open more than 125 acres east of Noblesville’s corporate campus for development, city leaders say.
The city is planning extensive infrastructure work for Olio from 141st to 146th streets that officials hope will make vacant land in the area—including a site chosen last year for Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program—more marketable.
Slated to begin next year, the project widens Olio Road from two lanes to four, similar to the road’s layout south of 141st Street. The project also includes plans to address drainage problems. Work will improve storm sewers along Olio Road and on 146th Street, which sees some flooding when it rains. Sanitary sewers will also be extended along the corridor.
U.S. employers add 157,000 jobs; jobless rate ticks down
U.S. employers slowed their hiring in July, adding 157,000 jobs, a solid gain but below the healthy pace in the first half of this year.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.9 percent from 4 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s near an 18-year low of 3.8 percent reached in May.
Employers added an average of 224,000 new workers in the first six months of this year, a faster pace than in 2017. The pickup has impressed many economists because it’s coming late in the economic expansion, which has entered its 10th year and is now the second-longest in U.S. history.
