The AES Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire SeaWest Holdings Inc., a move which will make AES one of the top developers and operators of wind farms in the U.S.
AES will purchase SeaWest for approximately $60 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2005, subject to regulatory approvals.
AES also announced plans to acquire and construct SeaWest’s 120 megawatt (MW) Buffalo Gap wind generation project near Abilene, Texas, at an estimated cost of $165 million. AES plans to begin construction in early 2005 and the facility is expected to become operational in the fourth quarter of 2005.
SeaWest is a privately-owned wind generation operating and development company based in San Diego, California. SeaWest operates over 500 MW of wind facilities in California, Wyoming and Oregon and has 1,800 MW of development sites in ten states in the western United States. The company has been in the wind energy business since it was formed in 1982 and employs 175 people.
AES’s acquisition of SeaWest, combined with its recent investment in US Wind Force, LLC, advances AES’s goal to become a strong competitor in wind generation. Upon closing, AES will have wind projects operating or in development in 13 states, including California which has the largest installed base of wind projects in the U.S. AES gains options on more than 100,000 acres of land for potential sites in SeaWest’s development pipeline.
Global demand for wind generation is expected to grow by more than 15% a year, from 46,000 MW in 2004 to 112,000 MW by 2010. In 2005 alone, the U.S. is expecting to see new construction of over 2,000 MW of wind generation as the result of new state requirements for power companies to include renewable sources of energy, such as wind, in their portfolios. Eighteen states in the U.S. have passed, or have pending, legislation on renewable portfolio standards.
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