The recently announced partnership by BP Wind Energy and Sempra US Gas & Power involves a combined investment of more than $1 billion. Both wind farms are fully-contracted under long-term agreements, and are expected to be in commercial operation by year-end 2012. The wind farms will each be the largest ever built in their respective states.
The Mehoopany Wind Farm will be located in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania and is expected to generate up to 141 MW of energy. The power output from the wind farm has been sold under contract to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative Inc. The contracts were negotiated by the National Renewables Cooperative Organization.
The Flat Ridge 2 Wind farm will be located on a 66,000-acre site approximately 40 miles southwest of Wichita, Kansas. The wind farm will utilize 262 GE wind turbines each with a rated capacity of 1.6 MW to generate 419 MW of renewable power. The power output from the Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm has been sold under contracts to Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. and Southwestern Electric Power Company, a unit of American Electric Power. A third contract has been secured but has yet to be announced.
The construction contract for the Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm has been awarded to Blattner Energy and is expected to employ approximately 500 people on-site during the peak of construction.
“Through strategic partnerships with world-class companies like BP, Sempra US Gas & Power continues to grow a highly successful wind business while extending its position as a leading solar energy developer,” said Jeffrey W. Martin, president and CEO of Sempra US Gas & Power. “This is an exciting time for our company. Over the next 12 months we expect to more than double the size of our operating wind and solar generation portfolios, resulting in significantly improved recurring cash flows from long-term contracted assets.”
BP will be the operator of both wind farms when they become commercially operational.
12% growth in turbine sales
This deal is just one of many that will help realise the latest wind market forecasts published by Research and Markets. The analysis performed by Lucintel shows that the wind turbine market has experienced significant growth over the last five years and is expected to continue its growth momentum, reaching approximately $96 billion by 2016 with a CAGR of 12% over the next five years for annual installations.
Concerns over climate change, crude oil prices, and increasing energy demand are generating global interest in renewable resources to meet the world's energy needs. Wind is a clean, abundant, rapidly growing energy source. The business of generating electricity from wind is set to expand as China, the US, and Rest of the World seeks cleaner, more sustainable ways to create electricity. Although wind is more expensive than conventional energy sources, wind turbines have evolved rapidly and decades of research and development have resulted in lower wind energy prices making wind energy competitive with fossil-based fuel energy prices.
Lucintel's research indicates that the percentage growth rate in cumulative capacity is expected to decrease every year as global cumulative wind capacity increases. This fluctuating growth rate in cumulative capacity brings the total capacity to 568,310 MW by the end of 2016. Asia is expected to remain the leader in wind energy installations. The Chinese and the USA markets are expected to top the list in new turbine installations, with Portugal, France, Italy, the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands steadily adding capacity.
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