(RTTNews) - The acquisition will help E.ON, Germany's largest utility, increase its worldwide installed wind power capacity to 850 MW from around 640 MW, thus making the company one of the largest wind farm operators in the world. Also, the total capacity of the wind power projects being developed will grow to 4.6 GW from 2.6 GW.

The purchase will also benefit the company in diversifying its regional and technological wind power portfolio. E.ON can also tap economies of scale, including in the purchase of wind turbines.

Dublin-based Airtricity, Ireland's largest wind- park operator, has wind farms with around 210 MW installed capacity and by the end of next year, additional 880 MW will be operational. They are located in the states of Texas and New York and have high load factors. Airtricity began development of wind projects in the U.S. in 2003.

E.ON said over 1,000 MW of additional projects are in an advanced development stage for Airtricity, which would require an investment volume of around $3.5 billion until 2011. Other projects, spread across U.S. and Canada, amounting to more than 5,000 MW are in an early development stage.

Last month E.ON revealed the purchase of Energi E2 Renovables Ibericas, a wind-farm operator, from Denmark's Dong Energy A/S for EUR 466 million, also assuming debt of EUR 256 million.

The U.S. tops in Ernst & Young's "Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices" with a score of 72 and the wind energy market is expected to grow here over 10% annually in the next 10 years.

Commenting on the acquisition, Lutz Feldmann, responsible for renewables on the E.ON board, said: "The acquisition of Airtricity in North America marks our entry into the world's most attractive renewables market. It is a further step towards establishing a leading international position in the renewables business."

Stock Movement

The company's stock, which has been trending in the range of EUR 90.900-130.590 for the past year on the Frankfurt stock exchange, rose 0.07% to EUR 127.57 on Thursday.

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