Amazing Pictures of Offshore Wind Farms
One of the stories recently featured on one of my favorite sites, Reddit, was a link to some amazing pictures of offshore wind farms. Seeing these pictures of wind turbines really made clear to me the reality of offshore wind power, and the size and scope required to harness the power of wind over the ocean. Summarizing some points from the article: average wind speeds are greater over the ocean than they are over land the world's largest offshore wind farm is Horn’s Reef project located 14 kilometers (or about 9 miles) off the coast of Denmark...
Sol-Wind: New Yieldco With A Tax Twist
By Tim Conneally The pool of public solar yieldcos keeps growing. Just before the Christmas holiday, Sol-Wind Renewable Power LP filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will be the eighth Yieldco to debut since 2013, and the stock will trade on the NYSE under the symbol SLWD. But there's something different about this one. Sol-Wind is a yieldco that utilizes a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) structure, so it will be taxed differently from the other Yieldcos. Generally speaking, a Yieldco is similar to MLPs by nature, but the taxation...
Newsweek Special Report
"Experts generally agree that our current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Already oil is near $50 per barrel, and the great millions of Chinese and Indians destined to take to the road in the next decades have not yet gotten behind the wheel." This week Newsweek has written several special reports about alternative energy in all its forms. All of these reports can be found at the following link.
A Geospatial Wind Power Supply Curve
by Tom Konrad David Kline, and his team at the National Renewable Energy Lab, wants to help China exceed its target of 30 GW of installed capacity by 2020 by miles. How is he helping? By developing a methodology to help the central planners find the "Geospatial Supply Curves" for wind within China's regions. By a geospatial supply curve, he means the available sites for wind farms at each levelized cost of energy (LCOE,) associated with the geographical data as to where that capacity would be installed. The team's technique combines geographical wind speed data with turbine...
Alaskan Electric Cooperative Expands Wind Turbine Fleet
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...
Broadwind: Major Order, But Still Looking For The Right Size
by Debra Fiakas CFA Last month wind tower manufacturer Broadwind Energy (BWEN: Nasdaq) announced a major new tower order from a major U.S. wind turbine manufacturer. The customer was not named, but the likely suspects are not hard to round up. General Electric (GE: NYSE) is the largest U.S.-based wind turbine producer with about 9.1% of the total world market according to BTM Navigant, an industry research firm. While substantially smaller in size, Northern Power Systems, PacWind and Xzeres are also important competitors in the wind energy industry. Clearly General Electric as a customer has the greatest financial...
Offshore Wind A Big Part Of Why GE Wants Alstom
Who's the Energy Alpha Dog? GE or Siemens? By Jeff Siegel General Electric (NYSE:GE) wants to acquire one of the largest companies in France, and it could get what it wants if Germany doesn't get in the way. Alstom SA (AOMFF), the target of GE's desires, is a French energy and transportation company with a market value of approximately $11.5 billion. It deals in hydroelectric and nuclear power, environmental control systems, wind turbines and battery storage, as well as trains and rail infrastructure. It's a huge company, and GE could spend as much as $13 billion to...
First National to fund city wind generation projects valued at over $20 million
First National Power Corporation (FNPR) in keeping with its commitment to becoming a leader in alternative energy sources is pleased to announce that on August 18, 2004, they conditionally agreed to work with an integral department of a large Northern Ontario city, with the intent being to collaborate on identifying alternative energy solutions. It is the intent that FNPR will joint venture with the City and possibly a local forestry concern on these projects. First National Power will act as a full partner, providing the funding, while the other partners will be the vendor of the equipment, the operator...
When the Wind Blows
In the past, readers have challenged my assertion that wind in the Great Plains blows mostly in the winter. In fact, I was once taken to task for it by a Colorado State Representative (a know-nothing Republican from suburbia) when I was testifying as to the advantages of Solar in Colorado in terms of timing. In the past, I've only had secondary references to "NREL data," and ERCOT's Analysis of Transmission Alternatives for Competitive Renewable Energy Zones in Texas (pdf, 8MB), where wind in the Texas panhandle also conforms to this pattern. However, I was just browsing NREL's Wind...
ENDESA Starts up Its Biggest Wind Farm Complex in Spain
The Carballeira wind farm, constructed by ENDESA (ELE) subsidiary, Endesa Cogeneracion y Renovables (ECYR), has been connected to the grid. This completes the construction of the group's largest wind farm complex, which also includes the Bustelo and Faladoira plants, located in the area of As Pontes (A Coruna) and Xermade (Lugo). The wind farm complex has total installed capacity of 161 MW and is connected to the grid through via the Tesouro substation in As Pontes. The Carballeira wind farm, the last to be completed, has installed capacity of 24.42 MW, with 37 660kW wind turbines expected to...
Must Renewable Energy Be Diversified?
Dana Blankenhorn Most renewable energy companies specialize. Solar companies do solar. Wind companies do wind. Geothermal companies do geothermal. Biomass companies do biomass. But a small Canadian merger challenges that assumption. Magma Energy (MGMXF.PK), a geothermal company, said it will spend about $100 million in stock to buy Plutonic Power (PUOPF.PK), which has wind and hydropower projects, and ambitions to get into solar. The combined companies will go by the name Alterra Power. Both companies are based in Vancouver. Size really does matter, crowed Magma CEO Ross Beatty on a conference call announcing...
Buying Innergex – Texas Was Bad, But Not That Bad
By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
Last week, I published this call to buy Innergex (INGXF, INE.TO) because investors had been overreacting to the losses from the February cold snap in Texas. The stock is up since then, but still seems a decent value.
Canadian Yieldco Innergex Renewable Energy (INGXF, INE.TO) took a big financial hit from the power disruptions in Texas in March.
It's complex, but their financial hedges on power prices for three of its wind farms ended up creating enormous liabilities - more, in fact, than two of their wind farms are worth. Two of their facilities also had benefits...
Op-Ed: Vote Against Vestas’ Proposed Board
Vestas' (VWDRY.PK) Board of Directors intend to grant management share options at a strike price one-third BELOW book value. The Board of Directors is rewarding management for its mismanagement and past profit warnings. This will not help restore investor confidence. Given Vestas' valuation, it is time for shareholders to stand up for their interests: Investors should vote against all nominees for Vestas Board of Directors at the AGM on March 29th. The strike price of Vestas' share option scheme is only the latest in a series of decisions disregarding shareholder interests. Vestas needs to change! Vestas needs a...
Former Soviet Weapon Designers Take On Wind Power
Worldchanging.com has an article about former soviet weapons designers working with Lawrence Berkely National Latoratory to design a new vertical axis wind turbine. Lawrence Berkeley helped form a new company, known as Wind Sail, to commercialize the new turbine for this Russian group.
Tax Credit to be Extended to Geothermal Energy
The Production Tax Credit (PTC) a critical factor in stimulating the growth of the US wind industry is very likely to be expanded to include geothermal energy as part of the JOBS tax package (H.R. 4520, the "American Jobs Creation Act of 2004") just approved by a Congressional Conference Committee.
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...
