NEW YORK: General Electric Co expands its wind power holdings with its latest commitment to invest $270 million in a 410-megawatt renewable energy portfolio comprising wind farms in six US locations.
The group's investment division GE Financial Services yesterday signed a deal in partnership with a subsidiary of Wachovia Corp., to invest the agreed amount in a purchase of wind farms located in Illinois, Northern California, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
Previous owners Babcock & Brown, an Australian investment firm, will retain holdings in the portfolio as Class B shareholders and also manage the project, the group's press release said.
GE would hold 70 percent of Class A shares in these wind farms which would increase the combined capacity of GE's worldwide renewable energy portfolio to more than 1,300MW. The company also plans to increase its stake in Paris-based wind power company Theolia to 22 percent. GE already owns 1.2 million Theolia shares purchased for about $26 million. It plans to acquire an additional 5.2 million shares by selling its German wind farm portfolio which has a capacity of 165MW.
GE's total holdings in renewable energy would then be worth over $1.75 billion. Up to 70 percent of the group's renewable energy holdings is in the US and includes solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal power turbines. The latest transaction takes its total number of wind farms to 25.
Kevin Walsh, managing director for this unit of GE, said the group was now looking for investment opportunities outside the US. It was mulling some Asian locations and India could be “our most likely entry point”, Walsh said.
Growing concern, globally, for fossil-fuel burning energy generators has resulted in increasing investments in renewable energy projects. Wind farms, one of the greener alternatives, have lessened the burden on coal-fired turbines to a limited extent.
GE believes its total wind farm portfolio could account for up to $20 billion of group revenues by 2010.
