“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

Spain's Fersa Energías Renovables, a listed wind project developer founded in 2000, is about to enter the big time, according to CEO José María Roger. Beyond a newly inked joint venture agreement for massive scale wind development in China (main story), contracts are signed and finance is in place to raise Fersa's stakes in operating wind plant from 150 MW to 1658.3 MW globally by this time next year, including 500 MW in Spain and its first venture in India (table).

It was only last year that Fersa moved outside Spain to acquire an operational wind plant by stepping across the border into France and buying 80% of the 12 MW Beausemblant wind plant from Spain's Eólica Navarra. By the end of 2008, however, the first 31.3 MW of Fersa's 182 MW Gadaj plant in India, using turbines from Germany's Enercon, will be up and running, and, in Poland, the company has awarded a 162 MW turbine supply contract to Spain's Gamesa.

But what Roger describes as "probably the best project of all," is a 368 MW stake in a 400 MW project in Panama, pending only building permits, which Roger expects "in a matter of weeks." The project has won UN approval for sale of its carbon emission certificates. "Installed costs here are reduced due to easy canal and road access and proximity to the grid," says Roger. The wind resource is so good, he adds, that production will equate to the plant operating at full capacity 45% of the time.