Canberra Times
8 August 2011, Page: 13
The US investment fund Blackstone Group plans to invest several billion euros in German wind farms, as the biggest economy in Europe will need the energy when it abandons nuclear power by 2022. Blackstone Group said that it had finalised 1.2 billion euros ($A1.63 billion) in financing to build what it says will be the biggest German offshore facility to date.
The fund said that it had also obtained permission for its wind company unit to develop a second site, putting its cost at $1.77 billion. The first farm, to consist of 80 turbines built by the German group Siemens, is to become operational in 2013 with a generating capacity of 288 MWs. Requiring around 100,000t of steel in its construction phase, the park should provide electricity for 400,000 homes and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one million tonnes, a Siemens statement said. The turbines will be huge, with rotors that measure 120m in diameter, and are to stand in water more than 20m deep.
Siemens presents itself as the world's leading manufacturer of offshore wind turbines. Financing for the second project, designed for 63 turbines, should be finalised in 2013 and it is to be completed by 2016. Blackstone Group senior managing director David Foley welcomed "the progress and positive impact on the economy that can be achieved when private capital works in partnership with government, entrepreneurs and industry". Energy producers expect European wind power generation to triple by 2020, with tens of thousands of new wind turbines,the European Wind Energy Association said last week.
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