Vancouver, January 12, 2011— Gamesa, a world-leading player in the design, manufacture and maintenance of wind turbines, has been awarded a contract to supply a total of 10 MW of capacity for the wind farm being developed by Western Wind Energy Corp. The power from the project will be sold to UniSource Electric Inc.
This is the second contract Gamesa has signed with Western Wind Energy in the last month and its first contract in Arizona, a new foothold for the company in the U.S. wind power market.
The farm will be comprised of five G90-2.0 MW wind turbines on 78-meter towers. Gamesa will oversee the wind turbine installation, which is planned for April 2011.
Western Wind Energy Corp. is utilizing funds from the Section 1603 Program to partially fund the construction of this wind farm. This program, created as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that was enacted in February 2009, provides an optional cash payment for developers in lieu of a 30 percent investment tax credit and production tax credit.
Gamesa has been operating in the U.S. since 2005; it has two manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania employing over 800 people and with production capacity of over 1,000 MW/year.
The U.S. market, which Gamesa has designated as strategic, accounts for 22 percent of the company’s total worldwide wind turbine generator sales. Gamesa expects to steadily increase its presence and sales in the region: it projects 15 percent average annual growth in sales in the US between 2009 and 2013.
