By WEN Staff

As reported earlier this week in Wyoming Energy News, Duke Energy is expanding its wind energy envelope in the state with construction of the new Silver Sage windpower project. We have since learned that Suzlon Wind Energy, the North American arm of Suzlon Energy, has signed a repeat order with the utility company to provide 20 units of the S88-2.1MW wind turbines for the site.

With the order, the total supply portfolio to Duke Energy increases to 130MW.

The Silver Sage project is adjacent to an existing wind farm owned by Duke Energy, also supplied by the Suzlon S88-2.1MW turbine. The contract will provide turbines for the Silver Sage project, located next to the Happy Jack wind development, in Cheyenne. In addition to the turbine supply, Suzlon will provide operations and maintenance through a five-year service agreement with the North Carolina-based power company.

Suzlon already has provided 29MW of capacity for the nearby site, and a total of 71MW to all Duke Energy projects, according to the company.

Andris Cukurs, CEO of Suzlon Wind Energy, said: “Expanding our supply portfolio to Duke demonstrates Suzlon’s ability to provide good products and services to wind energy developers. We have provided customer service, which we believe has given us another opportunity to grow our partnership with Duke.”

Duke Energy claims to supply and deliver electricity to approximately 4 million U.S. customers in its regulated jurisdictions. The company has approximately 35,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Midwest and the Carolinas, and natural gas distribution services in Ohio and Kentucky.