China's Goldwind Wins Contract for Panama Wind Farm

Chinese wind turbine maker Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co Ltd won a $427 million contract to supply a wind farm in Panama, its largest international order, the company said on Friday.

The deal is for the second stage of a project at Penonome in central Panama and will be financed by Dominican Republic-focused power generation investor InterEnergy Holdings, Goldwind said in a statement.

The Beijing-based company, which Navigant Research placed as the world's second largest turbine manufacturer in 2013, said the 86-turbine order is its largest international sale to date.

Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli unveiled the project, which is run by Spanish-owned Union Eolica Panamena (UEP), in August last year. At the time, UEP estimated that the power generated would eventually supply 850,000 people.

The first phase consisted of 22 Goldwind turbines providing 55 megawatts of energy. UEP said on Friday it had spent $137 million in the first phase.

InterEnergy Chief Executive Rolando Gonzalez Bunster told Reuters on Friday that of the 215 megawatts to be generated by the new turbines, 165 megawatts will be contracted to three utilities and 50 megawatts will be sold on the stock market.

The wind farm will be completed by April 2015, he said, and it would be the largest in Central America.

Panama has seen an infrastructure building boom in the last few years thanks to an aggressive government program, helping its largely services-based economy to double-digit growth in 2011 and 2013.

(Reporting by Christine Murray in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Elida Moreno in Panama City; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)