Wind Power Company EPD Renewables to Invest $4B in the U.S.
EPD Renewables (EDPR), the Portuguese wind power company, is planning to invest $4 billion over the next three years to bolster its U.S. wind generation portfolio, the company said in a statement.
Like a growing number of foreign companies, EPDR, the clean energy unit of Energias de Portugal, wants to tap into some of the U.S. stimulus money to fund its wind power projects, in particular the direct cash grants.
Companies can tap these grants, enacted as part of the stimulus program, to finance up to 30 percent of the cost of an operating project. So far a lot of those grants have gone to foreign companies, including Iberdrola.
EDPR aims to generate more than 4 gigawatts in wind power in the U.S. by 2012, from 2.5 gigawatts currently.
EDPR said that the new investment would fund new projects and the purchase of manufacturing equipment. Its U.S. unit Horizon Wind Energy will oversee its U.S. investments.
EPDR, the world’s fourth-largest wind power operator in terms of installed capacity, plans to deliver 1,200-1,300 megawatts in new capacity for the whole of 2009, bringing the company’s total, global capacity to 6,400 megawatts.
