Horizon Wind Energy’s Blue Canyon V wind farm is a 99MW expansion of a 225MW wind farm near small towns of Lawton and Elgin in Comanche County and Apache in Caddo County in southwest Oklahoma. This project was built with GE’s 1.5MW turbines, and it supplies power to the Public Service Company of Oklahoma under a 20 year contract.
Kevin Walsh, managing director and leader of power and renewable energy at GE Energy Financial Services, said: “Through this transaction, GE Energy Financial Services is putting millions of dollars to work in an attractive wind project in rural America with a developer we know and trust. We look forward to continuing to work with Horizon, which can redeploy its capital to execute on its growth strategy and make other investments in the US wind industry.”
Horizon Wind Energy has estimated that this project can generate enough energy to power approximately 30,000 homes and avoid approximately 240,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. This utility-scale wind farm receives a production tax credit, an income tax credit for each KW-hour of electricity produced.
Gabriel Alonso, CEO of Horizon Wind Energy, said: “These equity investments help us in continuing our growth and efficiently realizing incentives provided by the US government. With partners like GE Energy Financial Services and its energy expertise and access to capital, EDP Renewables is targeting to invest over $4billion in building new wind farms the next three years.”
In addition to Blue Canyon, GE Energy Financial Services invested $111m to join a previously closed transaction, Vento III, which consists of three wind farms, generating 604MW power.
GE Energy Financial Services and Horizon Wind Energy had also partnered in January 2008, when the GE unit invested $300m in a 600MW portfolio of Horizon Wind Energy’s projects spanning upto four US states.
