February 15, 2007

GE Invests in U.S., French Wind Power

GE Energy Financial Services has announced that it is investing $270 million in wind farms in California, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, Business Week reports.

In addition, yesterday, the company announced it would sell 165-megawatt wind farms in Germany for 5.2 million shares of Theolia, a Paris-based company that generates electricity from wind power. GE Energy Financial Services also purchased an additional 1.2 million shares of Theolia stock for about $26 million and has the opportunity to increase its ownership to up to 22 percent of Theolia.

All of the U.S. wind farms have either been completed or will be completed by the end of April, except the Pennsylvania operation, expected to be finished by December. The wind farms were wholly owned by affiliates of global investment and advisory firm Babcock & Brown, North American Windpower reports.

According to North American Windpower, the U.S. wind portfolio consists of the following installations:

• the 90 MW Aragonne Mesa in Guadalupe County, New Mexico (Arizona Public Service is the project’s off-taker),
• the 80 MW Allegheny Ridge I and 70 MW Allegheny Ridge II in Pennsylvania’s Cambria and Blair counties (FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has contracted to purchase the output of the two wind farms),
• the 80 MW GSG in Illinois’ Lee and LaSalle counties (the output will be sold at market prices),
• the 52 MW Mendota Hills in Lee County, Illinois (the output will be sold at market prices), and
• the 38 MW Buena Vista in the Altamont Pass area of northern California (the output is contracted to PG&E Corp.).

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