The government of the Kalmykia Region of Russia signed a nonbinding cooperation agreement with Finnish utility Fortum Oyj's joint venture Fortum-RUSNANO to build up to 450 MW of wind energy capacity between 2018 and 2021.

The parties will issue a separate investment decision for each power plant once they enter development stage.

The Fortum-RUSNANO wind investment fund is a 50/50-owned investment partnership between Fortum and Rusnano Capital LLC, according to an Oct. 10 news release by Fortum.

In September, Russia-headquartered RUSNANO formed a joint venture with Spanish steel equipment manufacturer Windar Renovables S.L. and steel manufacturer PAO Severstal to make steel towers for the wind turbines to be built by the Fortum-RUSNANO partnership.