The wind power plant purchaser, Olympus Power LLC located in Morristown, New Jersey, acquired the project which is featured as a Community-Based Energy Development (C-BED) project and is owned in partnership with local farmers. C-BED is an initiative in Minnesota that fosters the development of renewable energy by optimizing local and regional agricultural and economic resources. This often allows for interconnection of smaller renewable energy systems to the larger power grid and cost-sharing, creating a stable market for renewable energy.
"Once again, we are happy to partner with Suzlon and Minnesota farmers on wind energy development, and expanding to Grant County," said Dan Juhl, CEO of Juhl Wind, which was Suzlon’s first customer in the U.S. "Community wind farms help farmers diversify their revenue streams while producing renewable energy for the local area. We have worked with Suzlon for several years now and have been pleased with the partnership in bringing Suzlon machines to Minnesota communities desiring a sustainable power supply."
"We’re excited to be a part of this community-run project to help generate clean wind power and revenue for farmers and towns in the region," said Andris Cukurs, CEO of Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. "Our workhorse machine, the S88 wind turbine, has routinely delivered over 98% availability across the U.S. and this site is no different. So we’re confident Suzlon is turning over a high-quality, strong-running facility to Olympus Power and the people of Southwest Minnesota."
"We could not be more pleased with this project as our first investment in the wind generation sector," added Dean Vanech, Chairman of Olympus Power. "The purchase of this asset is consistent with our goals to acquire and build clean energy projects, and the capability and commitment of Suzlon and Juhl is evident in the high quality of this project."
The project is interconnected with Otter Tail Power Company, and the Northern States Power (NSP) subsidiary of Xcel Energy is purchasing the clean energy under terms of a 20 year power purchase agreement. The Grant County Wind Farm will join other renewable energy projects on the Otter Tail grid, while NSP, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy – a leading electric utility company – will offer the electricity to its service territory spread across the northern states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The Grant County Wind Farm has been operational since March 2010 and has performed extremely well with total wind farm availability numbers exceeding 98 percent.
Throughout this transaction, Marathon Capital of Bannockburn, Ill., acted as financial advisor to Grant County Wind LLC, and Grant County Wind, LLC was advised by Chicago based Synergy Law Group. Furthermore, Olympus Power LLC was advised by Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP, and Suzlon was advised by Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP during the discussions.
Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation focuses on the North American market and is a subsidiary of Suzlon Energy Limited, India. The headquarters for North America is based in Chicago, Illinois. Sales and service offices are located throughout the U.S.
Suzlon Group ranked as the world’s third* leading wind turbine supplier in terms of market share in 2009. Suzlon has its corporate headquarters – Suzlon One Earth – in Pune, India. The company’s global spread reflects in its projects and markets portfolio – extending across Asia, Australia, Europe, South Africa and North and South America. Suzlon is a highly vertically integrated wind turbine manufacturer with manufacturing capability along the full value chain – from components to complete wind turbine systems. The Group has installed over 15,000 MW of wind energy capacity in 25 countries, established operations across 32 countries, with a workforce of over 13,000 personnel.
Suzlon was recognized with the Gigaton Award for global leadership in emissions control and sustainability practices in the energy at the COP16 summit in Cancun, Mexico. Suzlon was also ranked as a prestigious ‘Business Superbrand’ ranking in 2010 for the second time. Suzlon has a share of over 90 per cent in REpower, and taken together, has a combined market share of 9.8 per cent.
Juhl Wind is an established leader in Community Based Wind Power development and management, focused on wind farm projects throughout the United States and Canada. Juhl Wind pioneered community-based wind farms, developing the currently accepted financial, operational and legal structure providing local ownership of medium-to-large scale wind farms. To date, the Company has developed 16 wind farm projects and provides operations management and oversight across the portfolio.
Juhl Wind services every aspect of wind farm development from full development and ownership, general consultation, construction and system operations and maintenance. With its acquisition of Next Generation Power Systems, Juhl Wind now provides full sales and service to smaller, on-site wind and solar projects in addition to our larger Community Wind Farms. Juhl Wind is based in Woodstock, Minnesota and is traded on the OTCBB under the symbol "JUHL".
