Reported by Staff from Suzlon Wind Energy Corp Report

TheNorth American subsidiary of Suzlon Energy Limited (SEL), announced the early completion of the Silver Sage Windpower Project, a Duke Energy wind farm in Cheyenne, that concists of 20 Suzlon S88-2.1 megawatt wind turbines.

The Silver Sage Wind Farm began operating in early October, more than two months ahead of the targeted completion date. In total, Duke Energy has more than 130 megawatts (MW) of installed Suzlon S88 wind turbines located in Wyoming and West Texas.

“We believe Suzlon works harder than anyone in the industry to put the customer first – from our sales team all the way through to the construction and service teams, and warranty program,” said Andris Cukurs, CEO of Suzlon Wind Energy Co. “Getting projects online sooner means we give them an earlier start on their return on investment and add green electrons that much sooner to the grid. We appreciate the fine partnership with Duke to make it all come together.”

 At full capacity, the 20 Suzlon wind turbines are capable of producing 42 MW of wind-generated electricity, which is enough energy to power nearly 20,000 typical homes in the U.S.  Cheyenne Light Fuel & Power, a utility subsidiary of Black Hills Corp., and Colorado-based Platte River Power Authority are buying the renewable energy generated by Duke Energy at its Silver Sage Project.

 In addition to supplying and building the turbines, Suzlon is providing operations and maintenance at Silver Sage through a five-year service agreement with Duke Energy. Suzlon also supplied the 14 S88 turbines in use at Duke Energy’s nearby Happy Jack Windpower Project, a 29-MW wind farm that entered commercial operation in September 2008.

 Suzlon has more than 1,600 megawatts of wind turbine capacity installed in the U.S. and a total of 130 megawatts through three projects with Duke Energy.