Investing in in Prairie Winds
Last week NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE: NYSE) broke ground on its newest wind power project. The company plans to build 71 wind towers in Wayne County, northeastern Nebraska, outfitting each with General Electric (GE: NYSE)turbines. Called the Sholes Wind Energy Center, the wind farm will have a collective generating capacity near 160 megawatts and require $200 million in to build. Construction is expected to begin in March 2019, to meet a December 2019 planned operational start.
The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has already signed a twenty-year power purchase agreement with NextEra, making return on the Sholes project close to guaranteed. OPPD is the twelfth largest public power utility in the...
Wind-Rail Convergence?
Taking a study break, I happened to see an article in the Denver Post bringing together two of my favorite clean energy themes: Efficient transport, and wind power. Rail transport has become essential to delivering windpower across the country. The full article is here: Rolling With the Wind.
Dark Clouds Threaten German Clean Energy Ambitions
John Petersen During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power. Over the last few weeks, however, there has been an ominous change in the mainstream German media's tone as the political class finally comes to grips with the unpleasant reality that rooftop solar panels are worthless on short, grey winter days and "For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no...
Windpower: Focusing the Criticism Away from NIMBYism and Aesthetics
Michael Giberson Market-oriented policy analysts have not been shy about cataloguing the problems surrounding windpower development. But in the enthusiasm to oppose the government interventions accompanying wind generation, market-based analysts sometimes have strayed beyond principled defense of markets and unwittingly offered support to anti-market NIMBYism and other meddlesome sentiments. Policy analysts examining wind power issues should consider more carefully which issues ought to be pursued through the policy process. Two Images Wind power has two images. In one view, wind power is glamorous, hi-tech, future oriented and almost sexy. Advertisements for products from automobiles to...
Do You Need To Invest In Oil To Benefit From Expensive Oil?
Two months ago, Tom told us how he'd dipped a toe into the black stuff (i.e. bought the OIL etf) on grounds that current supply destruction related to the depressed price of crude oil would eventually lead to the same kind of supply-demand crunch that led oil to spike during the 2004 to mid-2008 period. If you need evidence that the current price of crude is wreaking havoc in the world of oil & gas exploration, look no further than Alberta and its oil sands. The oil sands contain the second largest oil reserves in the world after...
China Poised For Significant Expansion In Wind Power Generation
by William Gregozeski, CFA China is the world’s largest producer of electricity, surpassing the United States in 2011, with demand increasing alongside its strong, sustained growth in GDP. Electricity generation in China has increased 9.6% annually, from 2005 to 2013, reaching 5,425.1TWh of electricity. Coal-fired plants currently make up over two-thirds of power generation, which is partly the result of an abundance of coal in China. Despite this growth, the country expects demand to continue to increase at a rapid pace, reaching 7.295TWh of demand in 2020 and 11,595TWh in 2040. However, the growth in electricity...
Western Wind Energy Corp. Signs Turbine Supply Agreement with Mitsubishi Power Systems
Western Wind Energy (WNDEF.OB) announce that it has executed a formal turbine supply agreement with Mitsubishi Power Systems. Mitsubishi Power Systems will supply Western Wind Energy with an initial 15 one-megawatt MHIA 1000A wind turbine generators, for Western Wind Energy's 15-megawatt steel park wind project in Arizona for delivery of October of this year. The turbine supply agreement further calls for the supply of up to an additional 900 megawatts of wind turbine generators for future projects. A delegation from Western Wind Energy will be traveling to Japan next month to inspect the new 2.4-megawatt Mitsubishi wind turbine...
Hidden Gems? Why Green Investors Should Look at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Ener1
Part 2 of 2 Bill Paul Neither Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd., which trades OTC under the symbol DWOTF, nor Ener1 Inc., which trades on NASDAQ under the symbol HEV, is an obvious candidate for having hidden potential. Heck, Daewoo isn’t even a green energy stock. Or is it? Lost in the hubbub of Copenhagen and Congress, there’s been important news about both these companies that strongly suggests – at least to me – that each has plenty of undiscovered potential that will really start paying off over the next 18 to 24...
Beijing Cramps Foreign Offshore Wind Developers, Giving Boost to Domestic Firms
Bill Paul As it scrambles to develop an offshore wind power industry that potentially may generate as much as 200 gigawatts of electricity, China has decided to hamstring all would-be foreign developers, which should provide a big lift to certain Chinese companies. As reported last week by Environmental Finance magazine in its online edition, Beijing has effectively shut out international operators with new regulations requiring any foreign offshore developer to enter into a joint venture with a Chinese company under which the foreign firm must be a minority partner. “In reality, most of the international developers cannot, or...
Wind Fall
Debra Fiakas Angela Merkel’s coalition government may not have looked at the nuclear power question for anything more than a “cover your behind” solution. Nonetheless, the wind industry sees last month’s decision to phase out Germany’s nuclear power generation industry by 2022 as - no pun intended - a windfall. Policy makers say as much as half of the deficit left by the shutdown of nuclear power plants will need to be made up from other power sources, principally wind power. This is no small undertaking. A total of 21,607 wind turbines with an overall...
Wind: Oversupply Heralds ‘Flight to Quality’
David Appleyard A dramatic turnaround in the wind technology supply chain could bring opportunities for qualified suppliers, finds research by BTM Consultant ApS. Over the past five years the whole of the wind technology supply chain has been in flux. The industry has seen a dramatic turnaround, with a negative supply situation for some key components and materials transformed into the current position, with a significant supply surplus. We present the key findings of the latest BTM Consult Supply Chain Assessment report. Slower than expected economic recovery in the U.S., combined with the eurozone sovereign...
FPL Group Scores Highest in U.S., Second Globally in Report on Clean, Efficient Energy
FPL Group Inc (FPL) scored the highest ranking in the U.S. and second globally in a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report that analyzed 72 of the world's leading power companies reviewing current use of available technologies to reduce C02 emissions, as well as clear commitments made for future improvements. The new report said FPL is a bright spot in the U.S. rankings. The WWF says FPL Group scored high due to leadership in developing wind energy and a commitment to dramatically improving power plant efficiency.
GE, FPL expect boom in wind power business next year
U.S. power companies such as FPL Group Inc (FPL) that develop windmill farms will probably install a record number of turbines next year after Congress renewed the tax credit needed to make the plants cost effective. Over a thousand new windmills, typically twenty stories high with three 40-foot blades, will crop up in fields in Oklahoma, ranches in Colorado and off the coast of Massachusetts. U.S. wind power will increase by more than the 1,687 megawatts built in 2003, said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group in Washington....
Finavera to Sell Wind Project for Three Times Its Market Cap
Tom Konrad CFA On July 23rd, Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) announced a deal to sell its 77 megawatt Wildmare Wind Energy Project to Innergex Renewable Energy (TSX:INE, OTC:INGXF.) The sale will come as a great releif to Finavera’s long-suffering shareholders, who have seen the stock halve in value since the start of the year. I included Finavera in my annual list of clean energy stocks this January because, even at the time, Finavera was trading at a fraction of the value of its wind projects, despite a weak balance sheet. Since then,...
Xcel Energy Seeks Fast Track for Wind Power Bids
In order to take full advantage of the recent Congressional extension of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind generation, Xcel Energy yesterday filed a request with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to further expedite a company bidding process for new wind power in the state. On Aug. 11, 2004, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission gave Xcel Energy (XEL) permission to issue a "Request of Proposal" for up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy expected to primarily be wind under the company's overall resource planning process. The bidding process for this wind power began the...
FPL Energy’s Wind Farms Continue to Have Positive Environmental and Economic Impact
FPL Group Inc (FPL) wind farms continue to help meet the growing need for pollution-free electricity while providing new economic opportunities for local communities and states across the United States. In 2004, FPL Energy's 43 wind farms produced more than 6.6 million megawatt hours of electricity for local utilities, municipalities, power marketers and rural electric cooperatives across the country, or enough power to serve more than 500,000 average homes. FPL Energy estimates that it would have taken the equivalent of 3.8 million tons of coal, or 32,579 train cars of coal, 10.5 million barrels of oil or more than...
