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27 October 2004 - PPM Energy, Inc. (PPM), ScottishPower's competitive U.S. energy business, and Shell WindEnergy, Inc. (Shell) today announced construction of the largest wind power project in the state of Colorado. Shell and PPM are equal partners in the venture.
Located near the town of Lamar in Prowers County in southeastern Colorado, the expected 162 MW Colorado Green Wind Project was developed and is being built by GE Wind Energy using 108 1.5 MW turbines with 70.5m diameter rotor blades installed on 80m towers. Construction is scheduled for completion by the end of 2003.
Power generated by the Colorado Green project will be delivered under a long-term contract to the 1.3m Colorado customers of Xcel Energy.
"The Colorado Green development was borne through a competitive bidding process where it competed against all other forms of electricity generation, including natural gas and coal-fired generation," said Terry Hudgens, PPM's CEO. "That Colorado Green was found to be one of the lowest-cost alternative shows what we've said all along - today's wind power is cost-competitive with any other form of new generation."
David Jones, executive vice president of Shell WindEnergy, added: "Shell believes wind energy has enormous potential and is a fundamental part of creating a sustainable energy future. We're very pleased to be a 50 per cent owner of Colorado Green, our largest wind project to date. With this project, Shell WindEnergy increases its U.S. installed gross capacity of projects in which we have an equity interest from 392 MW to 554 MW. In addition to Colorado Green, we are collaborating with Scottish Power on the development of an offshore wind project in the UK and hope, in time, to work together on further projects on both sides of the Atlantic."
"We are pleased with this project because it further diversifies the portfolio of generating capacity in Colorado and will help meet the growing demand for electricity in our service territory," said David Eves, vice president of resource planning and acquisition for Xcel Energy.
The Colorado Green project was arranged with limited recourse financing with ANZ and Rabobank as lead in a consortium of banks.
While the project spans approximately 11840 acres, owned by 14 landowners, the actual footprint of the turbine uses less than two percent of the total acreage. The remainder continues to be used for ranching and grazing. In addition to the creation of 10 to 15 full-time jobs in the community, the project initially is expected to provide more than $2m a year in property tax revenues.
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