(Reuters) - Sempra Energy and BP Plc will spend $1 billion to build new wind power farms this year in Pennsylvania and Kansas with a total output capacity of 560 megawatts, the companies said on Tuesday.
Wind power developers are racing to build new plants ahead of the expected expiration of a tax credit at the end of 2012, an incentive the industry is seeking to have extended to help make the renewable power source competitive against fossil fuel power stations.
The wind farms, to be owned by BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas and Power, will be the biggest in each state and will expand the partnership between the two companies which together own wind farms in Indiana and Colorado.