UPDATE 1-Spain's Acciona confirms to buy into U.S. wind farms
(Releads with Acciona confirmation)
MADRID, June 28 (Reuters) - Acciona SA (ANA.MC) has bought the rights to build 1,300 Megawatts (MW) of wind power in the U.S. mid-west, it said on Thursday, part of the Spanish building-to-energy group's U.S. expansion plan.
Acciona did not give a value for the purchase from U.S. group EcoEnergy, but earlier on Thursday Expansion newspaper said analysts expected the acquisition to cost several million dollars.
In a statement, Acciona said it expected to install about 150 MW of the total planned capacity in 2008 and would supply its own wind turbines from a new factory in Iowa. The projects are based in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Acciona's shares were up 2.6 percent at 203.40 euros by 1358 GMT, recovering from a 3 percent fall over the past five sessions. The Spanish blue-chip index .IBEX was up 0.7 percent.
"Any news right now on buying into the renewable energy business is welcomed by the market and the company's strategy is much more trustworthy if it plans to expand in a market with such huge potential as the U.S.," one trader said.
Acciona has said it will invest 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to grow in wind power in the U.S. market until 2009, 30 percent of Acciona's expected energy spending.
Wisconsin-based EcoEnergy, owned by The Morse Group, has around a dozen wind energy projects under development, centred in mid-Western states. They range in size from 10 MW to 200 MW, information from the company's website showed.
((Reporting by Jesus Aguado; writing by Ben Harding; Editing by David Cowell; ben.harding@reuters.com; RM ben.harding.reuters.com@reuters.net; tel +34-91-585-8530))
($1=.7437 Euro) Keywords: ECOENERGY ACCIONA/
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