Continental Wind closing €1.1B wind deal in Romania

Renewable power developer Continental Wind Partners expects to close a €1.1 billion deal this Friday to sell 600 megawatts of wind turbines to European utility CEZ Group.

Construction is planned to start in September on the adjacent Fantanele and Cogealac wind farms in Romania. Good Energies said the two projects together will create the largest onshore wind farm in Europe, double the next-largest permitted project.

Good Energies, which has offices in Europe and North America, is one of
the founders of Continental Wind. Continental was established in 2006
to finance the development of wind farms in Romania and Poland but has
since started other projects in Europe, Australia and New Zealand (see
Good Energies, Continental Wind buying GE turbines).

The companies expect to start installation of the turbines in April 2009 and to complete the project in June 2010. As the turbines come online, they will add to the power supply. Good Energies estimates that 345 megawatts of turbines will be installed by the end of 2009.

The wind farm is expected to contribute almost 30 percent of the renewable energy in Romania, which currently has seven megawatts of wind energy production.

Continental Wind plans to contract the wind farm construction to companies including GE Wind Energy and Arriva. The total development pipeline of Continental Wind is more 4,500 megawatts of wind projects.