Clinton County in northern New York appears to have some of the state's best sites for onshore wind power - which is exactly why Connecticut-based Noble Environmental Power plans to erect 121 turbines there

According to an AWS Truewind map, at 70 metres the county's north west quadrant - with Canada just over the border - has a consistent wind regime in the 7-8 metres-per-second range.

Last week (26 June), Noble secured more than US$650 million in financing - including equity from GE Energy Financial Services and debt from Dexia and HSH Nordbank - to build three wind farms with a net capacity of 282MW.

Two of the projects - totaling 181.5MW - are located in Clinton County.

Wind in The Empire State

Noble Environmental Power is owned by JP Morgan Partners - a fund managed by CCMP Capital. The New York projects will be the company's first to go operational.

The wind farms are:

• Noble Clinton Windpark - 100.5MW
• Noble Ellenburg Windpark - 81MW
• Noble Bliss Windpark - 100.5MW

The 67-turbine Clinton Windpark is located around three miles south of the US-Canadian border in Clinton, Clinton County (a town so nice they named it twice, a habit in New York). Ellenburg Windpark is also located in the county and employs 54 turbines.

The third project is Bliss Windpark in western New York's Wyoming County. It will have 67 turbines and is located in Eagle, about 30 miles south east of Buffalo.

All of the projects are using GE's 1.5MW SLE wind turbines and are expected to begin commercial operation during in Q4 this year. They have contracts to sell their environmental attributes to the New York State Energy Research Agency under the state's renewable portfolio standard.

The Clinton and Ellenburg wind farms have entered into payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements with the Clinton County Investment Development Agency - represented by Hodgson Russ Attorneys.

Bliss Windpark entered into a PILOT agreement with the Wyoming County Industrial Development Agency - represented by Dadd & Nelson.

The projects are interconnecting to the New York Independent System Operator managed wholesale power grid on power lines owned by New York Power Authority and Arcade Electric.

Noble's three wind farms will boost wind energy capacity in New York by more than 70 per cent to 671MW overall.

Currently, there is only one operating project in New York state with a capacity of more than 50MW - the 382MW Maple Ridge Wind Farm [Transactions Database] closed with HSH Nordbank late last year.

Noble - a portfolio of 282MW - is one of the largest US deals to date. Now that the Connecticut-based firm has cut its teeth in New York, it has a national programme, including sites in New Hampshire, Texas and Minnesota, which it is developing.

Whether the company follows the same financial strategy with future projects is not entirely clear.  Quirke and Edgley insist that the market is in a constant flux and each project requires its own unique strategy.

However, as the pace gathers and independent firms like Noble eye-up potential big projects in an increasingly wider market, they will have to consider project finance to realise a growing appetite of ambitions.

The project at a glance