Australia - Babcock, Conergy Listed for Australia Wind Power Plan (Update1)

Babcock & Brown Ltd., Australia's second-biggest investment bank, and Germany's Conergy AG are among six groups short-listed by the New South Wales government for what may be the country's biggest wind power supply contract.

International Power Plc, Origin Energy Ltd., Pacific Hydro Ltd. and Roaring 40s Renewable Energy Pty, a venture between CLP Holdings Ltd. and Hydro Tasmania, are also on the list, Nathan Rees, New South Wales water utilities minister, said today in an e-mailed statement. The contract will be awarded in March.

A desalination plant planned by Sydney Water Corp. will use about 400,000 megawatt-hours of power each year to produce 250 million liters a day of potable water. Powering the plant at full capacity by wind energy will require about 75 wind turbines, the government of Australia's most-populous state estimates.

``Such a huge energy buy is probably the single biggest shot-in-the-arm the green energy industry has ever had in Australia,'' Rees said in the statement. ``It's likely that such a huge new customer in the green power market will see more wind farms built in the near future.''

Thirteen groups submitted proposals in the tender, Rees said. The desalination plant will take up to 20 percent of the current output of Australia's wind energy industry, it said.

All the six groups intend to build new wind farms to supply the contract, either in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania states.

Babcock & Brown's Babcock & Brown Australia Infrastructure unit is bidding in a group including National Power and Carbon Solutions, which have formed a venture named Renewable Power Ventures, the state said. Melbourne-based Pacific Hydro is owned by pension funds manager Industry Funds Management Ltd.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net