January 18, 2010 - by Dallas Kachan, Cleantech Group
Company executive today welcomed investment inquiries from project developers in the U.S. and Canada.
One of the units of the Abu Dhabi government's Masdar initiative is now actively looking at wind and solar project investments in North America, according to one of its principals.
Frank Wouters, Associate Director of Masdar Power, said today that his 40 person project development team is looking to leverage the same model it's used for wind and solar investments to date in places like the U.K. and Spain, and is specifically targeting opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.
"We're not in a rush, even though we have very clear targets. We're looking for quality, not quantity," said Wouters, emphasizing his organization has a mandate to specifically expand its offshore wind holdings.
"Obviously we are looking ourselves, but we're always open to suggestions of who to talk to," he said.
Masdar owns 20 percent of the landmark London Array offshore wind farm project in a joint venture with E.ON and DONG Energy (see Masdar takes stake in London Array). It's also involved with Spanish engineering group Sener Grupo de Ingeniería in three concentrating solar power plants in Spain, one of which is a tower system (see Masdar, Sener in $1.2B solar thermal venture).
It's currently seeking approval for a 100 MW solar concentrating trough project in Abu Dhabi.
Wouters' team positions itself as a renewable energy power project developer, bridging a gap "between equipment manufacturers that lack project development capital and local utilities that lack the renewable energy economics, knowledge and know-how," according to its web site.
Wouters made his remarks today at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
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Source: http://cleantech.com/news/5523/masdar-shopping-north-american-wind
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