Vineyard Wind Setback, Huge Indian Renewables Investment

Connecticut and Massachusetts have backed out of their portions of
the Vineyard Wind 2 offshore project, Avaada Group is investing
$12B in renewables for Rajasthan by 2030, and Enersense is selling
its onshore wind and solar project development business to Fortum.
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Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news, lightning fast. Your
hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro discuss the latest
deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind
power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market
intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen
Hall: There's been a significant setback for offshore wind
development from Vineyard Offshore as they announced the withdrawal
of its 800 megawatt portion of the Vineyard Wind 2 project from
Massachusetts contract negotiations and that decision came after
Connecticut opted not to purchase its planned 400 megawatt share of
the project. This development impacts Massachusetts ambitious
offshore wind goals, where despite earlier procurement of 3200
megawatts of capacity, only Vineyard Wind 1 remains active in the
state's pipeline. And Phil, this is due to the combination of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island working together to
draw from some of these offshore projects. But now, Connecticut is
full stop, not going to be involved in offshore wind, they said,
for at least a couple of years. Phil Totaro: Yeah, not that
Connecticut has always been Wind Energy's biggest well, biggest
fan, pardon the pun. Connecticut has, is basically saying that
they're pulling out of this procurement because offshore wind is
just too expensive, and that's entirely true. . Given what the
industry has to price the PPA at to be able to pay for the project,
given the the cost of money and the cost of equipment these days.
So I can see why they did it, but it does kind of screw Rhode
Island and Massachusetts a little bit because, they were counting
on that offtake. So the question then becomes, does Massachusetts
unilaterally go and sign an agreement 2 at some point? Is that even
something that's going to be able to move forward, before January
20th, where presumably we're not going to get, four years worth of
BOEM approvals on offshore wind farms? So there's a lot of
uncertainty and unfortunately chaos caused by, Connecticut's
decision here and, and certainly unfortunate for, for vineyard
offshore wind. Joel Saxum: I think one thing to think about here is
that like you said, Phil, that there's a looming deadline that
might close the door on some of these wind things or not, not slam
the door, but close it a little bit more this offshore wind program
that we have going on the East Coast for no matter what state
you're in. And, and the way I'm looking at some of this is, yes,
the PPAs are expensive. I see that. Tech, the technology is
expensive. I see that the financing is, has been a bit difficult.
It should be hopefully getting easier to see that. However, If your
goal is to have renewable energies and you're in the northeast part
of the United States, you don't have a whole lot of options. Your
options basically are offshore wind and something else that someone
dreams up for something because that's it. So if you have renewable
energy goals and you're those states, rather than canceling things
or doing things of this sort, I would just love to see more people
at the at the table having transparent conversations. Allen Hall:
India's renewable energy sector is receiving a massive boost as
Avaada Group commits to invest 12 billion U. S. dollars in
Rajasthan by 2030. The ambitious plan aims to transform the
northwestern state into a global renewable energy center. Energy
powerhouse. Now the investment will fund several initiatives
including a 1. 2 gigawatt pump storage project, green hydrogen and
ammonia facilities and utility scale solar and wind power sites
across four cities. Now Phil, the development of renewable energy
in India is growing at a massive pace but also some old technology,
coal factories, gas burning technology still exists there. Where is
the future for India? Phil Totaro: They're actually making a fairly
rapid transition to wind and solar that has been accelerating over
the past few years and Avada group has a plan to get 30 gigawatts
by 2030 just by themselves as a company. That's a, a lot of like
countries or maybe states might have that kind of a target
elsewhere in the world, but this is just one company saying, we're
gonna get to 30 gigawatts by 2030 and, and in this case spend, 12
billion plus , to be able to get there, obviously the 12 billion
isn't gonna pay for the whole thing, just to be clear. It's, it's
one tranche of money that they're setting aside for for this, but
they already have a portfolio of something around four gigawatts
worth of wind and solar and a little, a tiny bit of battery
storage. But it's, it's going to be a tremendous amount of growth
in India that has been talked about for more than a decade and is
finally, finally coming to fruition with investments like this.
Joel Saxum: Allen and I kind of live this story every day. We're
talking with a lot of wind operators in India, and you just see
growth, growth, growth, new turbines, new turbines, new turbines
left and right. To add to that, one of the lar or the largest
renewable energy park in the world is going to be in the north of
India. West corner of India as well. It's called the Kavda
Renewable Energy Park. And that thing's going to be 30 gigawatts
just in itself. Now that's solar and wind combined of course. But
that's, that's planned. So the plans are there. The, the money's
flowing. We're seeing development. I think it's fantastic for India
to fast forward their economy that way as well. So kudos to them.
Allen Hall: Finnish energy services provider Enersense
International is selling its onshore wind and solar project
development business to Fortum in a strategic shift. The deal
valued at 9. 5 million euros with the potential future earn out up
to 74 million euros includes a 2. 6 gigawatt onshore wind
generator. Development pipeline. Now this transaction aligned with
Intersense's June decision to abandon its zero emission energy
producer ambitions. Phil, what's behind the Intersense decision to
get out of clean energy? Phil Totaro: Well, they're not necessarily
getting out of clean energy. They're getting out of the clean
energy development project development process. And considering the
fact that they're mostly a financial investment vehicle as, as a
company that makes sense. It's however, a bit confusing. I mean, I
can see why they would partner with Fortum. It's also a bit curious
because Fortum makes somewhat dubious decisions as far as, who they
partner with and their investments and whatnot. And yet it
Intersense to be able to divest, the, the early stage, particularly
project development and portfolio and pipeline and capabilities
since it's not their core competency. It does give them the
opportunity to buy back into projects that, Fortum would build. And
then if they want to be the owner and, and hire someone on to be
the operator, then they can they can continue to do that. But I
think again, this is about alignment with their core competency. I
think that's the general sense I get from this, this deal. Joel
Saxum: Yeah, I agree with Phil. I think it's just smart business,
right? If you're good at one thing, stay being good at it. Stay
being that financial advisor or that financial services vehicle to
get things going. We see a lot of divestment in pipelines and a lot
of divestment in active assets. Doing them at certain stages just
makes sense financially. So, doing this, Enersense gets back to
their core competencies, like Phil said, and Fortum gets to,
further their goals. One of their goals is to develop at least 800
megawatts of shovel ready onshore wind and solar projects by the
end of 2026. And with this deal closing in the first quarter of
2025, it'll help them out.