Terra-Gen Power announced closing $1.2 billion in construction financing and wind turbine orders. The company will build four wind power projects for the Alta Wind Energy Center in Kern County, California, for which Vestas-American Wind Technology will provide 190 turbines with a capacity of 570 megawatts. This is the largest number of wind turbines ever ordered for a single site in the U.S.
The Alta Wind Energy Center currently hosts 150 megawatt GE turbines and is expected to become the largest wind energy farm in the country with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts when completed. Terra-Gen has agreements with Southern California Edison to feed the energy into its grid.
The wind farm’s financing is the largest of any wind energy project in North America and comes primarily from Citibank, which committed to buy the projects when they start operating commercially. Terra-Gen will lease the projects from Citibank and continue to operate the farm.
The completed wind energy farm will raise California’s wind capacity 25%, supplying renewable energy to about 200,000 homes. Vestas will deliver its turbines beginning in October, and the first project phase is expected to go online in January of 2011.