TAQA will buy half of US wind farm from EDF

The state-owned Abu Dhabi energy group TAQA said on Wednesday that it has agreed to buy half of a large US wind farm from a subsidiary of French energy group EDF. \"Under the terms of the agreement, EDF will continue to provide operation, maintenance and related services,\" the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) said in a statement, without revealing the cost of the deal. The Lakefield wind farm in the midwestern state of Minnesota has the capacity to generate 205.5 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 68,000 homes, according to TAQA. \"The Lakefield acquisition is a first step in the evolution of TAQA\'s global strategy for alternative energy sources,\" the statement said. TAQA\'s North American operations have focused until now on conventional energy sources, oil and a large gas power plant. The announcement of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013, comes on the heels of EDF\'s decision to sell partial stakes in other alternative energy projects to Japanese investors. In October, EDF said that it had sold the other half of the Lakefield wind farm to a US unit of the Japanese group Marubeni, without providing financial details.