Roaring 40s Renewable Energy Pty, a venture between Hydro Tasmania and Hong Kong's CLP Holdings Ltd., signed an agreement with Enercon (India) Ltd. for a wind energy project in India.
Under the agreement, a 50.4 megawatt wind farm costing A$80 million ($67 million) will be completed at Khandke in Maharashtra state, with the start-up scheduled by December, Hobart-based Roaring 40s said today in an e-mailed statement. HSBC Holdings Plc arranged financing for the project, the venture said.
India was the world's fourth-largest wind energy market in 2005, with 4,430 megawatts of installed capacity at the year-end, up 48 percent from a year earlier, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. A further 12,000 megawatts may be added by the end of 2011, supported by tax breaks and fast approvals of investments, the government said in September.
“The project in Maharashtra is the first of what is anticipated to be a growing portfolio of wind energy projects for Roaring 40s in this large emerging market,'' Roaring 40s said in the statement.
HSBC arranged $45 million of financing for the project, which Roaring 40s said was the first non-recourse financing by an international bank in the Indian wind power industry.
The agreement with the Indian unit of Enercon GmbH, a wind turbine manufacturer, sets out the commercial arrangements for the construction of the project, Roaring 40s said. Enercon will supply wind turbines and is assisting in the project development, said Anton Rohner, the venture's Hong Kong-based general manager for Asia.
“The agreement with Enercon is part of a strategic relationship we've established,'' Rohner said in a telephone interview. The partners expect to work together on further projects in India as Roaring 40s works toward its target of a “couple of hundred'' megawatts of wind energy capacity in India in the next 2-3 years, he said.
