China invests $1.5 billion to power Texas wind farm

China took a big leap into the U.S. renewable-energy market Thursday, putting up $1.5 billion for a 36,000-acre wind farm in Texas with the power to light up 180,000 homes.

The project is a joint venture with U.S. Renewable Energy Group, a private-equity firm, Austin, Texas-based Cielo Wind Power and Shenyang Power Group of China.

The announcement Thursday shows how much China's own wind industry has burgeoned and comes two days after U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told lawmakers that the U.S. was falling behind China and others in alternative-energy investment.

"With a long track record for building some of the world's biggest wind farms, the U.S. is an ideal target for foreign alternative-energy investment," said Jinxiang Lu, Shenyang Power Group's chairman and chief executive.

Executives would only say that the project will be in West Texas and built within several counties.

Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer A-Power Energy Generation Systems will begin shipping the 2.5-megawatt turbines in March 2010, built in the company's plant in the city of Shenyang.

A-Power uses technology developed by Germany-based Fuhrlander and Erie, Pa.-based GE Drivetrain Technologies.

The joint venture also plans to tap into U.S. stimulus funding for alternative energy, said Cappy McGarr, managing partner of U.S. Renewable Energy.

There are growing signs that the wind industry has weathered the worst of the recession, though credit markets remain very tight.

Armed with nearly $1 billion in federal grants, wind-farm developers installed 1,649 megawatts of capacity from July through September — enough to serve the equivalent of 480,000 average households and about 18 percent more than the year-ago quarter, the American Wind Energy Association said last week.

That suggests the industry is doing better than might be expected, easing fears that a lack of lending would stall new wind capacity.

"It seems to be gradually getting back, back on its feet," Lu said. "And more important, we are getting support from Washington."

The economic slowdown has led to the demise of some wind projects.

Over the summer, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said he was backing off plans to erect 687 giant wind turbines over four counties in the Texas Panhandle and is now looking to sell them off.

Rob Gramlich, the wind-energy association's senior vice president of public policy, said wind-development potential is attracting investors from both within in the U.S. and from overseas.

"A look at the top 10 owners of wind farms in the U.S. shows a healthy mix of U.S. and global companies," Gramlich said.

Denmark is the biggest importer to the U.S., at 28 percent, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Spain, Japan, Germany and India follow.

Shenyang, a diverse manufacturing city, has been working on entering the U.S. market for a long time and the wind-farm project "was just meant to be," said Yang Yazhou, vice mayor of Shenyang.