Duke Energy seems to have carved out a good business building wind farms and selling electricity to other utilities. The company said Monday it's set to erect a 200-megawatt project near Casper, Wyo., making it the ninth wind farm for the company in the United States.

The project, which Duke has named The Top of the World Windpower Project, will land on 17,000 acres of public and private in Converse County.

PacifiCorp has agreed to buy the power as well as the project's renewable energy credits from Duke, which declined to disclose the terms of the contract. Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke expects to bring the project online by the end of 2010.

PacifiCorp is a returning customer. It previously signed a contract for all the power from a 99-megawatt wind farm, which also is near Caspar, Wyo. The project is scheduled to come online by the end of this year. Duke is building and operating wind farms through its Duke Energy Generation Services business unit.

Wyoming has been popular with wind farm developers. Duke already is running a 29-megawatt project called Happy Jack Windpower Project in Cheyenne, and it's set to finish a 42-megawatt Silver Sage Windpower Project soon, the company said.

Overall, the company already is operating more than 700 megawatts of wind farms in the country, the company said.

Meanwhile, Wall Street investors are showing a renewed interest in investing in wind farms, reported the Wall Street Journal Monday. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley each put up $100 million for wind projects this month.

Investors said the new federal program that gives the cash-equivalent of the 30 percent investment tax credit has enticed them to put money in not only wind but also solar and other renewable energy projects.