North America

US citizens are due to vote in the presidential election on 3rd November. For the renewables industry, the choice couldn’t be starker.

On September 2nd and 3rd – for the very first time – we’ll be broadcasting Financing Wind North America 2020 live from our own purpose-built studio.

On 10th March, shareholders of US renewables developer Pattern Energy Group are set to vote on whether to accept the planned $6.1bn buyout by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board that was agreed in November.

On Tuesday, we heard from Vineyard Wind, the 50:50 joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners that is working on the 800MW Vineyard Wind project in the waters off Massachusetts.

New wind power infrastructure will see a near-record year of growth in 2020, as sponsors are lining up as much as 14GW of new projects to start operation ahead of the end-of-year deadline to qualify for the full federal PTC.

Last week, we published our North American Power List, which includes a top 100 list of the most influential people in the wind industry in North America.

Tomorrow, we are due to publish our 2020 North American Power List.

While a number of actions of the Trump administration have had a direct impact on renewables – most notably the 30% tariff imposed on imported solar panels in 2017 – most of the actions have been directed at making it tougher for renewables to compete against fossil fuels.

The five-year extension of a key production tax credit in President Obama’s second term took the US wind industry by surprise. Never before had firms enjoyed such long-term clarity when making their investment decisions.

The team at Greentech Capital Advisors shares key views on the future of the US wind market as it transitions through the Production Tax Credit (PTC) ramp-down phase. Greentech will be sponsoring our Financing Wind North America conference on May 12th-14th 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts.

This week, Italian utility Enel announced that its US subsidiary Enel Green Power North America has agreed to buy independent developer Tradewind Energy.

Anders Runevad last week announced his decision to leave as chief executive of the world’s leading wind turbine maker, which he joined in 2013.