Vestas receives two wind energy orders totaling 139 MW in USA

The 104.4-MW Palouse Wind project in Whitman County, Washington, will include 58 V100-1.8 MW turbines while the 34.2-MW Bull Hill wind power plant in Hancock County, Maine, will feature 19 V100-1.8 MW turbines.

The contracts for both projects include delivery and commissioning along with a 10-year service and maintenance agreement. Deliveries for Palouse Wind and Bull Hill are scheduled for mid-2012, and both projects are expected to be commissioned in late 2012.

“We are very pleased to be working with a new customer, First Wind, to build two U.S. energy projects,” said Martha Wyrsch, President of Vestas-American Wind Technology, Inc. “The V100-1.8 MW is proven technology that’s well-designed for wind speeds of this area.”

The Palouse Wind contract includes Vestas’ newest service program – Active Output Management (AOM) 5000 – which has an energy-based guarantee to ensure the turbines are operational when the wind is blowing. The Bull Hill service agreement includes the AOM 4000 maintenance program, which guarantees turbine availability. Both service contracts include all planned and unplanned maintenance services and continuous remote monitoring and surveillance of the projects via the VestasOnline® SCADA system.

The Palouse wind power plant will provide enough electricity to power more than 30,000 Washington homes while Bull Hill will generate enough electricity to power more than 15,000 homes in Maine.

Vestas supplied its first turbines to Washington in 2001 and has 816 MW of installed capacity in the state. This will be the second wind power plant in Maine using Vestas turbines, the first being installed in 2009.

This order is Vestas’ 11th North American order announcement in 2011 for a combined total of 1,558 MW. It’s also the 10th contract for a project using V100-1.8 MW turbines in North America since 2010.

Vestas is the world leader in supplying high-tech wind power systems, and a preferred provider of wind turbines, services and solutions in North America. Since 1979, Vestas has an industry-leading installed base of more than 44,000 wind turbines in 66 countries. Vestas, which employs more than 3,000 people in the United States, sold its first wind turbine in North America in 1981 and since has supplied more than 12,000 in North America. Vestas’ North American manufacturing operations are located in Colorado while its technology research centers are in Texas, Massachusetts and Colorado. Vestas’ North American headquarters is located in Portland, Ore., while its global headquarters is in Aarhus, Denmark.

First Wind is an independent wind energy company exclusively focused on the development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of utility-scale wind farm projects in the United States. Based in Boston, First Wind has wind projects in the Northeast, the West and in Hawaii, with the capacity to generate up to 735 megawatts of power and projects under construction with the capacity to generate up to an additional 141 megawatts.

www.firstwind.com