Renewable Energy Systems (RES) today announced the conclusion of a deal to construct the world's second largest wind power facility on King Mountain in West Texas, USA - the largest ever built by a European company. The project will consist of 214 wind turbines and have a capacity of 278.2 megawatts, sufficient to supply power to over 139,000 Texas homes. It will save, over its 20 year life, the emission of nearly 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

The project is being developed and built by RES and Texas wind developer Cielo Wind Power, LLC. The wind farm will be located on a windswept plateau near McCamey (amongst the oil fields of West Texas). The 214 wind turbines will be supplied by Bonus A/S of Denmark and will each produce 1.3 megawatts of power. Electricity generated at the new facility will be sold to Reliant Energy of Houston, Austin Energy and Texas-New Mexico Power.

Construction will begin immediately and the wind farm will be fully operational before the end of 2001.

Dr Ian Mays, Managing Director of RES, commented:

"This exciting development - our largest ever - represents a very significant increase in the company's business. It is another example of RES's continuing success in the international wind power market. The UK can be at the forefront of this expanding global environmental business, which not only makes an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but which also brings economic and employment benefits to UK plc.

However, we continue to be disappointed at the slow progress of the industry on home soil. Constrained by continuing planning difficulties for land-based projects in the UK, wind developers like ourselves have turned to the international market, and with considerable success. This one development, being built in less than a year, is equivalent to more than two thirds of the UK's total existing wind farm capacity, which has been installed in the past decade."

This will be the fifth project to be built by RES in the US to date, and the third developed with Cielo. Both parties initiated the 160MW Woodward Mountain wind farm in West Texas in 2000. RES constructed the Cameron Ridge and Pacific Crest wind ranch at Tehachapi, California in 1999, which have a total capacity of over 100MW. RES is now the largest European international wind developer and is increasingly active around the world.

ENDS