Another 140 megawatts of wind power, enough to power over 38,000 homes, is set to be up and running in Pennsylvania by 2013 thanks to German wind turbine company REPower Systems, which on Wednesday announced it had inked a deal with American wind developer EverPower to provide 68 wind turbines for a planned wind farm in Somerset.
“This is one of the largest single orders for REpower,” said Andreas Nauen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of REpower Systems, in a statement. “We appreciate the confidence our US customers place in us.”
REPower’s turbines will form the basis for EverPower‘s $350 million Twin Ridges wind farm, which was announced in October 2010 as part of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership, which seeks to connect local governments and organizations with renewable energy companies.
The farm is expected to cover an area of 7,700 acres and is projected to employ 200 workers during construction, 10 full-time maintenance workers and inject $5 million worth of construction spending into the local economy, according to REPower.
The 68 REPower turbines are of REPower’s MM92 variety, and will measure in at variously 80 and 100 meters for the project, each generating 2.05 megawatts of electricity.
When completed, the project will increase Pennsylvania’s overall power from wind generation by nearly 20 percent.
The state currently has 751 megawatts-worth of wind power online providing 0.8 percent of the state’s total power generation. But the state’s wind resources, most of which are accessible at the 80 meter height, could provide up to 3,307 megawatts, or 6.4 percent of the state’s energy needs, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
As EverPower CEO (and Pittsburgh native) Jim Spencer told POP City in February: “My concern (with the excitement generated over Marcellus Shale) is the state might overlook a real source of economic growth in renewables,” he says. “There is a very attractive market here. But unless the renewable standards increase, we’re unlikely to see more development and construction here.”
Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, signed into law in 2004, requires that 18 percent of the state’s energy needs be met through alternative energy by 2020, but wind power is lumped into a 7.5 percent subcomponent, along with hydropower, geothermal, biologically derived methane, fuel cells, biomass, and coal mine methane, environmental advocacy group PennFuture notes.
EverPower is a New York-based wind developer with 4,500 megawatts worth of windpower across 12 states, including Pennsylvania already, with its Highland wind farm near Krayn.
REPower is a German subsidiary of Indian energy company Suzlon, which is the world’s fifth largest wind supplier, having installed 18,000 MW worth of wind energy capacity in 20 countries.
