GE Energy Financial Services, Fortis Capital, and Wells Fargo said they have taken stakes in the 125-megawatt farm being built by the Irish firm in west Texas.

Australian financial group Babcock & Brown, which recently acquired Eircom, advised Airtricity on the investment. The development is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Airtricity said last year it will spend at least $1.5bn developing wind farms in the US in the next five years. It has one million acres under development there. Last December the wind energy firm, which is 51% owned by NTR, acquired Texasbased Renewable Generation (RGI), which has over 1,000 megawatts of projects at various stages of development in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.

Last week Airtricity said revenue for the 15 months to the end of March rose 86% to 236m. It posted a net loss of 11.3m. Earlier this month the company, which is now valued at 800m, said it had raised a total of 250m to fund construction. Ecofin, a British investment company, invested 122.5m in that fundraising, giving it a 16% holding.

The cement, glass and financial services conglomerate, Quinn Group, owned by Sean Quinn, said it would sell its 13% stake rather than invest in the funding round. It bought the 13% stake in Airtricity for 36m two years ago and will offload it for an estimated 70m. Airtricity raised 15.2m in 2002, 28m in 2003, 88m in 2004 and 130m last year. The company also has plans to build a Europewide power grid at a cost of 22bn.