Q&A interview: Northland Power's Nigel Slater

In an exclusive interview with A Word About Wind, Nigel Slater, managing director, development - Europe at Toronto-headquartered Northland Power, says the acquisition of the company’s first land-based renewables project in Europe, as well as the upcoming German power auctions, are among the main priorities this year.

Slater, who is ranked in our new European Power List 2021, also highlights the enormous potential for growth in the offshore wind sector, particularly in Asia.

Northland Power recently acquired a stake in the Baltic Power offshore wind project in Poland, what was the thinking behind that?

Poland is a new, emerging market and this attracted us. It has good macroeconomic fundamentals – increasing demand for power and the rate of economic growth. There is also cross-party support for offshore wind – Polish energy policy has pivoted quite substantially towards renewable generation.

The market is increasingly competitive. What has typically happened in Poland is that domestic developers have started projects and then look for a foreign investor with the experience to help deliver them. That is what we are doing with PKN Orlen.

Why does Northland want to expand in Europe?

Europe, along with Asia, is one of the two biggest focusses for offshore wind, though we also have an investment in an offshore wind project in Canada. While there is more growth potential in Asia than other continents, Europe is well poised for additional growth. You’re seeing pronouncements from governments, and from Brussels, about decarbonization and green recovery. These are spurring existing markets in Europe, and new emerging markets, to increase offshore wind goals and targets.

We've got assets in Germany and we’ll look there again. The German auction starts again in September. We have step-in rights and we expect to use those. We look at other markets, but we’re selective about which we develop in and which auctions we participate in. We like auction designs where you can develop your own projects and the classic model for that is the UK-style CFD structure.

The company has a major focus on offshore wind - it plans to invest $15-20 billion in new renewable projects, anchored by offshore wind, over the next five years – why?

If you get a gigawatt of offshore wind, that’s earnings you can create in the future - it would take more human resources and more time to generate that volume of opportunity from the land base. We remain committed to other renewable energies - we have solar sites in Canada and we’re wrapping up construction of a solar project in Mexico.

We want deals that make sense – sometimes it’s solar, sometimes onshore. We hope to acquire the first set of land-based development projects in Europe later this year. But offshore is a priority.

We’ll also look at energy storage – possibly as a hybrid combination with some form of generation – we’ll also look at hydrogen.