French-owned firm enXco opens California wind farm

SUISIN CITY, Calif., Feb 26 (Reuters) - French-backed renewable energy company enXco unveiled a 150-megawatt wind-power plant in California on Thursday and said it aimed to double the size of the project in the next three years.

Tristan Grimbert, chief executive of enXco, said its opening showed that funds could still be raised for energy projects despite the credit crunch.

"There is money," he told Reuters at the unveiling of the Shiloh II Wind Project outside Suisin City, 40 miles northeast of San Francisco.

"There is much less (money) than before," but it is available for the right developments, Grimbert added.

He said the project, due to financing and permitting challenges, had been his toughest so far. But the fact that enXco is owned by EDF Energies Nouvelles (EEN.PA), the wind and solar unit of French power company EDF (EDF.PA), helped reassure banks including Nordea (NDA.ST) and JPMorgan (JPM.N).

PG&E Corp's (PCG.N) Pacific Gas and Electric Co, which announced plans earlier this week to develop 500 MW of solar power over the next five years, will purchase the Shiloh wind generation in a 20-year agreement.

California utilities have been scrambling to buy more emissions-free power to comply with a state mandate requiring that they produce 20 percent of their power from renewables such as solar and wind by 2010, and then 33 percent by 2020.

That program has been a boon to solar and wind project developers, though the financial crisis in recent months has dried up funding for even high-flying green energy projects.

Grimbert told the audience at the event that he aimed to double the size of Shiloh II over the next three years.

The 75 turbines at Shiloh II were made by Germany's REpower Systems AG (RPWGn.DE). (Reporting by Braden Reddall)