GE Energy Financial Services buys B.C. wind project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - GE Energy Financial Services has signed a deal to acquire the 300-megawatt Dokie Ridge wind project, the largest wind farm being built in British Columbia.

Under the plan, GE partner Plutonic Power Corp. would own and operate the project, about 1,100 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, near Chetwynd, B.C.

GE Energy Financial Services says it has signed a deal to acquire the wind farm from EarthFirst Canada Inc., a company that suspended work on the project as it restructures through court-ordered protection from creditors under CanadaÂ’s CompaniesÂ’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

The project would represent GE Energy Financial ServicesÂ’ and PlutonicÂ’s first wind energy investment in Canada and an expansion of their hydroelectric power development partnership into wind energy.

GE Energy Financial Services and Plutonic plan to close the acquisition and resume construction at the Dokie Ridge wind farm this fall, with completion in late 2010, the companies said in a release.

In addition to the Dokie Project, GE Energy Financial Services and Plutonic are partners on in three B.C. hydroelectric projects. They have been building the 196-megawatt East Toba River Montrose Creek plant since mid-2007 and have jointly bid to build the 166-megawatt Upper Toba Valley project and the 1027-megawatt Bute project under BC HydroÂ’s 2008 call for new electricity projects.

GE Energy Financial Services, based in Stamford, Conn., invests in various energy developments, including wind, solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal power. The company is a unit of General Electric, one of the worldÂ’s biggest industrial conglomerates.