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ATLANTA, Jun 05, 2006 -- BUSINESS WIRE
As part of its ambitious program to supply 20 percent of the electricity for the city of Los Angeles from renewable sources by 2010, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is moving forward with a project that will utilize GE Energy's wind turbine technology to produce up to 120 megawatts of wind power. First announced in 2003 but delayed due to permitting and technical challenges, it will be the first wind project owned by the city of Los Angeles. With project completion expected by the end of 2007, the wind-generated power will be used by LADWP to help meet its aggressive renewable energy goals as part of the city's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). The project's estimated annual generation will be enough to meet the requirements of approximately 120,000 Los Angeles residents. Serving more than 3.9 million people in a 465-square mile area, LADWP is the nation's largest municipal utility. "LADWP is strongly committed to an environmental program for improving the quality of life in Los Angeles, and we are extremely pleased to be supporting that effort," said Victor Abate, Vice President of Renewable Energy for GE Energy. "The Pine Tree Wind Project is still another example of wind power's growing momentum across the United States." In addition to supplying the wind turbines, GE is selling about a third of the land required for the project to the city of Los Angeles. LADWP will construct a new transmission line and substation to connect the Pine Tree project site to a high-voltage transmission line running up the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The wind farm will include standard pad-mount transformers, underground collection systems and feeds into the new substation. The GE 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for the Pine Tree project are among the most widely sold megawatt-class wind turbines in the world. To date, more than 4,100 of these machines have been installed worldwide, totaling more than 6,150 megawatts of capacity. Controls for the wind turbines will be provided from GE Energy's manufacturing facility in Tehachapi, which is near the project site. The Pine Tree project has completed extensive environmental impact studies to monitor and protect threatened and endangered species including the desert tortoise and the Mojave ground squirrel. The project's mitigation plan involves specific actions to minimize negative impacts to sensitive vegetation communities and wildlife, including birds, and known archeological and historical sites during project construction and operations. California, where the U.S. wind industry started, continues to lead the nation with 2,150 megawatts of installed wind power at the end of 2005, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind turbines were first installed in the state in 1981. About GE Energy GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2005 revenue of $16.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomagination, GE's corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges. With wind turbine design, manufacturing and assembly facilities in Germany, Spain, China, Canada and the United States, GE Energy is among the leading providers of wind energy products and support services ranging from commercial wind turbines and grid integration products to project development assistance and operation and maintenance. The company's knowledge base includes the development and/or installation of more than 8,500 wind turbines with a total rated output of 7,600 megawatts. SOURCE: GE Energy News Provided By |
