Roundup: Maple Energy, Vestas deliveries, Fortis results

Maple Energy (AIM: MPLE) announced it expects the 37MW biomass-fired generation component of the company's ethanol project in Peru, which began production last month, to be fully commissioned and placed into operation by mid-year. In its preliminary results for 2011, Maple said it will purchase electricity from third parties until the Siemens-supplied power plant comes online. The 36km, 60kV transmission line to inject surplus into the national grid was completed last year. *** Wind power company Vestas delivered 375MW to the Americas in the first quarter compared to 163MW in 1Q11, according to a presentation by CEO Ditlev Engel. Of the 375MW, 297MW went to the US, 76MW to Brazil and 2MW to Argentina. The Americas represented 28% of Vestas' 9.89GW backlog at end-March, and the company's Americas revenue rose 84.5% in January-March this year to 321mn euros (US$423mn), representing 16.1% of total revenue. *** And Canada's Fortis (TSX: FTS) saw sales from its Caribbean-regulated power utilities in the first quarter slide 31.5% to 166GWh compared to 1Q11, according to the company's latest earnings report. Fortis attributed the drop to the expropriation of Belize Electricity and cooler temperatures and higher rainfall on Grand Cayman that decreased air conditioning load. Caribbean revenue and earnings in the period fell 16% and 25% to Cdn$63mn (US$63.9mn) and Cdn$3mn.