Masdar Acquires Terna, Nissens Moves Production Out of EU, JSW Steel Upgrades Texas Facility

Masdar acquires Greece's Terna Energy for 2.4 billion euros, eyeing
further European renewable energy investments. Nissens Cooling
Solutions relocates production from Europe to Eastern Europe and
China due to economic pressures, highlighting EU industry
challenges. JSW Steel USA invests $110 million in Texas facilities
to support U.S. offshore wind development, leveraging Inflation
Reduction Act incentives. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our
weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is
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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 Intel store, Phil Totaro.
And the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, 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. Masdar has announced plans to acquire Greece's Tera
Energy. The deal, valued at 2. 4 billion euros, marks the largest
energy transaction on the Athens Stock Exchange. Master will
initially acquire 67 percent of Terna Energy shares with the
intention to reach 100 percent ownership through a subsequent all
cash tender offer. This acquisition is expected to significantly
boost Greece's renewable energy capacity and contribute to the EU's
net zero carbon footprint. By 2050 target. All right, Phil.
Masdar's back at it again. Philip Totaro: Well, and this starts off
a campaign of theirs to invest in properties in Europe. Terna
Energy's got wind a little bit of solar, a little bit of hydro, and
a little bit of biomass. It's about 1. 2 gigawatts worth of wind at
this point, but a six gigawatt renewables portfolio that they
actually want to install. So this is going to provide them with,
the capital that they need to be able to pursue that. But Mazda
looks like they're not done. They've come out in the financial
times and publicly stated that they're looking for other investment
vehicles in Europe. And it sounds like there are some in. Germany
and possibly Finland, Sweden maybe Holland as well, that, that they
could they could gobble up here as, as they look to expand. Allen
Hall: Danish wind supplier Nissens Cooling Solutions has decided to
move all its production abroad to reduce costs. The company, which
produces cooling solutions for a major European wind turbine
manufacturers, will relocate its production to existing facilities
in Slovakia. the Czech Republic and China throughout 2024. The
decision comes in response to difficult market conditions,
including geopolitical tensions affecting order timing and supply
chains, as well as fluctuating material and energy costs. Phil,
inflation is a big deal in Europe still, it is still causing major
upset in the supply chain. We've seen a couple of other companies
move out of essentially Europe into Eastern Europe and into China
because of similar issues. This is just continuing for months now.
Is Nissens still on the leading edge of this movement, or are there
more to come behind them? Philip Totaro: It's entirely possible
there's more to come, because, as you mentioned, inflation is part
of it. It's really the lack of support that the industry's been
given by The EU government and then the individual countries
themselves, Denmark can't, step in and save every single company
just like we see with Spain not being able to step in really and do
anything for Siemens Gamesa either. So this is a trend that is
likely to continue happening as companies look to reduce their
overhead and labor costs. That's really the only reason you move to
Eastern Europe and China especially. And it's, it's a pity because
the, this has been talked about as an issue for a long time. And it
feels like rather than addressing the substantive issue, the
European Commission is trying to focus on these things in their,
their, EU Green Deal that don't have anything to do with addressing
the, the financial viability of their domestic companies. It's all
about, let's keep Chinese companies out of Europe. And, and that's
not going to really solve the problem for profitability for These
companies like Nissens that are going to continue to facing profit
challenges where they've got high operating costs under the EU
umbrella. Joel Saxum: This is an interesting one as well, because
this is what the EU has been like what they put forth for the EU
wind power package back in October of 2023. Those two initiatives
is the European wind power action plan and communication and
achieving their, some of the EU's wind ambitions. Transcribed One
of the goals of this is to keep as much manufacturing and control
of that manufacturing within the EU. And this week you actually see
a lot of executives over in the EU traveling for wind Europe board
meetings. And in their board meetings, this is one of the topics
that was coming up. This is what they're trying to make sure that
they're. Making as most moves on as they can. Right on the tail end
of another company, another supplier for the wind industry moving
operations. To the eastern part of Europe and to China. That's not
a good look. Allen Hall: JSW Steel USA, a subsidiary of India's JSW
Steel, has announced an investment of 110 million to upgrade its
manufacturing facilities in Baytown, Texas. The investment will
focus on steel plate mill modernization projects, aiming to
facilitate goals and expand offshore wind energy technology. To 30
gigawatts by 2030. The investment aligns with buy America
requirements and will produce steel for offshore wind towers,
platforms, and hydrocarbon pipelines. Joel, this is in your neck of
the woods, 110 million into a steel factory in Texas is a major
deal. Joel Saxum: Yeah, Baytown is one of those old school, has
been for a long time, oil and gas, chemical, industrial towns,
right? It's, Baytown is, if you're coming up from the Gulf and
you're heading up towards Houston, past Galveston and the Straits
there, Baytown is right on the water. So they have the cape of the,
one of the reasons that it's a great spot for heavy industrial is
you can offload and onload things from heavy trucks and from ships
right there. Right. So they can have little port facilities. One of
the things that's going on, like the offshore wind, yes, you have
tubular monopiles and transition pieces and stuff, but the biggest
part Piece that goes in the water in a wind farm is the offshore
substation. Offshore substation expertise, Texas. You're looking at
the Gulf coast, right? So all this, all this steel plate, this
milling machinery, everything can be, is going to bolster that
ability to use the steel for offshore wind as mills, as well as
other things. This same materials can be used in shipbuilding like
the Eco Edison that just set sail is a couple of hundred miles down
the coast from there. The substation for South Fork was built in
Texas as well. So, as this trend continues, you'll see more. It's a
good move on JSW steel. Philip Totaro: And keep in mind, this is
exactly what the IRA bill particularly the manufacturing tax
credits, was meant to inspire, is foreign companies who, this
company being JSW, being from India, would face import duties on
any steel or fabricated products that they brought into the U. S.
So, by increasing the domestic production in the United States,
they're going to be able to avail themselves of the 45 X
manufacturing tax credits. And they're going to have this domestic
content bonus for the project developers who are going to be using
these foundations and potentially again, towers, transition pieces,
anything that they're going to be capable of making at this
facility. The other thing that it does is it gives us the
opportunity to start getting more large capacity. Fabrication
equipment in the U. S. Investments like this are going to be able
to help with getting, these bigger turbines fabricated and making
us less dependent on Europe or China to import a lot of that
technology. So, this is, again, exactly what the IRA Bill was, was
meant to inspire.