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Alternative Energy - Thursday, October 29, 2009

Texas To Receive $1.5B Wind Farm From U.S.-China Joint Venture

The Lone Star State will increase its lead as the leading wind power
producer as a new 600 megawatt (MW) wind farm will be built in West,
Texas. The $1.5 billion project will consist of 240, 2.5MW wind
turbines that will be supplied by China’s A-Power Energy Generation
Systems (APWR:NASDAQ). Upon completion, the wind farm will be one of
the largest in Texas and will be able to supply enough electricity for
180,000.

The wind farm is being developed as a joint venture between Shenyang
Power Group (SPG), the U.S. Renewable Energy Group (US-REG) and Cielo
Wind Power. The deal is still contingent on SPG securing third-party
financing. Upon completion of the project, SPG will own 49 percent of
the wind farm with the remaining equity to be owned jointly by US-REG
and Cielo Wind.

Cielo Wind has developed over 1,100MW of wind projects and this will
be the ninth wind farm Cielo power has established in Texas and the
eleventh overall. Cielo’s previously largest wind farm on Ceilo’s
resume was the King Mountain Wind Ranch in West Texas. The 279MW
project went operational in December 2001 and was the largest wind
project in the world.

“A $1.5 billion, 600 megawatt renewable energy project will be one of
the largest undertakings of its kind anywhere in the world,” said
Cielo CEO Walt Hornaday in a prepared statement.

While this is the first joint venture between U.S. and China companies
for a utility-scale wind farm, SPG and APower already have a working
relationship. Back in July, SPG signed an agreement with A-Power to
develop an offshore, liquefied natural gas project that will supply
natural gas to Macau.

A-Power has the wind in their sails as this is third wind farm they
have been selected to provide wind turbines for over the last 2
months. Earlier this month they signed an agreement to develop a
19.5MW wind farm in the Shandong Province of China and a 49.5MW wind
farm in Inner Mongolia, China in September.