EDP Renewables will invest this year 600 million euros in the United States, the installation of over 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity production capacity in parks in California, Kansas and Oklahoma, said the CEO of the company, John Manso Neto.
The US market, which will continue to be the main growth engine for the company in the coming years, generated last year a profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 479 million dollars. A number 11.5 times the income generated in 2007, when the EDP has entered the market, and that marks a successful path, said yesterday the president of EDP, Antonio Mexia, in a meeting with Portuguese journalists in Houston.
“If we had not come to the United States probably would not have done the IPO [dispersion of capital on the stock exchange] of Renewable if we had not come to the United States would not increase capacity,” Mexia said at a meeting in headquarters of EDP Renewables North America (EDPRNA). Today the company has 37 parks in the United States, including a solar, with an installed capacity of 3.9 GW and other 399 MW under construction, standing out as the third market of the company.
United States They are central to the strategy of EDP Renováveis and so should continue in the near future. While in Europe (particularly in Spain), have been changing the renewable incentive policies in the United States the legislation has allowed the company to receive tax credits to production and investment in new projects (in practice allows for example that part of the investments, which can reach 30%, is financed by the Government repayable without go to the consumer rate). And even though these instruments are likely to end in 2017, as is expected, there is new legislation that will “take a very strong growth dynamics renewable” in the North American market, believes the CEO of EDP Renováveis, Joao Manso Neto.
In the pipeline are a number of measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels), and that will force the closure of several coal plants nationwide. The various States see will be forced to install new cleaner production capacity to meet environmental goals. “Here, renewable and [ shale ] gas will play a key role,” said the Executive Director of the EDPRNA, Gabriel Alonso. And ensuring that technological advances have allowed the wind is increasingly competitive with the shale gas in sites with more wind, the leaders of the EDP R remembered that the company still has one more advantage over the gas. While the price of this energy source will always be correlated with the oil, the fixed price of wind (in celebration of the long-term contracts) guarantees market regulators seeking stability when defining contracts and remuneration.
This will force the company to make choices and outline a strategy, recognized Manso Neto: “There is a business opportunity and we have to see how we fund, and is not debt.” The CEO of EDP Renováveis said that “the ability to fire [Renewables] is great” and noted that the company managed to generate from its operations about 400 million euros cash and that this value should go close to 600 million in 2017. Between this and the ongoing asset rotation plan (which involves the sale of minority stakes in wind farms, with which the company expects to achieve approximately EUR 700 million), “the ability Renewable of the self-financing is no longer a thing, “says the manager.
In the US market, where the company has most of its business secured by so-called PPA, sales contracts over energy term (meaning that only a small part of the production is exposed to the wholesale electricity market), growth continues to be ensured in this way. The company “is a leader in signing new PPA” having raised last 1.4 GW with contracts for projects to come on stream this year and the next two in California, Texas, New York, Maine, Oklahoma and Kansas.
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