UTILITIES BUY MORE WIND

Just another week in the wind business: Utilities can’t seem to get their fill of wind. Considering that utilities have to either keep the lights on or go out of business, their insatiable appetite says more about wind energy's maturity than a hundred Department of Energy reports.

Duke Energy is buying Catamount Energy’s 300 megawatts of exisiting capacity but that’s only a small part of the story. Catamount has 1750 megawatts in pre-building stages.

Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power & Light is moving forward on a 400-megawatt project in Minnesota. Given the wind energy assets in the Great Lakes region, this is not likely to be the last utility-backed wind installation up there.

(And, on July 1 but too late for inclusion in this post, utility Pacific Gas & Electric signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Horizon Wind Energy, adding 102.9 megawatts to its wind portfolio and bringing its total wind energy capacity to 1, 213 megawatts.)

Add Duke Energy to the list. (click to enlarge)

Duke Energy buys wind company for $240 mln
Michael Erman (w/Gerald E. McCormick and Phil Berlowitz), June 26 2008 (Reuters)
and
Duke Energy buys Catamount Energy for $240 million
June 26, 2008 (AP via CNN Money)
and
Alliant moving forward with Minnesota wind farm
Jeff Richgels, June 30, 2008 (The Capital Times)

WHO
Duke Energy Corp, Catamount Energy Corp and Diamond Castle Holdings; Alliant Energy unit Wisconsin Power and Light Co. (WPL); Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC)

WHAT
Duke bought wind energy developers Catamount from Diamond Castle for $240 million and WPL filed a site permit with MPUC for the $450 to $475 million first phase of a 400-megawatt wind installation in Minnesota.

With all that capacity in development, Catamount could turn out to be cheap at twice the price. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- Catamount’s Sweetwater installations fit well with the Tierra Energy installations in Texas and other western states that Duke Energy bought in May 2007. (See DUKE BUYS WIND)
- Construction on Phase 1 of WPL’s Bent Tree Wind Farm is planned for 2009, with operation expected for 2010.

WHERE
- Catamount is based in Rutland, VT. Its operational wind energy holdings are mostly in Sweetwater, TX, and it has pre-construction projects in the U.S. and the UK.
- Duke Energy is based in Charlotte, NC.
- The Bent Tree Wind Farm will be in Freeborn County, Minnesota, near Albert Lea just north of the Iowa border.

click to enlarge

WHY
- The purchase by Duke Energy gives it 5,000 megawatts of operational/planned wind capacity in 12 states, more than 500 megawatts operational by the end of this year.
- To get Catamount, Duke is paying a purchase price of $240 million and assumes an $80 million Catamount debt.
- The Bent Tree Wind Farm will eventually have a 400-megawatt capacity. The $450 to $475 million Phase 1 will be 200 megawatts.
- Bent Tree is WPL’s 2nd wind farm. It’s 1st, the 68-megawatt Cedar Ridge Wind Farm, is in Wisconsin’s Fond du Lac County and will be operational by the end of this year.

QUOTES
Jim Rogers, CEO, Duke Energy: “My job is, when you throw on the switch, I need to be there.”