Nov 21, 2007 03:04 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

CALGARY – AltaGas Income Trust (TSX: ALA.UN), a Calgary-based energy company, says it has signed a $152 million deal with Germany's Enercon to supply, install and maintain turbines for the Canadian company's Bear Mountain Wind Park near Dawson Creek, B.C.

The Bear Mountain project is made up of 34 turbines with a total capacity of about 100 megawatts of electricity.

Under the deal, announced Wednesday, Enercon will provide and install the turbines under a fixed-price contract and will operate and maintain the equipment under a long-term service agreement.

The total cost of the Bear Mountain project is expected to be $190 million, about 80 per cent of which – about $152 million – is represented by the Enercon deal.

"We are excited to have an agreement in place with Enercon for Bear Mountain and consider their turbines to be among the most advanced in the industry," said David Cornhill, chairman, president and CEO of AltaGas. "We are pleased to have been able to optimize the project by using fewer turbines while generating a significant amount of clean, renewable electricity. . ."

The project wil use about 25 hectares of land, down from 35 hectares under an earlier plan, AltaGas said.

The Bear Mountain Wind Park is scheduled to start construction in the next few weeks and be in service in November 2009.