The Erie Shores Wind Farm, which will be one of the largest wind power projects in Canada when completed in early 2006, will utilise 66 GE Energy 1.5MW wind turbines, increasing the country’s wind capacity by 99MW. The project, to be sited along the northern shoreline of Lake Erie between Copenhagen and Clear Creek in the province of Ontario, is being developed by Erie Shores Wind Farm Limited Partnership (ESWF), a joint venture between the Clean Power Income Fund, a leading North American renewable power income fund, and AIM PowerGen Corporation, a private Canadian developer of wind power projects. In addition to supplying the wind turbines, GE Energy will also operate and maintain the project during its first four years of operation. Erie Shores is one of five new projects recently approved by the Ontario government. The project also supports the Canadian government’s recent decision to increase its original 1,000MW Wind Power Production Incentive (WPPI) to 4,000MW.

FPL Energy has selected GE Energy’s 1.5MW wind turbine technology for two new projects in Texas and Oklahoma (USA) that will total more than 220MW of new wind energy capacity. The Callahan Divide Wind Energy Center in Taylor County, Texas, will utilise 76 wind turbines. The project will occupy a 6,000-acre (c. 2400ha) site approximately 12 miles (19km) southwest of Abilene, Texas, and will add 114MW of wind capacity to the Texas grid. Groundbreaking for the Callahan Divide project was held in October, and the installation of the wind turbines is expected to be completed in the spring of 2005. The Weatherford Wind Energy Center in Custer County, Oklahoma, will use 71 wind turbines totalling 106.5MW of wind power capacity. Project completion is expected in the summer of 2005. Power will be purchased by the Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

REpower Systems AG has achieved a total output of € 301.4 million in the 2004 fiscal year (previous year € 299.3 million). The earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) amount to € -3.4 million compared to € 12.9 million in the previous year. After taking into account one-off effects from the initial consolidation of joint ventures, tax, interest and minority shares, this results in an annual deficit of € -9.3 million. In addition, REpower Systems AG announces the involvement of a major strategic investor. The Portuguese steel and metal construction company Martifer Construções Metalomecânis has increased its share from 5.05 to 19.5% through acquiring a block of shares from the ELBE Betreuungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, represented by the former REpower Board member Hugo Denker. At the meeting held on 16 March 2005, the Supervisory Board also authorised the restructuring concept developed by a management consultancy company, which, in addition to optimising the operative processes, envisages streamlining the organisation at the management level.

Completing an agreement first announced by GE Energy and Hydro-Québec in October 2004, GE Energy has signed contracts with two developers to supply up to 660 wind turbines for eight projects in the province of Quebec. When the projects come on-line between 2006 and 2012, they will add 990MW of wind-generated electricity to the power grid of Hydro-Québec. The contract signings follow a memorandum of understanding signed in October, naming GE Energy as the turbine supplier for the projects. GE will supply up to 740MW of wind turbines to Cartier Wind Energy and up to 250MW of wind turbines to Northland Power Inc./Northland Power Income Fund. GE will support the projects with a significant portion of the contracts supplied locally in the Province of Quebec. It is planned that, over the course of six years, GE’s wind turbines will be installed at eight locations. The power generated will be provided to Hydro-Québec Distribution, the utility’s retail division, for distribution throughout Quebec.

Airtricity, the Dublin-based renewable energy specialist, is preparing an audacious plan to build the world’s biggest wind farm in the North Sea at a cost of about £1.2 billion. The Irish group is putting together a consortium of energy and construction partners to raise finance to develop the wind farm, which would be located in British waters. It aims to present its plans to the government later this year. Airtricity, which is backed by NTR, the largest multi-utility group in Ireland, has drawn up plans for a wind farm of about 5,000 turbines producing more than 10,000MW of electricity. Airtricity’s partners are likely to include a national grid operator, such as National Grid Transco, ScottishPower or Scottish & Southern Energy. One of the most expensive parts of the project would be the cost of linking the farm to the grid. The consortium will also include a power generation company, such as Centrica, Npower or Powergen, which would probably sign an agreement to buy the green energy produced by the turbines. The turbines would be spread over almost 50 square kilometres and create enough energy to power 441,000 homes.

Following the completion of the Scroby Sands wind farm installation works, Oceanteam 2000 Ltd has been awarded the underwater and marine support services contract by Global Marine Systems Ltd for the Kentish Flats wind farm project. This includes the onshore beach works, main product line installation and inter-field submarine cables.