Wind

Credit rater Standard & Poor said Tuesday wind energy could be a viable alternative to oil amid higher petroleum prices. "Wind power remains often more expensive than traditional energy sources ... although it is becoming increasingly price competitive," said S&P credit analyst Jan Willem Plantagie.

California's push to add more renewable electricity to the state's power grid is pressuring wind power developers to reduce the number of birds killed each year at one of the biggest wind farms in the United States. Wind companies like FPL Group Inc (FPL) , wildlife groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are trying to agree on ways to lower the risk for birds flying into big spinning turbine blades at the 584-megawatt Altamont Pass wind center in rolling hills about 50 miles east of San Francisco.

German utility E.On AG launched a 29.1 billion euro ($34.72 billion) all-cash bid for ENDESA (ELE) on Tuesday, topping a previous offer from Gas Natural by more than 30 percent and threatening to disrupt carefully laid plans for Spanish power-market consolidation. Endesa said in a statement that the E.On offer was "clearly" the better of the two, but added that it still did not adequately reflect Endesa's true value. Shares of Endesa were up 15% in yesterday's trading.

Puget Sound Energy (PSD) recently signed a letter of intent with Houston-based Zilkha Renewable Energy to obtain 100-percent ownership of Zilkha's proposed 220-megawatt (MW) Wild Horse Wind Power Project located in the eastern part of Washington state's Kittitas County. It is the next step in an ongoing process to acquire renewable energy as part of a strategic plan to secure low-cost, long-term diverse resources for its growing customer base.

A recent study by Emerging Energy Research confirmed what we have been saying about wind power for some time - namely that growth prospects look very strong for the North American market. The study, entitled "US Wind Power Markets and Strategies, 2007-2015", is not available free of charge but you can access a summary here (PDF document). The US: The World's Top Dog Here are some of the key takeaways from the summary: a) The US wind power market is expected to grow from 11,000 MW in 2006 to around 49,000 MW by 2015...

Just one year after launching its wind power program, nearly 9,000 OG&E Electric Services (OGE) customers have subscribed. About one-third of the subscribers have 100 percent of their electricity generated by wind, making OG&E's program one of the leaders in the United States.

Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy On July 10, shares of Western Wind Energy (TSX:WND, OTC:WNDEF)plummeted because of a $12.2 million shortfall in the 1603 cash grant from the US Treasury for the company’s Windstar wind farm compared to the application.  In order to reassure skittish investors, the company held a conference call on Monday, July 16. On the tenth, I thought that investors should write off the 1603 cash grant shortfall, despite the fact that the company intended to send a delegation...

by Debra Fiakas CFA   In early October 2013, Broadwind (BWEN:  Nasdaq) announced over $100 million in new wind tower orders, tipping the value of orders received in the year 2013 over the $300 million mark.   Wind energy has been a fickle market to pursue, alternatively showing great promise as policy makers show support for renewable energy sources and then sinking as cheap natural gas substitutes flood the market. Broadwind’s expertise is in gearing of various kinds.  In addition to supplying gearboxes for wind turbines, the company offers maintenance services to tower owners.  Oil in gearboxes...

by William Gregozeski, CFA China Ruifeng Renewable Energy Holdings Limited is a holding company with ownership interests in three energy-related businesses.  Its current focus is on wind farm operations, via its majority holdings in Hongsong, a long established wind farm, and Langcheng, a greenfield wind farm (after various purchases and sales of ownership interests it will own 85.36% of the two wind farms on a beneficial level and 68.17% on a direct equity level.  These wind farms have a current installed capacity of 398.4MW, and are expected to increase to 1,190.4MW by the end of 2017.  It...

Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA The Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK) has been one of my star performers in an excellent year.  Is it still a good investment at these prices?  Since I recommended the Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK/APF-UN.TO) in January as a renewable energy income stock for 2009, the company is up 69%, in addition to the C$0.02 monthly dividend, worth approximately another 8% through August on the US$1.82 purchase price, making it the second-best performing of my ten picks (after Cree, Inc (CREE).)  However, since the major basis for my recommendation at the time was the...

ENDESA (ELE) will have 21.5 MW of new wind capacity in the region of Castilla y Leon once its cogeneration and renewable energy subsidiary (ENDESA Cogeneracion y Renovables: ECYR) completes the construction of the Valpardo wind farm in the town of Navalperal de Pinares (Avila), located in the central part of the Malagon mountain range. The farm is scheduled to start up at the end of this year.

Nearly 36,000 jobs could be created in Texas if an increase in the national renewable energy standard were adopted, according to a new study released by the Union of Concerned Scientists. A national standard would require that 20 percent of the country's electricity come from clean, renewable sources like wind, biomass and solar.

ENDESA (ELE) has signed an agreement with Sacyr Vallehermoso for the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Portuguese company Finerge Gestao de Proyectos Energeticos, S.A. (FINERGE), umbrella company of a holding which operates wind farms and co-generation plants in Portugal. The deal hinges on the pertinent authorisation from the Portuguese anti-trust authorities. The company, which has 43 subsidiaries, owns projects already in operation whose installed capacity is 60 MW and projects under construction or in the pipeline with a capacity of 260 MW.

Wind advocates like to say "The wind's always blowing somewhere" to counter concerns about the variability of wind power.  This is true, and it means that wind can always be relied on to produce some power, but that does not mean that wind can always meet demand.  In the United States' Great Plains wind belt, wind is typically anticorrelated with demand, meaning that, unless we can shift demand to times when the wind is strong, either through time of use rates or demand planning, overall energy production from wind will not be able to exceed 25-35% of overall demand...

by Debra Fiakas CFA This week Pattern Energy Group’s (PEGI:  Nasdaq), the independent wind power generator, is scheduled to report sales and earnings for the quarter ending September 2015.  The company has cultivated a strong following among analysts for a company its size.  Nine estimate contributions have gone into a consensus estimate of $87.2 million in sales for the quarter, resulting in a net loss of a penny per share.  If achieved the sales hurdle would represent 22% growth over the same quarter last year.  A penny loss may not seem impressive, but it is substantially better than...

Distributed Energy Systems Corp (DESC) has been awarded a contract to install and commission three additional NorthWind 100® wind turbines for Anchorage-based Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC). The contract brings the total number of turbines AVEC has purchased from Northern Power to 10, representing what is believed to be the largest investment in wind turbines made in Alaska in a single year. The Northern Power Products division will also supply and install wind turbine Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the villages of Toksook Bay and Kasigluk. These systems will leverage Northern Power's SmartView® software, which...