Centrica plc today announced it has acquired Glens of Foudland Wind Farm Limited, a subsidiary of Renewable Energy Systems UK Limited (RES), which owns a 26MW onshore wind farm project near Huntly in North East Scotland.
Centrica will contract RES affiliates to provide a turnkey construction contract and operation and maintenance management service for the project. The total consideration to acquire the company and bring the wind farm into commercial operation, including land lease, acquisition cost, grid connection, ongoing management services and an initial five year operation, maintenance and warranty contract, would be approximately £31 million. Construction of the wind farm started earlier this year.
The wind farm will comprise twenty 1.3 MW Bonus wind turbines and is expected to generate around 80GWh of electricity per annum for British Gas customers when it begins generation in mid 2005. This is equivalent to approximately 20,000 homes.
The location in North East Scotland means the site will benefit from high wind speeds, which will result in a load factor higher than for a typical onshore wind farm.
Jake Ulrich, Managing Director of Centrica Energy, said: "This is another important step towards establishing Centrica as a leading generator of renewable energy, enabling us to deliver clean green power to our British Gas customers."