GE Energy Wind Turbines to Help LA's Renewable Energy Goals

General Electric
June 7, 2006

Through the Pine Tree Wind Project, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is pursuing its commitment for renewable energy sources to supply 20% of the electricity for the city by 2010.

The project calls for 80 GE Energy 1.5-megawatt (MW) wind turbines to produce up to 120 MW of wind power for the electricity needs of about 120,000 Los Angeles residents.

"LADWP is strongly committed to an environmental program for improving the quality of life in Los Angeles, and we are extremely pleased to be supporting that effort," said Victor Abate, Vice President of Renewable Energy for GE Energy. "The Pine Tree Wind Project is still another example of wind power's growing momentum across the United States."

GE will be selling a third of the land required for the project to the city of Los Angeles. Controls for the wind turbines will be provided from GE Energy's manufacturing facility in Tehachapi, which is near the project site.

LADWP will construct a new transmission line and substation to connect the Pine Tree project site to a high-voltage transmission line running up the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The wind farm will include standard pad-mount transformers, underground collection systems and feeds into the new substation.

To be located ~110 miles north of Los Angeles, near Mojave, which offers both windy and hilly conditions on a section of the Mojave Desert and the Sierra Nevada range, the Pine Tree project has completed environmental impact studies to protect threatened and endangered species -- including the desert tortoise and the Mojave ground squirrel. Plans call to minimize impacts on sensitive vegetation communities, wildlife and archeological and historical sites as well.