In the News

Big Players and Big Money Taking Over [Exerpt]
Wind Power Monthly, January 2005
by Janice Massy and Sara Knight

Consolidation is also taking place in wind farm ownership as more utilities and IPPs enter the market, reported Keith Daniel Hays from Emerging Energy Research in Spain. Wind is getting more share of the utilities' generation strategies -- no longer is it a little brother to nuclear, he said. Twenty companies now account for 27% of wind energy capacity in Europe -- or 54% if Germany, which has a tradition of small-scale individual wind farm ownership, is excluded, he said. But the flood of small German investors is beginning to dry up, while institutional investors and utilities are taking a larger share. Traditional developers are also feeling competitive pressure from utilities and IPPs who are acquiring their own wind development teams. It is utilities and IPPs that are bringing much needed financing capabilitiy to grow the sector, said Hays.

Illustrating his point was Danish Oil and Natural Gas (DONG) national energy company, which is building up its wind development business and aims to be one of the leading owners and operators of wind stations on land and offshore in northern Europe withat least 500MW of capacity by 2010. "We see energy in Europe being very much focused on renewables and gas for environmental reasons," said DONG's Henrik Balle. "We are in it for the long term; wind is the way forward."