Vestas Wins SunEdison Deal to Supply Up to 600 Megawatts

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) agreed to provide as much as 600 megawatts of wind turbines to the U.S. developer SunEdison Inc. (SUNE), including an initial order that’s expected to qualify for a federal tax credit.

Equipment delivered through the master supply agreement will be installed at “various projects that are currently being developed,” the Aarhus, Denmark-based manufacturer said today in a statement on its website.

SunEdison placed an initial order for 60 megawatts of equipment, and wind farms that use the turbines will qualify for the U.S. production tax credit that expires tomorrow.

The company is taking advantage of a brief extension of the credit, which expired at the end of last year and was renewed this month. Wind farms are eligible if they are “under construction” by the end of this year, including making a down payment on turbines that amounts to more than 5 percent of the total project cost.

That narrow window “will only allow minimal new wind development,” Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement Dec. 17 after the U.S. Senate approved a package of tax breaks that included the PTC.

SunEdison, a solar developer based in Maryland Heights, Missouri, last month agreed to buy wind energy developer First Wind Holdings Inc. for $2.4 billion, in a deal that Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Chatila said would double his available market.

(Source: Bloomberg)