Iberdrola beats legal challenge to 208-MW Amazon wind project

Iberdrola Renewables can now proceed with the construction of the 208-MW Amazon Wind Farm US East in North Carolina after a Raleigh judge dismissed a legal challenge to the project, local media reported.

Stephen Owens and Jillanne Badawi, a couple living relatively close to the site in Perquimans County where one of the turbines will be erected, filed their lawsuit last year. They wanted to have the project subjected to additional regulatory reviews as required by a 2013 North Carolina law. The project was under development before the the so-called Wind Act was enacted, which makes it exempt from it, but the couple insisted that Iberdrola subsequently made significant changes to the initial plan that make it a new project.

The judge did not agree with the claims so Iberdrola can now complete the construction process.

Work has been underway at the site of the USD-400-million (EUR 355.5m) wind park for several months now, and the developer expects to install the first turbine in the next few weeks. It is on schedule to finalise the park this year, a company spokesman said as cited by The News & Observer.

A year ago, Spain’s Gamesa (BME:GAM) said it will supply the turbines for the project.

Upon completion, Amazon Web Services Inc (AWS), the cloud computing unit of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), will buy the output to power its data centres.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.889)

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