What is Financing Wind Europe?

A Word About Wind is due to hold its annual Financing Wind Europe conference in London on 1st November. Editor-in-Chief Richard Heap shares all the details that you need to know. We'll be hosting the conference in association with our gold sponsors Ventient Energy, Chatham Partners, and DNV-GL, plus silver sponsors Augusta & Co and Tamarindo Communications.

What is Financing Wind Europe? Only one of the highlights of my year.

I'm being serious. It’s the chance to talk to some of the biggest names in wind and catch up with our awesome members. What could be better?

On 1st November, A Word About Wind is due to host our seventh annual Financing Wind Europe conference in London. We will bring together a host of top speakers to discuss the most important financial issues for wind investors in Europe.

This is our flagship European event. Indeed, some of our members sign up purely for the insights and business development opportunities they can get on the day.

But should you join them? That’s up to you – and, to help you decide, here are the basics that you need to know. We’ll fill in any gaps in future blog posts over the coming months, and you can always look at our dedicated conference site.

So, in journalistic style, here’s the ‘who what when where why’. Let’s get stuck in…

What?

Financing Wind Europe is a one-day conference in central London for people who want to know about the financial side of the wind sector in Europe.

The clue's in the title. But that doesn't give all the details.

The event includes panel discussions, on-stage interviews and networking in the lunch and coffee breaks. We make sure to get a balance between the conference bit and the networking bit – there’s no point getting a 250-300 good people in a room if you then don’t have time to talk to each other.

We’re still working on the agenda but we expect it to cover five core areas:

• Investment trends: Who’s investing where and why?
• Emerging markets: Where should you invest next?
• Offshore wind: What’s happening and how are investors shaping the market?
• Market risk: What are the big risks for your portfolio?
• Energy buyers: How can we support the rollout of corporate PPAs in Europe?

Take a look at the agenda by clicking here.

Who?

This event is exclusively for A Word About Wind members.

Our 2,500-strong community is made up of people who work on the financial side of the wind industry, and those in other parts of the industry who need to know what investors are thinking. We’re open to all.

In practice, that means the audience on the day will include a mix of investors – institutions, private equity, fund managers and bankers – and utilities, developers, advisers, insurers and others working on the technical side of the industry. But all with an interest in finance.

We expect to attract 250-300 people on the day. We believe it's good to be more intimate than a large trade show, because it means you can track down the people you want to speak to more easily than in vast conference hall.

We’ll also have sole use of a café if you want to follow up with a more formal meeting on the day – or simply find a quiet corner for a call or emails.

As for speakers, we’re lining up an agenda that features a host of the industry’s best-known and most interesting people. We haven’t announced our Financing Wind Europe speakers yet, but the big names are our recent conferences in London and New York have included…

• Keith Anderson, Scottish Power
• Mark Dooley, Macquarie Capital Europe
• Carol Gould, MUFG
• David Jones, ex-Allianz Capital Partners
• Raymond Wood, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Lorna Shearin, Jefferies
• Susan Nickey, Hannon Armstrong
• Steve Lockard, TPI Composites
• Alicia Barton, NYSERDA
• Declan Flanagan, Lincoln Clean Energy
• Mortimer Menzel, Augusta & Co.
• Juliet Davenport, Good Energy

You get the point. We’ll announce our speakers later this summer, so watch out.

When?

On 1st November in London.

We opened registration at last year’s event on 8am, kicked off at around 9.15am, finished our last discussion at 2.30pm, and finished at 4pm. We’ll go into this in more detail at our agenda.

And don’t worry, there's plenty of time for networking in the breaks and at lunch.

Where?

The Crystal, 1 Siemens Brothers Way, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1GB

This is one of the world’s most sustainable buildings and events venues. It opened in 2012 as part of a sustainable cities initiative by Siemens. Check it out here: https://www.thecrystal.org/

Why?

The easiest question of the lot.

We believe that the wind industry can make an important contribution to developing a cleaner and fairer world, for current and future generations.

That can only happen if businesses can make smart investment decisions – and that’s where we come in. We share up-to-date market intelligence in three ways:

Email intelligence briefings:

We share three global email intelligence briefings by email each week. These include the most important news stories and a piece of market analysis, so we can give our members a quick and regular rundown on the financial side of the market.

Special reports:

Our programme of special reports enables us to go into more depth on our five key areas. In addition, our flagship Top 100 Power People and North American Power List tell our members who really holds power in this sector – and who they need to know.

Face-to-face events:

Our conferences and other regular networking events enable members to hear from some of the wind industry’s most influential people; and develop new business opportunities with each other. It may be impossible to escape social media, but we believe that wind is still a people industry and best done face-to-face.

By helping wind professionals to make smart decisions, we can make a real difference to the futures of the planet and the people to live on it.

To find out more about Financing Wind Europe, check out www.financingwind.com – and, if you think A Word About Wind can help you, get in touch. We’d love to help.