Steel Winds windfarm enters operation in New York

UPC Wind today announced the start of full commercial operations at the Steel Winds Wind Farm, on a former industrial site along the shores of Lake Erie.

Located just south of Buffalo, New York, the 20 MW project is situated on a 30-acre portion of the former Bethlehem Steel facility, a so-called "brownfield." Steel Winds is to generate enough electricity to serve the needs of approximately 6,000 western New York homes.

The project will be operated by UPC Wind, with turbine operation and maintenance services provided by Clipper Windpower (AIM: CWP) for the first five years.

Steel Winds marks the first commercial deployment of Clipper Windpower’s new 2.5 megawatt (MW) Liberty series wind turbines.

The turbines are the first to use a distributed powertrain and four permanent magnet generators to mitigate loads to components. Made in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it is among the largest land-based wind turbines in the world, and the largest wind turbine manufactured in North America.

For the Steel Winds project, UPC will sell clean energy, capacity and renewable energy certificates to energy retailer Constellation NewEnergy through 2009.

UPC Wind is based in Newton, Massachusetts, with offices in Maine, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon and Hawaii.

In addition to designing wind turbines, Clipper Windpower develops wind power generating projects in the Americas and Europe.