Duke buys wind firm Catamount for $240m

Like a student house and Ikea, or bananas and custard, or Boris Johnson and a blancmange made of razor blades, some things naturally go together. Today’s Romeo and Juliet are US utility Duke Energy and Catamount Energy Corporation, who were united in a $240 million buy.

Duke’s acquisition of Catamount will give it an extra leg up in the wind sector, where Catamount has wind farms in both the UK and the US – 300 MW already on the go and 1750 under development.

Here’s the information cherry on the top:

Today’s acquisition, valued at approximately $240 million plus assumed debt, is a continuation of Duke Energy’s strategy to develop renewable energy. In May 2007, Duke purchased Tierra Energy, a leading wind developer in Austin, Texas. The combined entity will have more than 5,000 megawatts of wind energy under development in 12 states and approximately 500 megawatts of operating assets by the end of 2008.

Today’s announcement follows several other recent renewable initiatives announced by Duke Energy, including a $100 million plan to install electricity generating solar panels at up to 850 North Carolina sites; a plan to purchase electricity output from the nation’s largest photovoltaic solar farm to be built in Davidson County, N.C.; a 20-year contract to purchase 100 megawatts from a wind farm in Indiana; and a request for proposals to purchase significant amounts of electricity from renewable energy providers in Ohio.