BP to build five wind power facilities

By: Jennifer Guevin
Topics: Science

BP (formerly British Petroleum) announced on Friday that it plans to build wind power projects at five sites around the United States.

The company says that, when complete, the projects will generate a total output of 550 megawatts of power. The projects, which include building facilities in North Dakota, Central Texas and West Texas, and the repowering of an existing wind farm in southern California, are expected to be under way this year.

Construction of a fifth facility of 274 wind turbines in Weld County, Colo., has already begun. Building of that facility is expected to be finished in the second half of this year and to generate enough electricity to power 120,000 homes, according to a BP statement.

The projects are being led by BP Alternative Energy North America, a division of BP that launched in November of 2005 to focus on wind, solar, hydrogen and other forms of low-carbon power generation.

The new projects are the result of a 2006 alliance with Clipper Windpower and BP's acquisition of two wind development companies, Greenlight Energy and Orion Energy, later in the year.

Jennifer Guevin is managing editor at CNET, overseeing the ever-helpful How To section, special packages, and front-page programming. As a writer, she gravitates toward science, quirky geek culture stories, robots, and food. In real life, she mostly just gravitates toward food.
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