BIG WIND-MAKERS MAKE $381 MIL DAKOTAS DEAL

This is the news: Stories like this are no longer news.

Of course it’s not news that wind giants like GE Energy and ACCIONA are building a 180-megawatt installation. That wasn’t news last year.

What’s not news this year (making it news) is that the wind giants are building a big installation in the Dakotas, perhaps the last bastion of Midwestern onshore wind potential yet to see extensive development.

Last year, Texas took the lead in wind development and the only way they can make news about wind down there this year is by building transmission. Earlier this year Oklahoma and Kansas fell like the next dominoes in the wind development explosion on the nation’s wind-rich plains.

It’s still almost news that the formerly reluctant Dakotas are welcoming wind. But after the announcement last week of the 5,000+ megawatt Titan wind installation in South Dakota (see SOUTH DAKOTA GETS IN THE WIND GAME…), a normal-sized (180-megawatt) wind project, like the ACCIONA Tatanka project GE Energy just bought into, can’t really be expected to be news anymore.

Now it’s time for the Dakotas to start building new transmission and really make some news.

ACCIONA turbines at the Tatanka installation. (click to enlarge)

GE Unit Partners with Leading Wind Farm Developer in $381 Million Project
August 11, 2008 (GE/Business Wire via MarketWatch)

WHO
GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric Company (GE) (Tim Howell, Managing Director/origination leader of renewable energy); ACCIONA Energy North America (Susan Nickey, CFO)

WHAT
GE and ACCIONA will partner to build the 180-megawatt Tatanka Wind Farm.

North Dakota: The number 1 wind resources in the U.S. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- The Tatanka installation went into service in July 2008.
- ACCIONA Energy built its first U.S. wind turbine plant in January 2008 in Iowa.
- GE Energy has a $4 billion New Energy portfolio and aims to build it to $6 billion by 2010.

WHERE
- The Tatanka installation will be on 14,000 farmland acres in Dickey, McIntosh and McPherson counties in North and South Dakota.
- Dickey County: 61 turbines. McPherson County: 59 turbines. McIntosh County: transmission lines.
- ACCIONA is among the world leading wind installation developers with 195 wind installations (5,403 megawatts of installed wind capacity) in 13 countries.
- GE Energy has 38 wind installations in the U.S. with a total installed capacity of 4,000+ megawatts.

WHY
- Tatanka has 120 ACCIONA 1.5 megawatt turbines. It is the 1st U.S. wind installation built entirely by ACCIONA.
- GE will buy in for $141 million, leaving ACCIONA to cover the $240 million balance.
- This is GE’s 1st wind investment in the Dakotas.
- ACCIONA will own/operate.
- ACCIONA Energy is the 7th biggest turbine manufacturer in the world. It has built 1,158 operating wind turbines producing 1,700+ megawatts.
- North Dakota is the state with the highest wind energy potential, estimated at 1.21 trillion kilowatt-hours per year. That is 40% of U.S. electricity consumption.
- South Dakota is 4th with 1.03 trillion kilowatt-hours.

Numbers 2 & 7 are building wind in the Dakotas - nothing new about that. Footnote: Numbers 8 & 10 are from China - expect them to rank higher next year. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Tim Howell, Managing Director/origination leader of renewable energy, GE Energy Financial Services: "We are helping ACCIONA with Tatanka -- whose name is inspired by the Lakota Indian tribal word for the buffalo that once roamed the Midwest -- to charge into the American wind industry with a major project in the best wind farming area of the United States…"
- Susan Nickey, CFO, ACCIONA: "The Dakotas' high wind energy potential and low population means that wind power will be available to transmit to the rest of the Midwest…Tatanka represents another major step toward ACCIONA's goal of reducing the world's CO(2) emissions by 220 million tons in the next 23 years."