Dong entry boosts US offshore
Dong Energy has entered the US offshore market by taking over development rights of a large area offshore from RES Americas.
The Danish utility, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, has agreed to take over the rights for an area of 187,523 acres, with potential for wind farms of over 1GW, off the coast of Massachusetts. RES Americas secured the right to develop the zone in an auction held by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in January.
RES paid $281,285 for rights to develop the zone, and said it would continue to work with Dong to develop the zone. The site is around 55 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.
Pattern pays $244m for NTR pair
Pattern Energy has agreed to pay $244m for two projects totalling 350MW from Irish investor NTR’s US subsidiary Wind Capital.
US developer Pattern has bought NTR's interests in the 134-turbine 200MW Post Rock project in Kansas; and the 100-turbine 150MW Lost Creek scheme in Missouri. NTR’s Wind Capital Group put the projects up for sale in November after a major restructuring at NTR.
Pattern Energy has also agreed to pay $128m for a one-third stake
in the 270MW K2 Wind in Canada from Pattern Development. It will hold a one-third stake alongside Samsung Renewable Energy and Capital Power, each of which owns one third.
Hands: Labour-SNP best for wind
Terra Firma chairman Guy Hands has backed a Labour-Scottish National Party coalition as the best UK election result for wind.
Hands founded private equity firm Terra Firma, which has invested in companies in the wind and solar sectors. He told the Financial Times he was concerned about hostility to the wind sector from the Conservatives, which he said were “ten years behind the times”.
He said a Labour-SNP coalition would be best for renewables, but added that it would also be bad for the financial community. People in the UK are set to vote in the general election on 7 May.
Japan wind could grow 13-fold by 2030
Japan could increase the amount of energy it gains from wind by 13 times by 2030, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
The report from the government department, which was compiled by Mitsubishi Research Institute, said wind farms currently generate 4.8 terawatt hours of energy a year, but this could grow to up to 64.6 terawatt hours by 2030. This represents an over 13-fold increase, and would include both onshore and offshore projects.
Overall, the report said Japan could triple the energy it gets from renewable sources by 2030, from 116 terawatt hours a year now to up to 357 terawatt hours by 2030.
GWEC: ‘Little chance of Paris boost’
There is little chance of help for wind at the United Nations climate conference this year, the Global Wind Energy Council has said.
GWEC said in the introduction to its annual ‘Global Wind Report’ there is “little evidence” that the deal set to emerge from the Paris talks will have much direct impact on the deployment of renewables such as wind, although added there is still time to change that.
However, the report also highlighted positives for wind, including growing competition on price against fossil fuels; and forecasts that over 50GW will be installed globally this year.
%MCEPASTEBIN%