With a goal of investing $6 billion in renewable energy by 2010, GE Energy Financial Services surpassed the $4 billion mark today by investing in New York State’s three newest wind farms. The unit of GE (NYSE: GE) will invest a total of $100 million in the three wind farms, whose construction began last month.
When the projects are completed during the fourth quarter of this
year, GE Energy Financial Services will invest equity as the
non-managing member of the three New York State farms and Noble
Environmental Power, a wind energy developer based in Essex,
Connecticut, will invest as the managing member. With this new
investment, GE and Noble will have co-invested in more than 80% of New
York State’s wind capacity.
The portfolio consists of:
- The Noble Chateaugay Windpark (106.5 megawatts), in Franklin County
- The Noble Altona Windpark (97.5 megawatts), in Clinton County
- The Noble Wethersfield Windpark (126 megawatts), in Wyoming County
The
portfolio addition is the second in which GE Energy Financial Services
has partnered with Noble. In June 2007, GE Energy Financial Services
invested in the Noble Bliss, Clinton, and Ellenburg Windparks, also in
New York State.
"We have reached the $4 billion milestone just five months after hitting $3 billion, confirming that renewable energy is our fastest-growing business," said Alex Urquhart, President and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services. "Such project-level investments-coupled with our venture capital investing in clean tech, GE’s technology and research-reinforce GE’s company-wide leadership in renewable energy."
Including the three new farms, GE Energy Financial Services has invested or committed to invest equity worldwide in 76 wind farms, with a total capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts.
When the three new farms begin commercial operation, they will increase the wind producing capacity of New York State by 47%. Using 1.5-megawatt GE wind turbines, the three wind farms will generate a combined 330 megawatts of energy-enough to power more than 110,000 average New York homes. In total, the farms will avoid 385,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year-equivalent to taking 64,000 cars off the road.
The GE Energy Financial Services recently released a study that found a federal tax credit for wind farms more than pays for itself through tax revenues from the projects’ income, vendors’ profits and individual workers’ wages.
The total local economic benefits to the communities of the three New York State wind farms-in addition to Noble Bellmont wind farm, which is not involved in this transaction-is estimated at $305.5 million, according to Noble.
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