Danish Pensioners Support Offshore Wind Power!

Perhaps that’s a slightly misleading headline, but the fact is a Danish pension company (responsible for taking and investing pension payments from those in employment to preserve and nurture the funds so as to pay pensions when the workers reach retirement age) has promised to invest $200 million in Cape Wind, the United States’ offshore wind complex at Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts. The only proviso is that the project’s financing should be wrapped up by the end of the year.

The Danish pension company, Pension Danmark, has financed a number of offshore wind farms in Europe, including the Danish Anholt Wind Farm, an offshore wind farm near Anholt Island.  Last month Anholt Wind Farm became Denmark’s largest wind farm when 59 turbines were grid-connected, totalling 212MW.On 19 May 2013, the installation vessel Sea Power erected the last of the 111 turbines.

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rogers said:

“We are thrilled to have PensionDanmark involved because they are the investors that understand offshore wind the best. To us, this is a sign of confidence from the investors.”

Cape Wind was arguably the most controversial of all the United States’ offshore wind farms and faced stiff opposition from those who were unhappy that the turbines would be visible from the shore of Cape Cod looking out to Nantucket Sound. However, as you can see in the photo below, not all protesters were against the development!

greenpeace activists cruise al 300x2001 Danish Pensioners Support Offshore Wind Power!

PensionDanmark’s contribution will be a great boost to Cape Wind and be benefiting from a federal government tax credit for renewable energy projects. It also demonstrates that despite fears about the wind industry being buffeted by ill winds, a major pension firm considers that investment in wind energy is a sound investment.

PensionDanmark is the second major investor Cape Wind has secured. In March, the developer secured debt capital from the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UJF; the actual amount invested is not known.

This is not PensionDanmark’s first American investment; it has also helped fund onshore wind farms in Texas and Pennsylvania, all demonstrating that the wind energy business in the United States is healthy.  It is likely that there will be further financing for additional offshore wind farms along the New England coast. New England is quite similar to North-West Europe, where offshore wind farms have taken off because both the regions are very windy but are heavily populated onshore, making the opposition that would result from onshore wind farm development being too great and not worth the fight.

While federal tax credits do play a part in attracting investors, there is no doubt that US renewables are attracting a lot of interest from overseas investors. In fact, European countries may well want to take note of what’s happening and consider their own position regarding tax breaks and financial incentives for their own wind industries.

Pension Danmark said:

“Our main objective is to invest in something with a good yield, but if we can combine our profit targets with support for institutions that bring sustainable environment, we feel it is very important to assist them.”