Spain's Renovalia to Invest in Canadian Wind Farm

Madrid-based Renovalia Energy, a renewable energy company focused on wind and solar power development, will invest 200 million euros to build a wind park in Alberta, Canada.

Construction of the 120-megawatt Peace Butte wind farm will start in the first quarter of 2011 and the facility is expected be completed by the end of next year.

Renovalia's foray into the Canadian clean energy scene is part of the Spanish outfit's international expansion strategy. The company now operates in 8 countries in North America and Europe (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Turkey) and has an energy pipeline of 2.4 gigawatts.

In the U.S., Renovalia is working with Infinia, a power technology firm in Kennewick, Washington, to refine second-generation thermal solar technology using the American company's reflective parabolic dish (which unlike Concentrating Solar Power, does not require water or flat tracts of land to produce electricity). Renovalia is also building the second largest wind farm of Mexico.

Canada was ranked among the most attractive locations in the world for renewable energy investment, according to Ernst & Young's latest renewable energy country attractiveness indices. Canada's federal and provincial governments are turning their attention to providing more support for alternative energy.

The Government of Canada recently announced it will invest up to C$28.6 million over ten years in Caribou Wind Park in New Brunswick, a new facility operated by GDF SUEZ Energy North America with a total installed capacity of 99 megawatts, the equivalent of 2% of the province's electricity generation.

Image credit: Canadian Wind Energy Association

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