GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE) announced that is investing in a $350 million in a 166-megawatt (MW) wind generation project to supply renewable power to Austin, Texas, an area traditionally known for oil, ranching and farming.
The project’s developer, Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc., is beginning construction of the Hackberry wind farm in Shackelford County 30 miles northeast of Abilene this month, and hopes to complete it by December.
According to the company the project will annually produce power sufficient for 39,000 homes and avoid 389,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to equivalent fossil fuel generation.
With large tracts of flat open land and the second highest wind energy potential in the United States, Texas leads US states in installed wind power. This investment will help the state meet its requirement to produce 5,880 MW of its power from renewable sources by 2015.
According to a release, the project interconnects with Oncor Electric Delivery Company and includes a 15-year power purchase agreement with the City of Austin through Austin Energy, the 10th largest community-owned electric utility in the United States.
With the Hackberry investment, GE Energy Financial Services holds equity in 79 wind farms worldwide, with a capacity to produce more than 2,870 MW of electricity.
Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. is a subsidiary of privately owned UK-based Renewable Energy Systems Ltd., also known as RES Group. The project will be constructed, owned and operated by affiliates of RES Americas, including Austin-based affiliate Hackberry Wind LLC.
RES America says it has developed more than 1,100 MW, with 1,000 MW under construction and 11,000 MW in development in North America.
The Hackberry wind project will employ 72 Siemens MK II 2.3-megawatt wind turbines.
About GE Energy Financial Services
GE Energy Financial Services’ 350 experts invest globally with a long-term view, backed by the best of GE’s technical know-how and financial strength, across the capital spectrum and the energy and water industries, to help their customers and GE grow. With $16 billion in assets, GE Energy Financial Services, based in Stamford, Connecticut, invests more than $5 billion annually in two of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, energy and water. In renewable energy, GE Energy Financial Services is growing its portfolio of more than $2 billion in assets in wind, solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal power.
RES Group
RES Group is part of the Sir Robert McAlpine group of engineering and construction companies, a British privately-owned family firm. Renewable Energy Systems Holdings Ltd is a subsidiary of Sir Robert McAlpine Enterprises Ltd, and has two direct subsidiaries, RES-Gen Ltd (our wind farm operating business) and Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. These three RES companies are the holding company and the main operating companies respectively of RES Group.
Renewable Energy Systems Ltd has two divisions and a number of subsidiary companies involved in the development, design and construction of wind farms worldwide and renewable heat and power installations in the UK. These include subsidiaries RES UK & Ireland Ltd, Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc, RES Australia Pty Ltd, RES New Zealand Ltd, EOLE-RES SA in France, RES Skandinavien AB, Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. and Renewable Energy Systems Construction Ltd; together with corporate divisions RES TEC (technical), and RES Heat and Power.
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