Exelon wraps up John Deere Renewables buy

(ADPnews) - Dec 10, 2010 - US utility Exelon Corp (NYSE:EXC) said on Friday it had finalised the USD-860-million (EUR 649m) acquisition of domestic wind power developer John Deere Renewables, thus adding 735 MW of wind power capacity to its energy portfolio.

John Deere will now turn into Exelon Wind, marking Exelon's entry into the operation of wind facilities. The buy boosted the company's clean energy generation capacity to 19,000 MW in line with Exelon's 2020 plan, which aims by 2020 to eliminate the equivalent of its carbon dioxide emissions for 2001. The company is halfway to its goal, remaining among the huge US power utilities with the lowest carbon footprint.

The acquisition, financed with part of the proceeds from a USD-900-million senior notes issue, is seen to start fetching incremental earnings in 2012 and cash flow in 2013. It adds 36 wind projects to Exelon's portfolio, with the output of 75% of them already being sold under long-term power purchase deals. Exelon can also develop some 1,400 MW of additional wind projects of various construction phases.

Exelon ranks among the biggest power utilities in the US with revenues of over USD 17 billion a year. It provides electricity to some 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois and southeastern Pennsylvania and natural gas to about 486,000 customers in the Philadelphia area.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.754)

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