Latest news with #Neoen
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Green Investors Are Finding Bargains in Trump's Big Oil Era
(Bloomberg) -- Private infrastructure investors are snatching up green bargains in what's emerged as a buyer's market for wind, solar and battery projects. New York Subway Ditches MetroCard After 32 Years for Tap-And-Go LA Faces $1 Billion Budget Hole, Warns of Thousands of Layoffs Despite Cost-Cutting Moves, Trump Plans to Remake DC in His Style Amtrak CEO Departs Amid Threats of a Transit Funding Pullback NYC Plans for Flood Protection Without Federal Funds The moves follow a a slump in clean-energy stocks, as US President Donald Trump's call for more fossil-fuel power generation has sent a chill through the sector and boosted Big Oil's plans to pivot back to core business. 'We think the fundamentals of renewable power are as strong as they've ever been,' said Ignacio Paz-Ares, managing partner and deputy chief investment officer in the renewable power and transition group at Brookfield Asset Management. 'Whenever we see a dislocation between what the market noise is and the fundamentals, that creates a very good opportunity for us to make acquisitions at very attractive entry prices.' Brookfield is among the asset managers betting that rising energy consumption and competitive economics of renewables will continue to drive demand for the sector. In recent months Brookfield has done a series of big green deals, including a $1.7 billion transaction to buy an onshore renewables business from National Grid Plc, a £1.75 billion ($2.3 billion) stake purchase in UK offshore wind farms from Orsted A/S and a €6.1 billion ($6.6 billion) takeover of French developer Neoen SA, which owns solar, wind and energy storage assets. Paz-Ares said the firm is looking to buy more as it continues to raise money for its second energy transition fund. The acquisition of Neoen was particularly good timing for Brookfield. The alternative asset manager and co-investors first bought a controlling stake in December for €39.85 a share, a third lower than Neoen's peak in early 2021. With all of these deals, Brookfield took assets from the public market into the private one. They highlight an opportune moment for investors with money to spend on the sector. A stock market bubble for all things green peaked in early 2021 and has now left valuations of publicly-traded clean energy companies around the lowest level in about five years. 'Stock prices haven't done well over last few years, but in the real economy clean is booming,' said Aniket Shah, head of sustainability and transition strategy at Jefferies. 'When sentiment around something is low, it's a good time to be a buyer.' Vincent Policard, co-head of European infrastructure at KKR & Co., which is looking to raise up to $7 billion for its first Global Climate fund, said the geopolitical factors putting pressure on valuations is 'creating a compelling opportunity for long-term investors like us to lean in and support the energy transition.' Hedge fund manager Trium Capital said earlier this month the broad retreat by oil majors from renewables projects has left the market for low-carbon investments looking less crowded and more attractive. This already appears to be playing out in offshore wind off the coast of the UK, where BP Plc had made some of its hugest bets a few years ago, driving up prices for projects. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which closed its largest-ever renewables fund with €12 billion this month, said it's now starting to re-enter those waters. 'We stayed out of the big blood bloodbath in the North Sea,' said Jakob Baruel Poulsen, managing partner and co-founder at CIP, but the firm recently bought a 480-megawatt Morecambe project off the western coast of the UK in the Irish Sea at 'very attractive terms.' CIP said last month it was acquiring full control from its current owners Cobra and Flotation Energy. A press release on the announcement said Flotation Energy will remain involved after the transaction as a development partner to the project. Renewables project owners in Europe are also benefitting from power prices that are still at historically high levels after natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe diminished in recent years. 'Power prices are incredibly good at the moment,' Baruel Poulsen said. 'In Europe, long-term power prices are at least twice as high' as they were before the war in Ukraine, he said. Beyond Europe, Baruel Poulsen said the new fund will invest in the US and Australia, markets where onshore renewables and batteries are set to play an increasing role in meeting demand in the power system. Wind and solar are the fastest growing sources of electricity worldwide — at a time when energy consumption is set to soar with new demand sources such as data centers. In the US, annual wind farm additions are expected to increase by some 40% this year compared to 2024, according to BloombergNEF, while solar will see a 10% rise to a record 54.4 gigawatts of new capacity added. Despite the challenging political situation in the US, 'we continue to be bullish on the energy transition,' Bianca Ziccarelli, managing director of Canada Pension Plan Investments, said on a panel at the Infrastructure Investor Global Summit in Berlin on Thursday. 'We have been quite busy and we continue to find good opportunities in renewables.' --With assistance from Allison McNeely and Natasha White. (Updates with hedge fund comment in tenth paragraph and deal details further down.) A New 'China Shock' Is Destroying Jobs Around the World Tesla's Gamble on MAGA Customers Won't Work How TD Became America's Most Convenient Bank for Money Launderers One Man's Crypto Windfall Is Funding a $1 Billion Space Station Dream The Real Reason Trump Is Pushing 'Buy American' ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
POWER Digest (March 2025)
Major Solar-Plus-Storage Project Announced in Middle East. A solar-plus-storage project that could provide gigawatts of generation capacity was unveiled in January during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW). Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, minister of industry and advanced technology for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and chairman of state-owned renewables company Masdar, announced plans for the renewable energy power station plant at the opening ceremony of ADSW. The project would include 5.2 GW of solar photovoltaic generation with 19 GWh of battery energy storage capacity, which Al Jaber said would enable the plant to provide as much as 1 GW of baseload power on a continuous basis. The project will be based in Abu Dhabi, though the specific location was not announced. The installation will be delivered by Masdar and the state electricity and water procurement and supply entity Emirates Water & Electricity Co. with partners. Wärtsilä Engines Will Power Kazakhstan Power Plant. Technology group Wärtsilä said it will supply the engineered equipment for a new 120-MW power plant under construction in Kazakhstan. The order announced in January was placed by Kazakhstan Caspian Offshore Industries (KCOI) and booked by Wärtsilä in late 2024. The order includes six Wärtsilä 46TS-SG gas-fueled large bore engines, as well as mechanical and electrical auxiliary equipment. KCOI is the main contractor for the development of a major hybrid power project in the Mangystau region, which in addition to the engine power plant will include a 77-MW wind power plant and a 50-MW solar power plant. The project once commissioned will supply electricity to oil and gas exploration facilities in the region. Mirko Borghesi, CEO of KCOI, said it will be the first hybrid project of its type to be implemented in Kazakhstan. Delivery of the Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled by the end of this year, and the project is expected to be fully operational by the middle of next year. BESS Project Under Construction in Germany. France-headquartered Neoen, an independent power producer (IPP), in January said the company has started construction work on a 45-MW/90-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The installation is scheduled to enter commercial operation next year. The Arneburg Battery project is the first BESS installation for Neoen in Germany. The IPP will own 100% of the Arneburg Battery, and will also operate the project. Arneburg will participate in both intraday power trading and balancing services. Neoen said it has a 'robust' pipeline of projects in Germany, with more than 1 GW of generation capacity at various stages of development. The company, which is set to be acquired by infrastructure investor Brookfield, has a global generation portfolio in operation or under construction of about 2.3 GW, with 5.3 GWh of energy storage. Neoen said it also is building the 93.9-MW Isbillen Power Reserve BESS project in Sweden, and the 56.4-MW BESS Yllikkälä Power Reserve Two project in Finland. Major Pumped Storage Project Comes Online in China. Chinese officials in January said the Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station began commercial operation on Dec. 31, 2024. Officials said it is the largest pumped storage facility in the world and includes 12 reversible pump-turbine units, each with a capacity of 300 MW, including two variable-speed units, bringing the total installed capacity to 3.6 GW. It is designed to generate 6.61 TWh annually while consuming 8.71 TWh of electricity for pumping. It is connected to the North China power grid via four 500-kV transmission lines. The facility is located in Fengning County, Hebei Province, near Beijing and Tianjin, and in proximity to the 10-GW wind and solar power complex in Zhangjiakou. The storage project was developed by State Grid Xinyuan Group Co., a subsidiary of the State Grid Corp. of China. Officials said construction of the project took more than 11 years after starting in May 2013, and represents an investment of about $2.6 billion. Valmet Modernizing Heating Plant in Czech Republic. Valmet in late January said the company will support the modernization of ŠKO-ENERGO's heating plant in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. The project includes converting two existing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers from coal to biomass and delivering a new bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler. The order also includes a flue gas cleaning system for the new boiler and modifications to the flue gas cleaning systems of the upgraded boilers. Valmet said that the new BFB boiler will compensate for the reduced capacity from the converted CFB boilers. The new boiler will work alongside the retrofitted equipment. Officials said the CFB boilers will burn a biomass mix of wood chips and agro-biomass pellets. The Mladá Boleslav plant supplies power to Škoda Auto's manufacturing facilities, and provides heat for the town. ŠKO-ENERGO called the project a significant milestone in the company's efforts toward decarbonization. The project is expected to be completed by year-end 2027, with work done consecutively across a two-year time frame to ensure that the heat and power supply to the car manufacturing facility can continue without interruption. The new Valmet BFB will produce steam at a rate of 80 tons per hour using wood chips as fuel. The rebuilt CFBs, which delivered 140 tons of steam per hour when burning coal, will have a new capacity of 100 tons of steam per hour burning wood chips and biomass pellets. —Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla chooses Aussie coal town for battery repair site
Tesla has chosen an Australian coal town to build a battery service, repair and renewal facility for its vehicle, home-sized and electricity grid-scale battery products. The US company's re-manufacturing facility in Collie, Western Australia's southwest, will be one of the largest in the nation and could eventually service the Asia-Pacific region. "We have one of the world's biggest stand-alone electricity grids in the southwest ... we have the biggest grid-scale batteries in Australia, and some of the biggest on the planet being hooked up to that grid," Energy Minister Reece Whitby said on Friday. "It makes sense that Tesla is here." The facility is being built at the site of Neoen's Collie Battery. Powered by 560 Tesla Megapacks, it will be the nation's largest grid-scale battery when completed. The Tesla service facility is expected to become operational by 2026. It will initially service Tesla's grid-scale Megapack batteries and other Tesla products installed in WA. Residential Powerwall batteries and electric vehicle charging equipment will also be serviced at the site once further development is completed. Tesla Regional Director of Energy Josef Tadich said the facility would enable the company to repair and perform maintenance on its utility-scale and residential batteries locally. "Providing faster support for local customers while reducing logistical costs and emissions," he said. Tesla Energy is a major supplier of household battery storage in Australia, revealing it had sold more than 33,000 Powerwall batteries in the country in 2022. Tesla also installed what was then the largest lithium-ion battery in the world at Hornsdale in South Australia in 2017, though the battery received a capacity boost from Neoen in 2019. A Memorandum of Understanding to develop the project was signed in December between Premier Roger Cook and Tesla Motors Australia. Collie's coal mines and power stations have powered WA for more than 100 years to become the nation's economic engine room About 200km south of Perth, it's home to about 7500 people and the site of a massive state government-supported pivot away from the coal industry.
