July 18, 2012
Oklahoma

Project not affected

By James Neal, Staff Writer | Enid News and Eagle | enidnews.com 18 July 2012

J.P. Morgan has announced its stake in a $220 million funding package for the Chisholm View Wind Project will not be affected by a $4.4 billion second-quarter loss.

The investment firm announced last Friday it took a $4.4 billion second-quarter loss in investments made by the company’s Chief Investment Office in London.

Friday’s announcements also included a revision to the company’s reported first-quarter earnings, reducing them by $459 million. The first-quarter reduction in earnings also was associated with the London Chief Investment Office.

In spite of the losses from the London office, J.P. Morgan still saw positive net earnings in the second quarter of $5 billion. J.P. Morgan officials say those positive earnings will enable the firm to continue its investment in the Chisholm View wind farm, currently under construction between Hunter and Pond Creek.

“J.P. Morgan saw a profitable quarter and is fully committed to funding the Chisholm View Wind Project as planned,” said Elizabeth Seymour, with J.P. Morgan Investment Bank media relations. “We will continue to be there for our clients globally.”

J.P. Morgan leads a syndicate of investors who signed a capital contribution agreement with Chisholm View Wind Project developers Enel Green Power North America and EFS Chisholm, a subsidiary of GE Financial Services, in June.

The capital contribution agreement called for J.P. Morgan, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) and Wells Fargo Holdings to provide $220 million in funding in the fourth quarter of 2012. Total project development is forecast to cost $375 million.

In exchange for the $220 million capital contribution, the syndicate will receive project voting rights and an equity stake in the renewable energy tax benefits associated with the wind farm, according to an Enel Green Power press release on the deal.

Officials with MetLife and Wells Fargo declined to comment on their stake in the $220 million deal.

Construction is in progress by Renewable Energy Groups of Mortenson Construction, a nationwide contractor that has built wind farms in the United States and Canada. Enel Green Power data shows more than 150 workers are employed on a daily basis erecting the wind turbines.

Construction will continue from the Hunter area in a line to the northwest toward Pond Creek, with the last of the 140 turbines expected to be operational by the end of the year.

Each of the turbines is rated to produce 1.68 megawatts, for the total wind farm production capacity of 235 megawatts.

When the wind farm is complete, it will send power through an existing OG&E transmission line to power distribution centers in Dallas and Wichita, Kan., then on to utility customers of Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based southeastern utilities provider Southern Company.

According to TradeWind Energy, of Lenexa, Kan., the project’s original designer and developer, the wind farm is expected to generate enough power to avoid more than 565,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to taking approximately 110,000 cars off the road

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/18/project-not-affected/