GE crosses $4-billion in green investments with new wind-farm projects

General Electric, the world's biggest maker of power generation equipment, said that its GE Energy Financial Services arm would invest a total of $100 million in three wind farms under construction in northern and western New York. With this latest investment, which takes its total portfolio beyond $4 billion, the company came closer to its stated goal of putting $6 billion in renewable energy before the end of this decade.

"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.

GE Energy Financial Services closed more than $2 billion of renewable energy transactions last year, and by 2010 expects they will comprise 20-25 per cent of its overall energy and water portfolio, up from about 10 per cent in 2006. 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 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 leading 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 per cent of New York State's wind capacity. In addition to remaining a significant equity investor, Noble will construct, operate and manage the facilities, located in the predominantly dairy producing farmland of northern and western New York.

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.

Workers are laying foundations and installing turbines at the new wind farms, adjacent to the three wind farms in which GE Energy Financial Services invested last year. Two are located in northern New York, about 15 miles from the Canadian border and the other is in western New York.

When the three begin commercial operation, they will increase the wind producing capacity of New York State by 47 per cent. 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.

GE, the largest supplier of wind turbines in the United States, is expanding investments to take advantage of federal tax credits and minimum state requirements for renewable energy. Wind is the fastest growing source of renewable energy worldwide because it's cheaper than solar or geothermal plants.

Along with helping GE meet its renewable energy investment target, this new capital for New York wind farms helps the state meet its Renewable Portfolio Standard. That standard requires that 25 per cent of the electricity consumed by New Yorkers come from renewable energy by 2013 and is expected to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 7.7 per cent, nitrogen oxide by 6.8 per cent and sulfur dioxide by 5.9 per cent.

The total local economic benefits to the communities of the three New York State wind farms are estimated by Noble to be around $305.5 million.
Extolling the virtues of wind power, Kevin Walsh, managing director and leader of renewable energy at GE Energy Financial Services, said, ''Wind farms provide not only clean energy but more jobs. Local people have already been hired to construct the wind farms, build and plow the roads, and eventually maintain the projects.

As we showed in a study we released last month, wind farms will create tax revenues for local and federal governments. In a world with rising fuels costs, this new form of energy - and the millions of dollars in economic benefits it provides - is truly America's new cash crop.''