EDP Renewables’ net profit down 15%

Oviedo, Spain-headquartered EDP Renewables has reported a 15% fall in its net profit for the first quarter of 2010. 

Lower wind resources in the U.S. and higher depreciations charges in line with the increase in installed capacity resulted in a net profit of €43 million, down from €50 million a year earlier.

The company’s gross profit increased by 22% to €242 million and EBITDA grew 20% to €185 million, with an EBITDA margin of 76%.

Electricity output increased by 28% to a total of 3,639 GWh in the quarter, representing a growth of 60% in the European market and 6% in the U.S. market.

Gross installed capacity rose by 1,094 MW since Q1 2009, reaching 6,259 MW at the end of March 2010. In the U.S., gross installed capacity for this period increased by 602 MW and by 492 MW in Europe.

The company shared that its project portfolio management continues to successfully control short term exposure to power market volatility. 81% of the electricity output between January and March 2010 was sold with no exposure (or limited exposure) to market volatility and the average selling price of €60/MWh remained stable.

Capex in the period reached €382 million, of which €55 million corresponds to projects in process, €316 million to projects under construction and €11 million to projects in the planning stage. By markets, the €316 million invested in projects under construction are distributed as follows: 421 MW in Iberia, 266 MW in the rest of Europe, 398 MW in the US and 70 MW in Brazil.

During the first quarter, the Crown Estate, which supervises state-owned land in the UK, granted EDPR the contract for an area in the Moray Firth (Scotland) to develop offshore wind farms with installed capacity of almost 1.3 GW.

U.S. rate of installed wind capacity takes a dive

The U.S. wind industry installed 539 MW in the first quarter of 2010, the lowest first quarter figure since 2007.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the pipeline for advanced projects in the past 18 months has slowed considerably due a lack of long-term market signals, combined with low power demand and price.

“Minimal new installations and current announcements for project delays or downgrades in 2010 are the consequences of inaction to provide a serious market signal.  With swift action today, wind project development can be nimble and ramp up quickly, creating new domestic manufacturing orders,” said Denise Bode, AWEA CEO. 

The total installed capacity in the U.S. is now over 35,600 MW. There is about 3,300 MW of capacity currently under construction, compared to over 4,000 at the beginning of 2009.

Illinois gained the most new capacity in the first quarter of 2010 with the addition of Iberdrola Renewables' 300-MW Cayuga Ridge project. The top three states are still Texas, Iowa and California. Oregon moved into the fourth place, just ahead of Washington, in fifth.

The industry installed over 10,000 MW of wind capacity in 2009. AWEA, the national trade association of America’s wind industry, reasoned that financing wind projects is an 18 month process and the struggles in 2009 to raise new capital, combined with lack of new demand from utilities, are now surfacing in the market and is reflected in project installations. 

Hence, AWEA has called on Congress to put in place a strong national renewable electricity standard (RES) as part of comprehensive climate and energy legislation to provide the hard targets needed to stabilise the industry. A national RES would send the long-term signal the industry needs to invest and grow in a steady, sustained manner, and to attract wind turbine manufacturing investment on a large scale. 

 
Google invests in two wind farms

Global search engine goliath, Google Inc., has made its first direct investment into a utility-scale renewable energy project.

The company has invested US$38.8 million into two wind farms built by NextEra Energy Resources, a unit of FPL Group Inc. The projects include 33 turbines that generate 49.5 MW in northern Burleigh County, north of Bismarck, and 80 turbines that generate 120 MW in Griggs and Steele counties in eastern North Dakota.

The move marks a departure from Google’s initial approach to renewable energy, which focused on investing in early-stage renewable energy companies such as solar thermal technology companies, BrightSource Energy and eSolar.

Google emphasised that in order to reach a clean energy future, three things are needed: effective policy, innovative technology and smart capital.

Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the company has been pushing for energy policies and has also been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies. Smart capital includes not only these early-stage company investments, but also dedicated funding for utility-scale projects.

To tackle this need, Google says it has been looking at investments in renewable energy projects, like the one it has signed now, which can accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology. This will also offer attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects, added the company.

For its part, NextEra announced that its subsidiary Peace Garden Wind Funding sold US$190 million of Class B membership interests in Peace Garden Wind that consists of 169.5 MW of wind energy projects in North Dakota. NextEra intends to use the proceeds from the sale to reimburse, in part, capital contributions made by it to develop and build the wind facilities.

 
St-Laurent Énergies consortium wins five wind projects

The St-Laurent Énergies consortium comprising EDF Energies Nouvelles, Quebec-based independent power producer, Hydromega Services, and RES Canada has wond five wind projects totaling 954 MW from Hydro-Quebec Distribution.

These five projects represent a total investment in excess of CaD$2 billion.

St-Laurent Energies submitted its bids in association with wind turbines manufacturer REpower Systems, utilising its 2 MW model. The projects will be placed into service between December 2011 and December 2015.

St-Laurent Energies will be finalising power purchase agreements with Hydro-Quebec Distribution in the coming months, each of which must be approved by the Quebec Energy Board.

The projects are located in:

• Minganie (Aguanish wind farm– 80 MW),
• Les Etchemins et Bellechasse (Massif-du-Sud wind farm – 150 MW),
• La Matapédia et La Mitis (Lac-Alfred wind farm – 300 MW), 
• Charlevoix et Le Fjord-du-Saguenay (Rivière-du-Moulin wind farm – 350 MW)
• Charlevoix-Est (Clermont wind farm – 74 MW)

At least 60% of the total investment, or more than CaD$1.2 billion, will be spent in Quebec, including the manufacture of blades, towers and power converters in the regions of Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine and the regional county (MRC) of Matane, representing a total spend of over CaD$500 million in these areas.

Rhode Island Governor supports renewable energy legislation

Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri has supported S2819, an Act relating to Public Utilities Commission – Contracting Standards for Renewable Energy.

During his recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment & Agriculture, Governor Carcieri expressed his “unqualified support” for the legislation and called for swift passage of the legislation.

The Governor stated that passage of this legislation in a timely manner is critically important to ensuring that Rhode Island has the opportunity to continue to be a leader in developing an offshore wind industry.

He mentioned that the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to construct an offshore wind farm presents significant advantages to the state in terms of attracting new jobs and investment from offshore wind turbine manufacturers and related businesses.

Key to the State’s economic development and renewable energy agenda was the proposed Block Island Demonstration Wind Project. The Governor discussed the economic benefits to the State in being the first in the nation to develop an offshore wind project.

Governor Carcieri also addressed the confusion and misunderstanding related to the long-term cost to the ratepayer, and compared that to the long term cost of price fluctuations and inflation of natural gas and oil. 

“We all understand the risk inherent in being first, which is one of the primary reasons for investing in a demonstration sized project. Accordingly, the proposed Block Island project only represents approximately 1% of the state’s power needs; a percentage that will gradually diminish over the 20-year life of the contract,” said Carcieri.

The Governor pointed to the section of S-2819 that addresses the concern over pricing by mandating an “open-book” to provide a maximum level of transparency to the Block Island project that should result in savings to our ratepayers.

He said that the power purchase price from a new contract to be negotiated between National Grid and Deepwater Wind cannot exceed the price in the original power purchase agreement, and will be adjusted downward if project costs are less than currently projected.

Vattenfall begins construction of its third U.K. farm

Swedish company, Vattenfall, has begun the construction of its Ormonde Wind Farm, its third U.K. wind project in the past 18 months.

The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is situated 10 km off Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The project had its first foundation piles installed recently.

On completion the wind farm will comprise 30 RePower 5 MW wind turbines. The construction work is due for completion during 2011 and first power is expected later that year.

The company is constructing three wind farms in the UK- the Ormonde, Thanet and Edinbane wind farms.

The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm project is helping to secure many jobs across the UK. Among the UK suppliers are Fife–based Burntisland Fabrications for its innovative steel platform and BiFab steel jackets, Harland & Wolff for the logistic and assembly services for the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm as well as local contractors, for example the Neil Martin Group, Askam Construction, Agrilek and R G Parkins of Lancaster.

Wind sector benefits from New York state’s multi-million renewables fund

The New York State Energy Research and Development  Authority (NYSERDA ) has shared the details of its US$11.3 million support for new technologies. 

In all, 25 proposals were selected from 71 proposals submitted.  The list includes five wind power projects. 

Co-funding is required of each of the participants, with specific funding for each project to be determined in the coming months through final contract negotiations with each partner. 

As part of new product development projects, AWS Truewind (Albany) is developing a Plant Analyst programme for monitoring and optimising wind plant equipment performance.

The feasibility studies category includes following:

• Aero City (Claverack, Columbia County) is working on a small-scale wind turbine speed controller that would benefit the cost-effectiveness of residential or small commercial wind machines.
• Mechanical Solutions, Inc. (Albany) is studying non-intrusive equipment health-monitoring system for wind turbine generators.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy will work to develop active vibration and flow control system using synthetic jets for wind turbine blades.
• Clarkson University (Potsdam) will work to develop a strain-monitoring tool for wind turbine generator rotors.
  
  

France to accelerate offshore wind development

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo is to announce several offshore sites in France to install wind power turbines later this month. France aims to have a total offshore wind capacity of 6,000 MW by 2020.

In spring 2009, the government had notified several regions including Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Haute-Normandie, Aquitaine and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur to establish, for each coastline, a forum for consultation and planning bringing together all stakeholders. 

The identification of technical issues, regulatory and environmental issues is now completed, and prefects were instructed to complete the consultation with stakeholders before the end of the first half of 2010.

This work will enable the government to announce in the next few weeks the selection of a dozen “areas conducive” in which offshore wind is developed.

In October 2010, the Government plans to launch its first round of tenders for the installation of 3000 MW in the areas identified as suitable. 

Projects will be selected in the third quarter of 2011 on the basis of the purchase price of electricity and the proposed period of commissioning of facilities.