Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

Portland General Electric Co. (POR), a utility that serves about 800,000 customers in northwest Oregon, agreed to buy a wind farm under development in Washington State that’s expected to cost as much as $535 million.

The utility will buy the second phase of Puget Sound Energy Inc.’s Lower Snake River wind farm near Dayton, Washington, and expects to complete the deal in August, PGE said today in a statement.

The wind farm’s electricity will help PGE comply with a state law that requires utilities to provide 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources beginning in 2015, according to the statement.

The project will be built by a unit of the U.K.’s Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. and consist of 116 Siemens AG (SIE) wind turbines that each have 2.3 megawatts of generating capacity. PGE, based in Portland, Oregon, will operate the facility after construction is completed, expected in 2015, it said.