Nov 25 2009
Mass Megawatts Wind Power’s licensee, Electric City Wind Power Corp, has signed a $5.8 million deal with John Gianacopoulos, in connection with the previously drawn letter of understanding concerning the delivery of wind power schedules for the following year.
John Gianacopoulos heads a Scranton-based consortium of investors and is the principal of an architectural firm. Both parties have signed a contract to secure the manufacturing and delivery schedules of wind power generation equipment in the year 2010.
Under the deal, Gianacopoulos, along with investors, will buy Multi-Axis Turbosystem (MAT) equipment of three megawatts capacity from Mass Megawatt, to be installed at northeastern Pennsylvania’s wind power projects sites. The proposed series of wind power projects is likely to range from 500 kW to 1 MW in nameplate capacity.
In an earlier statement to the media, Gianacopoulos revealed his group’s interest in investment opportunities and commented on the feasibility of the Scranton Wilkes-Barre corridor. Appreciating the strategic position of the wind project site, Gianacopoulos declared that the project promised huge potential with the demand for electricity from the local community being in close proximity to the abundant availability of wind power in the region.
The project follows a distributed energy model that will create strategic partnerships between investors and consumers, leveraging the Federal and state tax benefits and subsidies as well as the prevailing net metering law in Pennsylvania.
The deal with Electric City and Mass Megawatts has allowed for the provision of wind power technology to local communities. The convenient 50 feet height of the MAT system drew a favorable reaction from residents at a presentation by Electric City Wind Power.
The signing of the deal runs parallel with the market launch of the latest version of the MAT technology, enabling the utilization of new enhancements in the wind projects. Gianacopoulos expects to complete the committed 3 MW capacity of projects within the next few months and hopes to approach Electric City for additional capacity installation at equivalent pricing.
The first commercialized version of the new model was installed at Hunter, New York. Mass Megawatts has been designing and testing a new configuration for MAT, which will allow the incorporation of Augmenter equipment enhancements into the system. The Hunter Project will also feature Wind Diffuser, the company’s latest development with a higher power curve projection, compared to the previous technology version.
Electric City Wind Power’s senior sales executive, John Moran, predicts that new MAT and Augmenter version will facilitate the development of highly efficient wind projects in lower wind areas. The new version is expected to expand the viability of wind resource development into regions with prime candidates for wind power projects.
As Pennsylvania’s net metering law takes into consideration 'virtual' net metering within a generator radius of two miles, Gianacopoulos and his group are able to execute turn-key wind power projects to residents and businesses, using a design-build model.
The CEO of Electric City Wind Power, Frank Smollon, revealed that other organizations are following Gianacopoulos’ footsteps, capitalizing on the advantages of the same positive elements such as state and Federal subsidies that represent 40% of the project cost, and the provision for deprecating the entire project in five years. The net metering and community willingness to adopt low-height MAT equipment has added to the feasibility of the project.
Source: www.massmegawatts.com