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[waldron] 08/4/2021 11:25

Norway’s wealth fund makes renewable energy investment debut with Dutch offshore wind deal

PowerWindOffshore

By Andrew Fawthrop 07 Apr 2021

Norges Bank Investment Management will pay $1.6bn for a 50% stake in Orsted's Borssele 1 & 2, the Netherlands' largest offshore wind project
Orsted Borssele 1 and 2 offshore wind

Borssele 1 & 2 was commissioned at the end of 2020 (Credit: Orsted)

The manager of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has made its renewable energy debut, buying a 50% interest in the Orsted Borssele 1 & 2 offshore wind farm.

The investor, which oversees Norway’s trillion-dollar fund, will pay €1.4bn ($1.6bn) for the stake in the 752-megawatt (MW) project located 23km off the coast of Zeeland, Netherlands.

It has been on the lookout for a suitable opportunity to invest in renewable energy assets since approved to do so by Norway’s parliament at the start of last year, and is reported to have looked at several projects before settling on Borssele 1 & 2.

Orsted will remain co-owner and operator of the site, providing long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) services from the Port of Vlissingen.

Borssele 1 & 2 was commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2020, and is the largest operational offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, and the second-largest in the world.

Mie Holstad, chief real assets officer at NBIM, said: “We are excited to have made our first investment in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure and pleased to partner with Orsted as the market leader in offshore wind.

“Borssele 1 & 2 is a high-quality offshore wind asset, and the acquisition is in line with our strategy to build a high-quality portfolio of wind and solar power generation assets.

“The unlisted renewable energy infrastructure strategy supplements our existing unlisted real estate portfolio well, and we draw on our long experience with direct investments.”


NBIM signals growing renewables ambition with Borssele 1 & 2 acquisition from Orsted

NBIM also announced today (7 April) a revised investment strategy for the next two years, saying it will “gradually build up the renewable energy portfolio” of its assets, primarily wind and solar power.

“We will focus on projects with reduced power price risk, stable cash flow and limited risk to the principal investment,” it said in a statement, adding it will prioritise ventures “alongside high-quality partners with proven operational experience”.

The investment manager oversees Norway’s $1.3tn sovereign wealth fund, which has been supplied for years by revenues from the country’s oil and gas industry.

Martin Neubert, chief commercial officer and deputy group CEO at Orsted, said: “As one of the world’s largest institutional investors, Norges Bank Investment Management is making a difference by making sustainable investments.

“We’re delighted to welcome NBIM as partner on Borssele 1 & 2, which is a landmark project for the Netherlands’ transition to renewable energy, and we’re pleased to support NBIM in its strategy to invest in renewable energy infrastructure assets.”

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the summer.

[waldron] 08/4/2021 11:22

Why offshore wind partnerships are proving so attractive to oil and gas companies

Features & AnalysisPowerWind

By Jim Banks 08 Apr 2021

Major oil and gas companies are increasingly looking to invest in offshore wind, a trend hastened by the pandemic and its impact on commodity prices
Offshore,Wind,Farm,Substation,With,Turbine,In,North,Sea

Several partnerships between the oil and gas industry and offshore wind developers have emerged in recent years (Credit: Kaisn/Shutterstock)

With Covid-19 turning the world’s economy on its head and oil prices taking a downturn, the oil and gas industry is accelerating its efforts to adapt and evolve – with many companies ramping up their efforts to diversify in partnership with the offshore wind sector, seeing an opportunity for both hydrocarbon extraction and turbine emplacement to coexist across a wide range of sites. World Expro writer Jim Banks talks to Søren Lassen, global head of offshore wind at Wood Mackenzie, about the meeting of two very different worlds.



The business of extracting oil and gas has, historically, been less vulnerable to market changes than most. In more secure economic times, the industry’s dominance of the energy mix is usually assured; in periods of recession, it is more likely to succumb to a time of gentle hibernation, with larger operators cutting back on platforms and drilling explorations like a gardener might to the branches of an unkempt hedge.

The Covid-19 pandemic, however, has pushed oil and gas into an existential crisis. As close to half the world’s population became subject to some form of lockdown, demand for energy across the board plummeted.

Gas pipelines were switched off and oil tankers were stranded in foreign ports, unable to offload their cargo. Faced with a massive drop in revenue, energy companies were forced to place countless future exploration and extraction projects on hold, or cancel them outright.

One might assume, then, that the eventual demise of the oil and gas industry might come sooner than expected. That seems altogether unlikely, at least if the efforts of some of the larger operators to embrace their counterparts in the renewables sector bear fruit. For several years now, companies like Total, BP and Equinor have been broadening their project portfolio to encompass numerous wind energy projects.

Whether oil and gas companies want to invest in this sector as a subsidiary to their main business as a way to use existing rig infrastructure for power generation, or to power the hydrocarbon extraction processes, there is undoubtedly a desire for the two sectors to form closer alliances.

“Offshore wind is becoming attractive,” says Søren Lassen, global head of offshore wind research at Wood Mackenzie. “We are seeing a transition across the entire value chain.”

It is demand, according to Lassen, that is driving supply. “The growth trajectory for offshore wind is very different to the oil and gas market,” he explains. “In terms of capital expenditure, offshore wind is rapidly growing, whereas in oil and gas it is decreasing.”

Although the returns are lower for now, growth in wind is more stable – an attractive prospect for fossil fuel giants beset with visions of their core business collapsing in the next couple of decades. “There is more certainty in the pipeline,” says Lassen. “And that is very attractive to oil and gas players.”
oil companies offshore wind
Oil and gas companies have a wealth of offshore expertise to bring to the wind industry (Credit: iweta0077/Shutterstock)


Why offshore wind operators are teaming up with oil and gas companies

Why is it so attractive, then, for wind operators to pair up with the likes of BP or Shell? It comes down to location. A combination of factors – from the world’s burgeoning demand for energy to the attitudes of local communities, to the placement of turbines onshore – has pushed offshore wind farms into deeper and deeper waters, where wind speeds are less volatile.

Oil and gas majors, for their part, can bring significant expertise and more when it comes to building in such locations.

“Capital is a very important part of it, but so too is the fact that the oil and gas industry is larger and has scaled up, so it has local connections in many markets around the world,” explains Lassen.

These older beasts of the energy world have lost none of their typical shrewdness in seizing opportunities when they present themselves. Lassen and his colleagues began to spot this in 2018, when the number of alliances between oil and gas majors, and their counterparts in the wind industry, spiked.

Seeing that the cost of investment was – at least to them – unusually low, many of these fossil fuel giants went on a spending spree. Spotting a stake in a wind farm was, says Lassen,“a relatively cheap play for an oil and gas company to position itself in a new market”.

Lassen singles out Equinor in this regard, which leads among its compatriots in the oil and gas sector when it comes to its investment in wind energy.

In early 2020, the Norwegian petroleum ministry approved Equinor’s plan to build a floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea to provide power to five oil and gas platforms.

The Hywind Tampen wind farm will be 140km off the coast of Norway and have 11 turbines generating 88MW. The company has been involved in the region since 2017, when it brought five 250m-high Hywind turbines to the offshore site.

Shell is another one of the big names aiming to build on its small but expanding presence in the wind industry. In late 2019, it bought the French floating wind company Eolfi.

“Eolfi has been a pioneer of floating wind development,” said Dorine Bosman, vice-president for offshore wind at Shell, at the time. “We believe the union of Eolfi’s expertise and portfolio with Shell’s resources and ability to scale-up will help make electricity a significant business for Shell.”

Such moves join the expertise, infrastructure and market knowledge of global energy companies to the dynamism of a wind industry fuelled, not only by growing demand and supranational goodwill, but also by a fanatical commitment to making renewable energy work.

The impetus and investment provided by oil and gas companies seeking to accelerate their energy transition will no doubt enable the offshore wind sector to forge new international industrial partnerships along the supply chain and further accelerate its growth. By that point, however, investment in turbines could become considerably more expensive.

“As the industry becomes more attractive, the market becomes more competitive for tenders,” remarks Lassen. “There is a trend towards joint ventures and partnerships because it is such a global industry now, and is rapidly becoming more so. So, it is challenging for offshore wind players to focus on just one particular market. As such, we are seeing more players forge alliances to tap into synergies and local know-how for key markets.

“The offshore wind players are usually large utilities, so they are hard to buy up, hence the alliances and organic growth,” Lassen adds. “Equinor – which has been in the market for a long time – and Shell are very different companies, and they are setting up alliances in very different ways.

“We are also seeing a lot of acquisitions on the supply chain side to create larger EPCI [engineering, procurement, construction and installation] players.”

Total is also pushing further into the renewables sector, with a stated intention of cultivating 25GW in wind energy capacity by 2025. The company is now a part of the Erebus offshore wind project as well, which will deliver a 100MW floating wind farm off the coast of Wales.

Elsewhere, Exxon is working with the Norwegian consultancy DNV GL to look into the use of offshore wind power to enhance the production of oil. The latter is proposing what it calls a ‘WINd-powered Water INjection’ (WIN WIN) project to provide a clean, reliable and cost-effective alternative for powering water injection in offshore locations.

Wind-powered water injection could be based on existing technology for off-grid, remotely-controlled operations, using an autonomous system moored in immediate proximity to the injection wells.


Partnerships need to be collaborative to prevent conflict

The advantages of partnerships between oil majors and offshore wind companies seem clear. Even so, Lassen urges companies on both sides to look beyond them and manage the potential difficulties that can arise when two such dynamic forces meet.

“There are some challenges, and we don’t have all of the answers yet,” says Lassen. “We have seen from some players in the supply chain that there is the potential to exaggerate the synergies between offshore wind, oil and gas, and neglect the differences – as offshore wind for the majority of its lifetime has been a niche.

“It is, therefore, important to have a balanced view where players are able to leverage the synergies while acknowledging the differences.

“They are two different industries, so transitioning from one industry to the other would also require investments,” he adds. “For companies looking to enter the offshore wind industry, it is important not to look at offshore wind as a niche but as a major growth industry, and invest accordingly to be competitive and capture future growth.”

One key factor to consider is that innovation has consistently proved to be a powerful force in the offshore wind industry. Partnerships must be able to adapt as systems evolve and projects scale up.

“The sector is very dynamic and the technology is changing,” Lassen remarks. “For instance, turbines are getting larger all the time. That has an impact on the whole supply chain. New facilities and new vessels are needed, so oil and gas companies coming into the market need to understand these dynamics when entering the market.”

We are seeing two competing industries converge and collaborate, so there will undoubtedly be a clash of culture in some areas. Nevertheless, the potential gains outweigh the pitfalls, so long as both sides share the same vision of the future.



This article first appeared in World Expro magazine, Vol. 2 2020.

[waldron] 05/4/2021 17:13

Engie to begin work on US$300mn Peru wind farm in H2
Bnamericas Published: Monday, April 05, 2021
Power purchase agreement (PPA) Onshore Wind
Engie to begin work on US$300mn Peru wind farm in H2

Engie Energía Perú has signed a contract to advance the US$300mn, 260MW Punta Lomitas wind project in the center-south region of Ica.

The deal was inked with Siemens GESA Renewable Energy and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy for the supply of the turbines, said Engie, which expects construction to begin in the second half of this year.

Engie provided the update after signing an eight-year (2029-37) PPA for 150MW with miner Anglo American Quellaveco (AAQSA) for the Quellaveco project which is under development in the southern region of Moquegua.

Recently, mining vice minister José Luis Montero highlighted that nearly half of planned mining sector investment targets the south of the country.

“AAQSA is the first large mining company to promote the construction of a non-conventional renewable energy plant, to use 100% non-conventional renewable energy in its operations,” according to Engie, highlighting that electricity will come from Punta Lomitas and other renewable energy sources.

In March, the energy and mines ministry granted Engie the definitive concession for Punta Lomitas and the 220kV, 60km line which will connect the plant with the national grid.

Engie Energía Perú’s project pipeline includes the 200MW Lomitas Plus wind farm, the 300MW Hanaqpampa and 165.6MW San José solar parks, and the 314MW Yaku hydro.

The company’s installed capacity is 2,496MW – around 20% of Peru’s total – from eight plants, with 44% from dual fuel plants, 39% natural gas, 10% hydro, 5% coal and 2% solar.

Source: Engie Energía Perú

[misca2] 31/3/2021 15:02

Shell buying Vattenfall's stake in 108-MW Dutch offshore wind JV
Offshore wind farm. Author: Vattenfall. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

March 31 (Renewables Now) - Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS,LON:RDSA) is buying Vattenfall’s 50% interest in the company behind the 108-MW Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.

Shell announced its plan to acquire the 50% it does not own in the NoordzeeWind CV joint venture (JV) with the Swedish utility in a press release on Monday. The move will make it the sole owner of the vehicle.

The plans for the development of the Egmond aan Zee wind farm, which was the first offshore facility of its kind in the Netherlands, were submitted back in 2001. The scheme won a government tender a year later. The wind park, located near the Dutch coast of Egmond aan Zee, had its 36 Vestas V90 turbines commissioned in April 2007.

Vattenfall’s exit from the partnership is part of a plan for the utility to better focus on the development of new projects, said Kasper Simonsen, head of asset management. The state-owned company is moving to fossil-free generation and is making “substantial” investments in wind, solar and storage projects to achieve that goal.

[the grumpy old men] 30/3/2021 09:14

Denmark's Orsted AS said Tuesday that it has taken a final investment decision on the combined wind and solar project Helena Energy Center in South Texas with an expected operational date in the first half of 2022.

The Danish renewable energy developer said the hybrid nature of the project allows it to maximize the use of the location, in an area characterized by strong coastal winds and sunshine.

The project takes Orsted's onshore operational and under construction portfolio to four gigawatts, spanning Texas, the Midwest, and Southeast U.S. across wind, solar, and storage.

Orsted added that with significant portfolio growth over the coming years, its U.S. energy trading team is being integrated into the company's onshore business, strengthening its ability to manage risk more dynamically. Ben Pratt has been appointed to lead the Chicago-based energy trading team and joins the onshore management.

Mr. Pratt previously served as senior managing director with Uniper Global Commodities (formerly E.On), and has extensive background managing portfolio risk across the entire power market complex, Orsted said.



Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 30, 2021 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT)

[ariane] 24/2/2021 07:38

Engie Fabricom's CEO departs as engineering giant faces up to another loss-making year

Group's £25m bailout comes as it wins new work in offshore wind



By David Laister

Business Live Editor (Humber)

00:45, 24 FEB 2021Updated07:02, 24 FEB 2021

Manufacturing

Engie Fabricom has parted company with long-serving Richard Webster, who was appointed chief executive in 2018, as it faces up to a second successive year of losses.

Engie Fabricom has parted company with long-serving Richard Webster, who was appointed chief executive in 2018, as it faces up to a second successive year of losses.



South Bank engineering giant Engie Fabricom has parted company with its chief executive as it prepares to report another loss-making year.

Long-serving Richard Webster has left the multi-disciplined operator as it was understood the past 12 months had exacerbated the company’s position, with a £25 million injection of fresh capital by the French parent group received to support its trading position.

Accounts for 2019 remain outstanding at Companies House for the Grimsby-headquartered giant, having been due at the year end. It had started 2020 with a reported £7 million loss. That was attributed to a “long-running challenging project” that was £6 million in the red.

Downturns in the oil and gas market prior to the pandemic had also hit the Europarc business hard. Engie Fabricom's with last reported revenues were at £67 million, with almost 300 staff.

Mr Webster, who had been with the business for 25 years, serving as chief financial officer and chief operations officer prior to taking the top role in early 2018, has not responded to an approach, with the business not addressing his termination as a director when contacted.

A statement from Engie Fabricom said: “During 2020, we continued to operate as a multi-disciplined engineering, project management and construction company, however we have experienced challenging market conditions.

Engie Fabricom's Immingham manufacturing and construction facility spans 13,615 acres, and can deal with major projects.


“The impact of Covid-19, and a number of other challenges, some beyond our control, have meant that we suffered a financial loss.

“Our parent company continue to support us, recently investing £25 million in share capital into Engie Fabricom UK Ltd, demonstrating the confidence of our shareholders in the UK team, and in the company’s future.

“We have recently secured a series of projects in the growing offshore wind sector and are currently delivering our specialist services on many of the UK’s leading offshore wind farms.

“Engie Fabricom UK Ltd will continue to focus on being the partner of choice for our clients both new and old in 2021 and beyond.”

[waldron] 22/2/2021 09:25

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA said late Friday that it has received an order for 64 wind turbines from the EDF Renewables, Enbridge Inc. and wpd AG consortium for an offshore wind plant in France.

The Spanish turbine maker said the SWT 7.0-154 turbines will be installed on the Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind power plant off the northwestern coast of France. The order also includes a 15-year service and maintenance agreement.

Installation and commissioning are expected for 2024, according to Siemens Gamesa.

The total project cost is estimated at around 2 billion euros ($2.42 billion), Enbridge said.



Write to Joshua Stein at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2021 03:11 ET (08:11 GMT)

[florenceorbis] 08/2/2021 08:09

BP PLC said Monday that it and partner EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG of Germany have together been selected as preferred bidder for two major 60-year leases in the first U.K. offshore-wind leasing round since 2010.

The U.K. energy giant said it and EnBW plan to form a 50-50 joint venture to develop and operate the leases, with four annual payments of 231 million pounds ($317.3 million) on each lease expected before projects reach final investment decision.

Both leases are located in the Irish Sea and offer a combined potential generating capacity of three gigawatts, BP said. The projects are expected to be in operation in seven years, and their generating capacity would then be sufficient to power more than 3.4 million households, BP said.

This marks BP's entry to the U.K.'s offshore wind power sector, the company said.



Write to Adria Calatayud at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 08, 2021 02:45 ET (07:45 GMT)

[gibbs1] 03/2/2021 15:09

Siemens Energy unit picked to install ‘next generation turbines’ at $9 billion offshore wind hub

Published Wed, Feb 3 20219:26 AM EST

Anmar Frangoul


Key Points

The East Anglia Hub will be able to power millions of homes once fully up and running.

Several large-scale offshore wind projects are being planned for the U.K., where authorities want offshore wind capacity to hit 40 gigawatts by the year 2030.

[grupo] 29/12/2020 07:14

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund Buys Battery Project In Scotland

Thu, 24th Dec 2020 08:26
Alliance News

(Alliance News) - Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire a 30 megawatts battery project located near Wester Dechmont in West Lothian, Scotland.

The London-based company invests in a portfolio of utility-scale operational energy storage systems. It said Byers Brae is a battery-only site that is currently expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2021.

The fund said the project is expected to generate revenue primarily from asset optimisation, together with frequency response services.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Gresham House Energy Storage Fund said the total capacity of operational utility-scale battery storage projects in its investment portfolio will be 345 megawatts.

"Byers Brae is our first project in Scotland and is expected to help National Grid balance wind generation in the north with power demand in the south. It is located at a point between Edinburgh and Glasgow where physical constraints exist in the transmission system and is therefore expected to benefit from additional revenue system actions in the balancing mechanism," said Ben Guest, fund manager & Head of Gresham House New Energy.

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund shares were untraded in London on Thursday, last closing at 111.96 pence each.

By Evelina Grecenko; [e-mail]

[sarkasm] 21/12/2020 14:59

Wind 21 December 2020 Engie, Equinor and Enel announce wind data sharing project

Engie, Equinor and Enel announce wind data sharing project

Published by Bella Weetch, Editorial Assistant
Energy Global, Monday, 21 December 2020 12:45

Some of the largest wind turbine owners in the world have announced the launch of a new data sharing programme. Turbine owners around the world will securely and openly exchange operational performance data, enabling them to reduce their data dependency to OEMs, improve analytics and develop a transparent global performance benchmark.

The key objective of the project is to unlock operational insights and to create an operational turbine performance baseline. Enel, Engie and Equinor have confirmed their participation to the project and committed to sharing data from over 10 000 turbines both onshore and offshore. The programme is open to any turbine owner, and a significant number of companies are expected to join the project in the coming months. A series of seminars will take place at the beginning of 2021 to enable any interested party to assess opportunities and coordinate platform development efforts.

By exchanging data on tens of thousands of operating turbines worldwide, leading wind asset owners will be able to turn insights into tangible advantages, such as improving wind farm operations, as well as improving the success rate of claims related to lower than expected power production.

The complete legal framework of the programme, along with detailed technical description for which data are to be shared, and the complete exchange process will be presented at the upcoming industry seminar.

[waldron] 11/12/2020 16:34

A decade ago, NextEra, Iberdrola and Enel were sleepy regional utilities with little name recognition.

Now they are fast-growing giants with market values rivaling the likes of oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, thanks to their early all-in bets on wind and solar farms.

And still, many people have never heard of them.

Their early lead in the global transition away from oil has put these companies on track to become the major energy companies of the coming decades -- the "green energy majors." But they now face the threat of increased competition as some of the oil titans that have traditionally dominated the energy industry diversify into wind and solar power.

If the green majors are nervous about a coming clash, they aren't showing it. NextEra Energy Inc. Chief Executive James Robo dismissed the idea that oil majors in the U.S. and Europe posed a competitive threat at an investor conference this fall, saying that the companies' green projects were among the worst he had seen.

"I don't worry about the oil majors at all," he told the audience. "If I have 100 things I worry about at night, it's not even on the top 100." Mr. Robo declined to be interviewed.

For now, NextEra, Enel SpA and Iberdrola SA are Wall Street darlings, after Spain's Iberdrola and Italy's Enel became global builders of green energy projects, while NextEra became America's largest generator of wind and solar power.

Each of the companies has seen its share price soar in recent months as investors bet on their ability to lead the transition to a lower-carbon future with massive investments in renewable energy, battery storage and improvements to the electric grid.

That transition is expected to accelerate in the U.S. under President-elect Joe Biden, who has promised to focus on climate change, and within the European Union and China, where ambitious carbon-reduction efforts are under way.

Enel and Iberdrola have outlined plans to substantially expand their portfolios of renewable-energy projects over the next decade with about $170 billion in collective investments. NextEra, which hasn't disclosed a long-term spending plan, expects to have invested $60 billion in renewable energy projects between 2019 and 2022.

Still, analysts caution that increased competition within the renewables industry could reduce profit margins for the most established players.

"Oil companies entering the renewables market will need to accept lower returns on projects initially to gain market share, and this is going to result in a reduction in margins across the board," said Fernando Garcia of RBC Capital Markets.

Already, Denmark's Ørsted A/S, a company formerly known as DONG Energy that focused on oil and gas, has transitioned into a leading player in offshore wind projects. BP is planning a big shift too: It says it will increase its clean-energy investments in coming years as it dramatically scales back oil and gas production.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has decimated demand for fossil fuels this year, briefly turning U.S. crude prices negative and forcing the oil industry to lay off thousands of workers and slash spending. That has sapped the oil giants of much of their financial strength, making it harder for them to quickly transition into renewables projects, which require large upfront investment in order to reap steady returns over a longer period.

While big oil companies once reported double-digit returns on invested capital -- in the heady days prior to 2014, when crude oil prices last topped $100 a barrel, some topped 20% annually, according to FactSet -- the big renewables players have been winning the race of late with slow and steady single-digit returns.

"There is no better example than 2020 to show how extremely different the risk profiles are," said Bernstein analyst Meike Becker.

Iberdrola, Enel and NextEra have taken different paths to morph from humdrum utilities into green growth companies.

Originally an Italian utility, Enel was actually later than some others to home in on wind and solar. Two years after forming its renewable development arm, Enel Green Power, the company sold about a third of it in 2010 to pay down corporate debt. Enel then focused on trying to build nuclear plants in Italy before citizens there rejected that plan.

But Enel's current chief executive, Francesco Starace, then the head of that green unit, said he recognized that wind and solar power had the potential to become competitive in the broader energy market as costs fell. The unit focused on developing projects in regions without large subsidies or incentives to show investors that they could stand on their own.

"At the time, this sounded like blasphemy or idiocy," Mr. Starace said in an interview. "But we did it stubbornly, and kept doing it, and eventually this prediction of ours became true."

Mr. Starace became Enel's CEO in 2014, and promptly repurchased the portion of Enel Green Power that had earlier been sold. He also reoriented Enel to pursue projects that could be completed within three years to account for the pace of technological change. That pretty much eliminated nuclear and coal plants, as well as large hydroelectric projects, leaving wind and solar farms in the mix.

Enel is now the world's largest renewable energy producer outside China, with an EUR84 billion market value, equal to about $102 billion, and projects in 32 countries. The company has a large presence in the U.S. and has developed wind and solar farms in remote areas in countries including Zambia and Chile. The company plans to spend about EUR70 billion, equivalent to $85 billion, to nearly triple its generation capacity in the coming decade, which it expects will give it around 4% of the global market.

Iberdrola, initially a domestic Spanish utility, was an early pioneer of renewables. It started in 2001, when the company unveiled a plan to expand internationally and invest in clean energy sources to help meet growing global demand for power.

It tapped Ignacio Galán to spearhead the strategy as CEO at a time when wind and solar power were still hugely expensive relative to other electricity sources. The company had historically focused on building hydroelectric and nuclear plants, as well as some coal- and gas-fired ones.

Iberdrola has expanded into renewables in part by aggressively buying up smaller players with attractive growth prospects. In October, it agreed to pay $4.3 billion for New Mexico-based electricity company PNM Resources Inc. -- its eighth deal this year. It plans to invest heavily in the U.S., where the company is third in renewables generation capacity behind NextEra and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Mr. Galán said in an interview that Iberdrola at first faced skepticism about its decision to focus on renewables, but now the tide has turned: The company's value has multiplied by six on his watch to around EUR71 billion, or $86 billion, far exceeding his initial ambition to double its size.

"All we have been fighting for for 20 years, every person recognizes that was the right decision," he said.

Iberdrola is now the world's second largest renewable energy generator outside of China, with projects in 30 countries, including an offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea and a wind and solar farm in Australia. It plans to spend EUR75 billion, equivalent to $91 billion, over the next five years to double its renewable power capacity.

Florida-based NextEra grew into America's largest renewable energy producer by keeping debt levels low, capitalizing on federal tax subsidies available to help finance wind and solar projects around the country and reinvesting its profits to expand further.

Over time, it developed the size and scale needed to consistently underbid other companies in auctions to develop projects. It operates two Florida utilities and sells renewable energy output to others. It also operates electric transmission lines in the U.S. and Canada, as well as natural gas pipelines.

Despite its rapid growth, NextEra has largely flown under the radar. Some lawmakers in Washington and elsewhere didn't know much about it until recently. The company several years ago launched a targeted effort to introduce itself so that its representatives wouldn't have to start meetings with tedious explanations, according to a person familiar with the company's strategy.

NextEra declined to comment. The company's executives still rarely speak to the press.

Investors, however, have been eyeing NextEra for years. Its share price has roughly tripled over the past five years to reach a market value of $146 billion, and for the first time it briefly topped Exxon's value this year in a watershed moment for renewables producers. Its project backlog totals 15,000 megawatts -- an amount just larger than its current portfolio, built over two decades.

BP Capital Fund Advisors, a Dallas-based investment adviser that has historically focused on oil and gas, bought shares in NextEra in March as part of an effort to diversify with investments in renewables. The firm was founded by the late T. Boone Pickens, the oil industry magnate who took an interest in wind and solar power late in his career. He died last year.

"NextEra stands alone in terms of what it offers in exposure to the renewable theme," said portfolio manager Ben Cook. "If you're investing in energy now...that has to be part of the equation."

Write to Katherine Blunt at [e-mail] and Sarah McFarlane at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2020 11:14 ET (16:14 GMT)

[waldron] 11/12/2020 05:53

Shell-EDF JV in the running to build New Jersey offshore wind farm
Dec. 10, 2020 9:09 PM ETRoyal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor4 Comments

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind and Ørsted say they submitted proposals to New Jersey regulators in the second round of competition to supply the state with as much as 2,400 MW of offshore wind power.
Atlantic Shores, a 50-50 joint venture between units of Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) and Electricite de France (OTCPK:ECIFF), estimates its project could be completed as early as 2027 and power nearly 1M homes.
Ørsted is a Danish company that won New Jersey's first offshore wind solicitation in 2019 to build the 1,100 MW Ocean Wind wind farm near Atlantic City; it would expect to begin operating in 2024.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced in September that it would open the application window for the state's second solicitation of offshore wind development; the window closed today, and a decision is likely to take months.

[sarkasm] 26/11/2020 14:48

cnbc


World’s largest offshore wind farm seals financing deal worth $8 billion
Published Thu, Nov 26 20209:04 AM EST

Anmar Frangoul

Key Points

The scale of the overall project, which is due to be finished in 2026, is considerable.
It will be located in waters off the coast of northeast England.



A major offshore wind farm, set to be the largest on the planet, took another leap forward Thursday with SSE Renewables and Equinor announcing the completion of a deal to finance the project.

Once completed, the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in Britain — a 50:50 joint venture between the two firms — will have a total capacity of 3.6 gigawatts (GW).

The first two phases, Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B, will be built simultaneously, with each having a capacity of 1.2 GW.

The third phase of the project, Dogger Bank C, is being developed to a different schedule, with a financial close expected toward the end of 2021.

In a statement, SSE said funding for the first two phases of the project represented “the largest ever offshore wind project financing anywhere in the world.” Investment for Dogger Bank A and B will amount to approximately £6 billion (around $8 billion), it added.

According to the website of the Dogger Bank project, which will be located in waters off the northeast coast of England, the final group of lenders is made up of 29 banks and three export credit agencies. SSE Renewables is heading up construction of the facility, while its operations are to be led by Equinor.

The scale of the overall scheme, which is due to be finished in 2026, is considerable. Equinor and SSE have both described it as the “world’s biggest offshore wind farm.”

Phases A and B will use GE’s 13 megawatt Haliade-X turbine, while the wind farm as a whole will have the ability to power as many as 4.5 million homes in the U.K. annually. Onshore construction works for the project started earlier this year.

Pål Eitrheim, Equinor’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions, described reaching financial close for the first two phases as “a major milestone.”

SSE’s Chief Executive, Alistair Philips-Davies, said the investment would “help drive a green recovery from coronavirus through the project’s construction over the next five years, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.”

Last month, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted the country to become the “world leader in low-cost clean power generation.”

Speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference, which was delivered virtually, Johnson stressed the importance of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind.

“We believe that in 10 years’ time, offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts,” he said.

“You heard me right: your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle, the whole lot of them, will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands,” he added.

The pledge to increase offshore wind capacity was included in the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the 2019 general election.

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/11/2020 09:15

SSE PLC said Thursday that it and its joint venture partner Equinor ASA have reached financial close on the first two phases of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm project off the north coast of England.

The FTSE 100 energy networks and power generation group said that total investment in the first two phases of the project will be around 6 billion pounds ($8.03 billion). SSE added that the expected equity investment forms part of its GBP7.5 billion investment program to March 2025.

The company said that once all three phases are complete in March 2026, Dogger Bank will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

The wind farm will produce enough clean, renewable electricity to supply 5% of the U.K.'s demand, equivalent to powering 6 million homes, the company said.

"This investment will help drive a green recovery from coronavirus through the project's construction over the next five years, creating jobs and boosting the local economy," the company said.



Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

[waldron] 11/11/2020 04:52

wind
EDPR and ENGIE Launch Major Offshore Wind Player in the US
Tuesday, 10 November 2020
0
REM
EDP Renewables and ENGIE have combined their existing and planned offshore wind efforts to form a new company, Ocean Winds that is one of the largest “pure” offshore wind development enterprises in the world. After launching OW in Europe, EDP Renewables and ENGIE are now unveiling the U.S. arm of this new company: OW North America.

“OW will be a major element in creating the new clean, sustainable, and prosperous economy that Americans are demanding and OW North America can help to build that future” said OW CEO Spyros Martinis, adding, “OW North America from Day One is in the business of developing and delivering real offshore wind projects.”

Regulators around the world, including U.S. authorities, have approved the merger of EDPR and ENGIE’s offshore wind businesses allowing OW to begin life with 5.5 GW of committed offshore assets starting with a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under development, with the target of reaching 5 to 7 GW of projects in operation or under construction and 5 to 10 GW under advanced development by the middle of this decade.

OW North America starts its life in a strong position in the highly attractive US renewable energy market on both the East and West Coasts.

OW North America is a 50% owner of Mayflower Wind, a company which was successful in a state-sponsored competitive auction which resulted in contracts to deliver 804 Megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy to the Massachusetts utilities and their customers by the middle of this decade.

Mayflower Wind’s federal lease area, awarded in December 2018, has the potential to reach over 1600 MW. In addition, OW North America is a partner in the Redwood Coast floating offshore wind project, building on its experience developing floating projects in Europe, in particular Windfloat Atlantic – a fully operational floating offshore wind farm that is supplying clean affordable energy to the electricity customers of Portugal. OW will fill EDPR’s role in the Redwood Coast public-private consortium committed to developing an offshore wind project utilizing floating platform technology off the coast of Humboldt County in Northern California. The project’s customers will include consortium member Redwood Coast Energy Authority, a community choice aggregator established by local governments in Humboldt County.