DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it has approved a
partial $1.3 billion loan guarantee for an 845-megawatt Oregon wind
farm being developed by Caithness Energy LLC and a unit of General
Electric Co. (GE).
"Renewable energy investments like these are creating jobs while
helping to maintain America's global competitiveness in the clean
energy economy," Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.
The Caithness Shepherds Flat wind project will install 338
high-efficiency GE wind turbines on land in Arlington, Ore., in
what will be the largest wind farm in the world, the DOE said.
Edison International's (EIX) southern California utility has
signed a contract to buy the output of the facility.
The project will employ 400 workers during construction and 35
workers during operation, according to Caithness.
The loan guarantee is being provided as part of the government's
Financial Institution Partnership Program.
The project will obtain a $1.3 billion loan funded by a group of
26 institutional investors and commercial banks led by Citigroup
Inc. (C), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Royal Bank of Scotland
Securities (RBS), and WestLB Securities Inc., the DOE said.
The DOE has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional
commitments for loan guarantees to support 16 clean energy projects
totaling nearly $16.5 billion. Together, the 16 projects will
produce enough renewable energy to serve more than 3.3 million
homes, the agency said.
Southern California Edison and other California utilities are
required by state regulation to use renewable sources for one-third
of the power they sell by 2020.
-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468;
cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com