Oilman T. Boone Pickens said Wednesday he has cut in half an order for General Electric Co. wind turbines and plans to use the rest in other areas instead of Texas, where he once planned a massive wind farm.
Pickens, who heads the hedge fund BP Capital Management LP in Dallas, purchased 333 turbines from GE, which was about half his initial order of about 687 turbines.
"We are pursuing projects in Minnesota and Canada to place a number of the 333 turbines," BP Capital spokesman Jay Rosser said in a statement.
Pickens scrapped his plan for a 1,000-megawatt wind farm in West Texas last summer because of technical problems in getting power from the site to transmission facilities.
Other factors included a lack of access to credit markets and lower natural gas prices, which can make it more difficult for wind farms to compete for business.
GE spokesman Daniel Nelson said his company and Pickens' Mesa Power agreed to renegotiate their agreement after Pickens' executives told them of the transmission issues and change in direction for the Texas project.
The new order calls for the 333 turbines to be shipped in 2011 and 2012.
Nelson declined to release financial details or other terms of the agreement.
The oilman still believes the Texas project will be developed when transmission and other issues are resolved, Rosser said.
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