Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG) signed an agreement with Clipper Windpower Inc. to acquire the Criterion wind project in Garrett County, Maryland. The $140 million, 70 MW wind energy project would be developed, constructed, owned and operated by Constellation Energy. This new renewable energy resource would provide enough sustainable electricity to meet the annual equivalent usage of an estimated 23,000 households.
Under the terms of the agreement, Constellation Energy will purchase from the Criterion project Clipper Windpower and 28 of Clipper’s 2.5 MW Liberty wind turbines. The Criterion project has already bagged the regulatory approvals. The Constellation Energy−Clipper Windpower agreement is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010. Commercial operation of the wind energy facility is anticipated in the fall of 2010.
The Criterion project has entered a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative for energy and renewable energy credits produced by the wind facility. Old Dominion is a not-for-profit wholesale power provider serving public electric cooperatives in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.
The proposed Western Maryland wind project is one of several renewable energy initiatives Constellation Energy has developed or is pursuing in the state of Maryland. Constellation recently completed one of the largest photovoltaic systems in Maryland – a nearly 1 MW solar project for McCormick & Company – and constructed a 300-kilowatt solar system for the Maryland Environmental Service, the first of its kind for a Maryland state agency.
Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Constellation Energy supplies energy products and services to wholesale customers as well as retail commercial, industrial and governmental customers in North America. It is a North American energy company that includes a merchant energy business and the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, a regulated electric and gas public utility in central Maryland. Its merchant energy business is a provider of energy solutions.
Constellation Energy also has other non-regulated businesses that design, construct and operate heating, cooling and cogeneration facilities for commercial, industrial and governmental customers throughout North America. Moreover, it provides home improvements, service heating, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and indoor air-quality systems, besides providing natural gas to the residential customers in central Maryland.
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