PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Aerowatt is in talks with Mauritius to invest 70 million euros ($99 million) in a wind farm that could produce 5 percent of the Indian Ocean island's electricity needs, a company official said on Monday.

Some 40 windmills generating one megawatt each could be up and running as early as the end of next year, Jerome Billerey, the head of the Paris-listed company, told Reuters by telephone.

"Mauritius seems like a logical choice to us. It's an island with energy needs, concerns about energy independence, and it has wind," he said, adding that Aerowatt had been in talks with the Mauritius government for two or three months now.

He rejected fears that the cyclone-prone island might not be the safest place for 40 windmills, saying the company had wide experience of projects in several overseas French territories, including Reunion, close to Mauritius.
© Copyright 2007 Reuters.

Photo:
An old windmill stands in front of power-generating windmill turbines from a wind farm near the village of Uhrsleben west of Magdeburg August 9, 2007. Aerowatt is in talks with Mauritius to invest $99 mln in a wind farm that could produce 5 percent of the Indian Ocean island's electricity needs, a company official said on Monday. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann