On February 7 WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson delivered a keynote address at Dentons European Renewables Workshop 2018 in Frankfurt am Main. The workshop discussed the drivers and constraints for investing in renewable energy projects in Europe.
Dickson told attendees that costs are coming down in both on- and offshore wind. “We are financing the same capacity as in previous years for much lower costs,” he said.
He compared offshore wind investments in 2015 and 2017. In 2015, investments of 2.5 GW capacity cost over €13bn – in 2017, investments for this same capacity cost only €7.5bn. This is a cost reduction of almost 60%. Offshore wind, Dickson said, is now attracting major investors, particularly in the financial sector. The financial services industry, including infrastructure funds, pension funds, asset managers and diversified financial services, owned 35% of the offshore wind capacity traded throughout 2017. This compares to only 27% in 2016.
There is now serious competition between banks to get involved in wind projects. And this is leading to much lower interest rates. This low-interest rate environment, added to the long-term nature of wind investments and the attractive risk-return profile that wind energy provides, make wind projects more attractive to other investors too. The corporate sector is getting more involved in wind project financing – whether by having a stake in a project or by buying a project’s electricity at a fixed rate through a corporate renewable power purchase agreement (PPA).
Dickson highlighted that WindEurope has already published its offshore statistics report for 2017, which explains recent investment trends in offshore wind. WindEurope will publish its annual on- and offshore statistics here on Tuesday, February 13th.
Source: WindEurope asbl/vzw, 7 February 2018
www.windeurope.org
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