Renewable Energy Systems Americas on Tuesday sold a wind-farm proj ect 80 miles east of Denver for $500 million — the Broomfield-based company's biggest deal.
Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, is the buyer.
The purchase is a "beachhead" for future investments in the U.S. green-energy market, said Al Monaco, Enbridge executive vice president for major projects and green energy.
In March, RES Americas won a 20-year power-purchase agreement from Xcel Energy for its 250-megawatt wind farm in Elbert and Lincoln counties. Enbridge will take over the operation of the wind farm and the Xcel agreement.
RES Americas will build the wind farm for Enbridge under a fixed-price contract, according to a statement from the companies.
Construction on the facility, which will have 139 turbines manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems, is scheduled to begin this summer. Enbridge said the farm should be in operation in 2012.
Enbridge's criteria for buying into projects, Monaco said, are:
• Long-term contracts to buy all the electricity from a wind farm.
• A requirement that a significant portion of the state's electricity come from renewable energy sources.
• Strong public support for the renewable-energy standard.
"That's why Colorado is attractive," Monaco said.
Enbridge has six wind projects in Canada. The Cedar Point project in Colorado will be the company's single largest wind farm.
RES Americas has built about 40 wind projects in 10 states and Canada since 1997, according to the company.
Since the recession began, wind-farm projects have slowed.
"The market is very flat at the moment, so we are very happy to have this project," said Brian Evans, RES Americas executive vice president for development. "This is the largest deal financially for us, so it is huge."
One key to developing the project was getting the right of way for a 42-mile transmission line, RES Americas executives said.
"This project is still very close to the load in Denver," said Richard Ashby, RES chief financial officer. "But we've picked the low-hanging fruit."
Future projects are going to require building high-voltage transmission lines from wind sources such as the Dakotas to population centers on the coasts, he said.
