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The sun rises behind windmills at a wind farm in Palm Springs, California, Feb. 9, 2011.Lucy Nicholson

Want evidence that Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners is a likely bidder for all if Western Wind Energy Corp.? Look at a map of California, where both companies have significant wind power developments in the same area.

Brookfield just bought 16 per cent of Western Wind, which is up for sale amid a proxy battle. Here's an earlier post detailing the situation.

Brookfield says the purchase is for investment purposes. However, a look at the companies' portfolios suggests that there are good reasons to put the two companies together. In fact, there are about 226 of them – as that's how many wind turbines the two companies have in the same area in California.

Western Wind's biggest concentration of operational assets is a pair of wind farms in Tehachapi, California. The Windstar and Windridge projects together total almost 125 megawatts of capacity. Brookfield Renewable just happens to already have three wind farms in Tehachapi, with a capacity totalling 274 megawatts.

Located north of Los Angeles, Tehachapi is one of California's biggest wind development areas, producing power that is exported to other parts of the state.

Western Wind would be an easy bite for Brookfield, especially with 16 per cent already taken care of. Western Wind has a market capitalization of about $150-million, a small fraction of Brookfield Renewable's $3.1-billion.

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