Black Hills (BKH), a South Dakota utility with a market cap of about $6 billion, agreed earlier this month to sell 590 megawatts of electricity to Alphabet to power a nearby data center through 2048. To serve the contract, it plans to invest $1.8 billion in 564 megawatts of new natural gas generation, bringing total potential output to 2.7 gigawatts. The company says the deal should produce about $150 million in net income in 2030 and $2.4 billion in free cash flow over its lifetime, after accounting for the $1.8 billion in capital expenditures. The article notes that Alphabet is building a new data center in Cheyenne, a market Black Hills Energy already serves, and that the company has raised its dividend every year for the past 56 years.
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