Chinese wind turbine firm plans U.S. plant

Wind farms in West

China's A-Power Energy Generation Systems has signed a cooperation agreement with equity firm U.S. Renewable Energy Group (US-REG) to build a plant in the United States to supply wind energy turbines to renewable energy projects in North and South America

The joint announcement in Washington late on Monday came three weeks after A-Power said it planned a $1.5 billion wind farm project in West Texas along with U.S. companies,

Monday's announcement said the turbine plant is expected to produce 1,100 megawatts of wind energy turbines annually, enough to power 330,000 homes. It will employ about 1,000 workers and create additional jobs during construction, the companies said.

In addition to production and assembly at the new plant, the plan calls for many wind turbine components to be sourced from U.S. manufacturers.

On October 29, Shenyang Power Group (SPG) and US-REG announced plans to develop a $1.5 billion, 600MW wind farm on about 36,000 acres in Texas, for which A-Power has been designated as the turbine supplier. A-Power is a shareholder of SPG.

The construction of the assembly and production plant is subject to signing of definitive agreements between the parties, as well as various government approvals.