Macquarie Invests $1.7B in DESRI, Sany Plans European Factory

Macquarie Asset Management invest $1. 7 billion in D. E. Shaw
Renewable Investments, which operates over 6 gigawatts. Chinese
wind turbine manufacturer Sany is preparing to establish a
production facility in Europe by 2026. GCM Grosvenor has acquired a
25% stake in the 845 megawatt Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon.
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www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen
Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech,
and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro,
and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech.
Joel Saxum and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to
you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence
that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at
intelstor. com. Macquarie Asset Management has agreed to acquire a
substantial minority stake in D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments,
also known as DESRE. This investment, valued up to 1. 7 billion U.
S. dollars, aims to bolster Desiree's growth and enhance its market
position. Desiree, a leading renewable energy company, currently
operates a platform with over 6 gigawatts of gross capacity in
projects either operational or under construction. Phill, when you
start tossing around the B for billion number in financial
exchanges, there's a massive movement of cash in renewables. Philip
Totaro: Well, and this follows on the theme that we've been talking
about over the past, whatever, two, three months about asset
management firms and financial investors kind of pouring money into
renewable energy asset owners. Obviously, Macquarie's got a
substantial background throughout their investments in Australia,
in Europe throughout the rest of the world. Interestingly enough,
the U. S. is a market where they've been kind of under penetrated.
So, they took their time with evaluating who to partner up with and
the fact they picked D. E. Shaw is, is kind of fascinating. You
Shaw's got a, a fine track record with the, the performance of
their assets, according to our data. And most of their projects are
quite profitable. So it's it's a good way for Macquarie to get
their, their foot in the door. Joel Saxum: De Shaw on the renewable
side, right? De Shaw is a very large company, $60 billion in assets
and committed capital with a smaller portion of that being the
renewables arm. But it's, it's an odd thing because in the, in the
operational circles that we talk to a lot in the wind energy
industry in the United States, we don't hear de Shah's name too
much. But of course you look at this six gigawatts of power moving
and grooving here. One thing that's interesting to me, of course,
is the stuff that we follow on the the Uptime podcast here is
Macquarie Asset Management recently acquired Onyx Insight. So you
could see some Onyx Insight kit being deployed on these DE Shaw
renewables Allen Hall: assets shortly. Chinese wind turbine
manufacturer Sany is preparing to establish a production facility
in Europe by 2026. The company is in advanced talks with potential
European customers and has narrowed down potential production
locations to three, with Germany and Spain among the options. The
company expects to finalize its first European order by the end of
this year, initially shipping turbines from China while offering
services through partners in Europe. And it's service center in
Germany, China, moving into the European marketplace with a factory
is going to upset the balance of powers in the wind industry, Phil.
Philip Totaro: Yeah, this is interesting because it's another
Chinese company trying to set up shop in Europe. But one that
already has an R and D presence down in Spain for those that don't
know and actually Saini Heavy Industries actually has.
Manufacturing facilities and space available in Germany already,
which is why they're likely to locate their manufacturing in one of
those two countries. This has been kind of the talk of the town
lately, particularly the wind energy Hamburg event this week. The,
the debate rages on about whether or not it's a good thing to have
the, the Chinese OEMs setting up shop in Europe but I liken this
to, Vestas coming over to the U. S. and getting, tax credits and,
and rebates for being able to create jobs and create tax revenue
now if you're going to get into the debate about Well, it's a
little different because a chinese owned company is not just a
chinese owned company It's also potentially state owned and
military owned partially military owned that's a bit of a different
conversation still to be addressed by the european commission, but
As far as, having another manufacturer in the market, probably a
good thing to be able to keep price pressure on the Western guys
and, it does offer an opportunity for some of the people who have
recently been laid off or otherwise let go from some of the
mainstream Western OEMs. Or major supply chain companies a chance
to, to get back in the door with with a Chinese company who's,
who's looking to staff up. Joel Saxum: So, for those of you think
that this is a, just a Chinese play coming into the, to Europe,
into the Western market, something to remember here is Sany
Renewable Energy's Managing Director for Europe Paulo Fernandes
Sores. He is ex Siemens Kamesa. He ran the C, he was the CEO of
Siemens Kamesa onshore business in Asia Pacific. So this isn't a,
there, there is some market presence and some continuity of people
that know the market and that have been in that position before to
make moves in Europe within this group and all of this being
released at Hamburg this week in Germany, the biggest onshore and
offshore wind show. So, Saini looking to make some moves. Allen
Hall: Lastly, U S alternative asset manager, GCM Grosvenor. has
acquired a 25 percent stake in the 845 megawatt Shepherds Flat Wind
Farm in Oregon. The stake was purchased from a group led by
Brookfield Asset Management. Shepherds Flat, titled as the largest
repowered wind farm in North America, boasts 338 turbines producing
over 2, 000 gigawatt hours of clean electricity annually. So,
there's a lot of transactions being conducted currently for farms
that are about to be repowered. To get the new PPA and then the tax
credits. Why would you purchase a win from that has just been
repowered? Philip Totaro: It's well, there's two reasons why I
think this transaction has taken place. Now, first of all GCM
Grosvenor is an asset manager that financial asset manager that has
only recently been kind of poking around the renewables markets.
They do have similar to other, asset financial asset firms. They do
have kind of the deep pockets, but they don't have the experience.
And so they wanted to be able to partner up with somebody like
Brookfield, for instance, in this case, that had the requisite
experience. and it could offer them an opportunity to get into
something at scale. Why they wanted to get in, after the thing's
already been repowered is they're still reaping the benefits it was
repowered. So Brookfield took over this asset in 2021. It was
originally built in 2012 and commissioned with as you mentioned a
lot through 338 GE 2. 5s. And since they've repowered it they not
only requalified the project for another 10 years of the production
tax credit, the, the project is actually been repowered since 2022.
So it's, they're still able to take advantage of another eight
years worth of asset ownership before, I mean, with these, with
these guys, they could either flip their, their 25 percent to
somebody else. They could increase it. They could decrease it.
They're just looking to get into something profitable. Kind of
figure out how it all works, and if it's something that they like
and want to stay invested in, they're gonna do that. If something
else comes along that's more attractive, they're a little fickle
sometimes with with their investments and their cash. But they
definitely want to get involved in something that they think is
gonna be, Profitable for them. Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's another one
of the large capital houses, just deploying some capital, trying to
get into renewables like you're seeing the black rocks and although
it's in the infrastructure world doing, but smart move, right?
Brookfield renewables established player, massive portfolio to
learn from lots of good engineers over there. They know how to run
assets and make money with them. So if you're going to, Take a
minority stake in a wind farm, great one to hop on board with,
especially a big one like this. Even though in Oregon it is that is
a tough operating environment for wind turbines with intermittent
icing issues and some other things. They don't experience lightning
like we do in the Midwestern or the middle part of the country, but
icing issues and other things are a bit of a task up there. But
kudos to them for hopping in the market.