A number of acquisitions have pushed AES Corp’s wind development pipeline in Europe to more than 1,300 MW.
AES purchased a minority interest in InnoVent SAS, a French wind farm developer with more than 600 MW of wind projects in development and also acquired a minority stake in the 120 MW Kavarna wind project in Bulgaria, one of the largest wind development projects in southeast Europe.
AES has the option to acquire majority control of a significant portion of InnoVent projects during the next five years and a majority stake in the Kavarna project once development is completed. InnoVent expects to begin construction of 40 MW of projects in 2007 and anticipates adding at least 50 MW to 100 MW each year during the next five years.
The 120 MW Kavarna wind project is located in northeastern Bulgaria, in one of the windiest areas of the country. Kavarna is expected to be operational by mid-2008 and will sell power to NEK, the national grid owner and operator. Kavarna is being developed in partnership with Geo Power, a Bulgarian-German renewable energy development firm.
Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Keith Oberg, managing director, AES Europe Wind Generation said: “Installed wind generation capacity in Bulgaria and France is expected to increase by more than 5,000 MW over the next five years.”
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