Welcome Back, Immelt: General Electric Returns to Wind Financing (GE)

From Environmental Capital:

Want another sign the permafrost on wind investments is thawing? GE Energy Financial Services is back.

GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, said Wednesday it would invest in a $117 million expansion of an Oklahoma wind farm called Blue Canyon V. The developer is Horizon Wind Energy LLC, a division of EDP Renewables. The project is a 99 megawatt expansion of an existing 225 megawatt wind farm in southwest Oklahoma.

Horizon is using GE’s 1.5 megawatt wind turbines and will sell the power to the Public Service Company of Oklahoma under a 20-year contract. GE is also pouring $111 million to join a previously closed deal on three wind farms called Vento III in Oregon, Kansas and Iowa that will generate a total of 604 megawatts.

GE – once an extremely active wind financier that went quiet following the financial implosion last year – promises more is coming. A lot more. “We have several [deals] in the works,” said Andy Katell, a spokesman for GE’s Energy Financial Services business, “including some huge ones.”>>>MORE