BT agrees major wind farms deals

BT has announced it has signed a number of massive new wind farms deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

The company revealed long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) worth £440 million have been finalised by the firm with three wind farms in Scotland, Wales and Lancashire.

More than 100 Megawatts (MW) of renewable energy are set to be generated at the trio of sites, which BT says will help power its UK operations.

A nine-turbine Mynydd Bwllfa wind farm is set to be built in south Wales, while finance for the new Heysham South wind farm in Lancashire has been agreed, along with a 48-turbine Fallago Rig wind farm located south-east of Edinburgh in the Scottish Borders.

Rob Williams, BT’s head of energy supply, described the agreement of the contracts as a sign of confidence from the firm in the UK's renewable energy future.

Price certainty

Mr Williams said: "They not only give us long term price certainty but enable us to support local economies in which we operate, with the 'New to the Planet' agreements in Wales and Lancashire underpinning the construction of these two new wind farms.

"At BT we're as focused on cutting our own carbon emissions as we are to providing products and services that help everyone live within the planet’s resources. We've reduced carbon emissions from our own operations by 25.5 per cent globally during 2013/14."

BT will be working with npower on the renewable energy generation, and Wayne Mitchell, industrial and commercial markets director at npower, stated that the firm will do all it can to help BT to hit its goals for green power.

Investors appeared nonplussed by the decision by BT to put a large amount of faith in renewable energy across three different sites, with the share price of the company broadly flat on the London Stock Exchange in this morning's (June 4th) session. At 11:17 BST, shares in the company were down by 0.08 per cent compared to the start of the day.

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