Published

3 years ago

April 1, 2024

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Nordex Invests in Turkey, C.I.P. Invests in Philippines, Singapore Prepares for Energy Transition

Nordex invests $1.1B in Turkey’s wind industry, Singapore plans to invest $3.7B in clean energy transition, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners invests $1.9B in offshore wind farm in the Philippines.

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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, 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.

Spanish German Nordex Group plans investing a little over a billion dollars in Turkey in 2024. Turkey is seen as a major wind market due to its young population on short potential and strong supply chains. Turkey is taking the lead in the wind supply chain as an uptick. Alternative to Asia. So this is a sweet spot for Turkey at the moment, Phil, where they do have a strong workforce.

They do have a lot of internal capabilities and Nordex is picking up on that.

Philip Totaro: Exactly. And to the extent that they’ve already established themselves as a kind of a wind manufacturing hub you’ve got Enercon there, you’ve got Nordex already there, LM. And a couple other smaller players.

But you also have subcomponent suppliers there. ASCA is there as a material supplier for blades. So there’s a significant amount of opportunity. This investment represents largely project development activities is my understanding, but there will also be some factory expansion potential there as well as they look to expand Turkey as an export hub for for components and not just used in the domestic market, but also elsewhere throughout Europe.

Joel Saxum: To double down on talking about Nordex here, it was Wind Europe Bilbao last week, Nordex, it was, that, that show was the return of the OEMs. So you saw GE Vernova, Siemens Gamesa, Nordex, Enercon, everybody having their big booths again. To focus on this, Nordex had a, Fantastic, large booth, huge presence putting some of their new models out there.

They’re really pushing that Delta 4000 platform. So you can see that the Nordex group is spending a lot of money to expand their footprint and could be capitalizing a little bit of that Siemens Gamesa absence from the market in that 4X, 5X area as well.

Allen Hall: Singapore is setting up a 3. 7 billion future energy fund and investing in clean energy tech and infrastructure.

Singapore aims to move quickly on its infrastructure and invest in clean energy security as part of its goal to reach net zero by 2050. Currently, 95 percent of electricity is produced from natural gas in Singapore. So there is now a plan to import low carbon power from its neighbors, which will require Obviously, investments in submarine cables and the grid, Phil, with that kind of money being invested in Singapore, that’s going to bring a lot of clean tech to that area.

Philip Totaro: Absolutely. And they already have a lot of offshore wind capability that’s headquartered in Singapore, a lot of, vessel owners and operators, et cetera. So there’s an experience base there. To up to a point but it’s also interesting because, this is a big city state I would say country, but this is a city state led initiative on decarbonization.

And so that’s that’s an important thing is again, countries or city states in the case of Singapore wants to ensure kind of future compliance with any regulations or established protocols that come out of future cop meetings or things like that.

Always good to see. Anybody getting together a big pot of money and spending it on things that are desperately needed, like grid infrastructure and renewable power generation.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, if you look at Singapore as a city there’s a lot of, the financial world of the Asia Pacific.

Basically realm is based in there. So there’s a lot of money there. There’s a lot of smart people there. There is a large contingent of, like Phil said, from the maritime and shipping sector there. So there is the experience to operate offshore. There’s also the horsepower with some vessels and things in that area.

A lot of the other ones operating in that same theater could move right on, so you have some experience. I also do think that there could be a pretty good play here for some HVDC transmission. In the submarine cable side. I know there’s been talks of a possible line from Australia, northern Australia as well.

That is a long line. It could be there. But good on Singapore for making these moves. I know it’s a very interesting place to visit. If you haven’t gone, go. But looking to see some big things coming from that corner of the world.

Allen Hall: Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is investing 1. 92 billion in a 650 megawatt offshore wind farm in northern Samar province in the Philippines. The wind farm is located across about six towns there. Construction is supposed to begin in Q1 of 2024. So really soon. Operations expected in late 2025. This is part of CIP’s expansion in Southeast Asia after a 1.

3 billion investment in Bangladesh. Wow. Southeast Asia is getting a lot of cash flow and renewable energy and they seem to be able to develop the projects faster than what’s happening in Europe and the United States.

Philip Totaro: Which is the key to all this. You’ve got high PPA prices from conventional power generation that they would be competing with, you’ve got easier time of permitting and you’ve got healthier financial returns that you can see.

So it’s really no surprise and it’s not just, this project in the Philippines you mentioned Thailand, Vietnam there are plenty of other Southeast Asian countries Indonesia as well. That are seeing a significant amount of interest in in renewables generation and project development.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, CIP is specifically well suited for doing. They’ve been operating in that same area for a while. They have experience in Taiwan and some other areas as well over there. Good team down in the area to be able to put these projects out and the capital behind them. More moves to make.

Allen Hall: InfraRed Capital Partners acquired a 60 percent stake in the 182 megawatt Brazos wind project in Texas and a 50 percent stake in a 180 megawatt Madison Field solar project in Ohio from Shell. Shell remains the asset and energy manager, of course. Brazos is currently undergoing a repower and is expected to generate power next year.

Sometime in the next couple of months Phil, when we see these sort of transactions happen to older facilities, Brazos Wind Farm has been around since 2001, 2002 and had Mitsubishi turbines, and now they’re upgrading them at the moment. Those are valuable assets to have. Can you explain why that is?

Philip Totaro: Yeah, sure. It’s because you’re leveraging pre existing electrical infrastructure that’s, the cables have already been laid in this case, because it was, these one megawatt Mitsubishi turbines, you’re necessarily going to have to recable for more modern, three, four, five megawatt units.

However lease agreements are already in place with the landowners. There, the, a lot of the Basically, you’re short cutting the development timeline.

Nordex Invests in Turkey, C.I.P. Invests in Philippines, Singapore Prepares for Energy Transition

Renewable Energy

As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?

Published

14 hours ago

November 9, 2026

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?

While most of Europe has spent most of this year itemizing reasons it cannot, should not, and will not use Chinese wind turbines or components, accusations and arm-twisting tactics have garnered most of the attention.

But we invite you to consider a future – maybe just five, or ten years from now?- in which those same countries and companies are eagerly awaiting orders from wind turbine manufacturing facilities in… India.
What?!
You know that the country has a lot of installed wind.

You may think – and many in the industry would agree – that India’s blade manufacturers are a few revs behind blade-makers elsewhere in the world. But the country is newly committed to manufacturing and it’s busy installing more – provided that it’s made in India, with Indian technology, by Indian workers.
Of course, similar domestic-focused policy currents are running through European countries – where wind OEMs are almost inarguably a decade ahead of Indian manufacturers. But there’s an important reason why we say, “watch India” in wind turbine manufacturing.

It’s because you might learn something.

If you follow The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, you probably heard this discussion a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the headline story – we try to highlight as many major news items and trends that we can, and follow up as credible information becomes available. India’s quiet moves to strengthen its own renewable energy industries didn’t grab the headlines. But it comprised a good bit of our panelists’ discussion.

With India’s expanding manufacturing capacity, and Suzlon’s strategic offerings for the European market (Blue Sky), there are reasons for European developers to take a closer look at Indian manufacturers.

If Europe continues to squelch deals with Chinese manufacturers due to data security issues, India is a relatively obvious candidate to fill the void, for several reasons:

The country has depth and breadth in R&D: India (Suzlon, specifically) has a track record of involvement and relationships across the continent, as it operates research and development centers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
Indian service providers have reach: Inox and Adoni Wind operate multiple wind turbine manufacturing plants and wind farms throughout several Indian states, and Apraava Energy has been commissioning wind projects, working with multiple OEMs, for more than 16 years.
The country’s energy sector has size: Tata Power is estimated to be worth about US$16 billion and employs 22,000 people.

And major manufacturers from other countries have had a strong presence in the country for years:

GE Vernova has turbine blade and nacelle manufacturing operations and multiple tech/R&D centers in India;
Vestas has a R&D technology center in Chennai; and
China’s SANY Wind has had assembly facilities in India since 2017, and in 2024, it signed a licensing agreement with JSW allowing SANY to manufacture blades and generators for JSW – enabling JSW Neo Energy to produce wind turbine generators and major components in-country.

So while there is hard data suggesting that India is already a global hub for wind turbines, sometimes the real strength comes from soft skills. Like sharing information.

We’ve noticed that Indian manufactures aren’t stingy with information. They share what they learn in the field and on the shop floor, so that the whole industry can move faster to solve problems. That bodes well for the industry overall, and particularly well for companies who figure out how to solve problems that some manufacturers aren’t even ready to admit to having.

We’ll be watching India with a great deal of interest in the coming months. Subscribe to The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast and follow along with us.

We’re not financial analysts. We’re engineers who watch the wind industry very closely. This is what we’ve noticed, and we thought it was worth sharing.

Where do you think you’ll be looking for solutions, components, and service providers in the next few years or the next decade? Tell us what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

As Europe Shuns Chinese Turbines and Components, Who Will Fill the Gap?

Renewable Energy

When You Write for Idiots, You Can Get Away with Anything

Published

17 hours ago

November 9, 2026

Alice Rush

To the author of the meme here:

“Either” refers to two choices; “any” refers to three or more.

More importantly, it’s amazing how shamelessly the ultra-right wing exaggerates. The left side of the Democratic party would like to see the United States look like social democracies in places like Scandinavia. Having government programs that benefit the common person, e.g., Social Security, public schools, emergency relief, libraries, environmental responsibility, etc., does not equate to Stalinism.

When You Write for Idiots, You Can Get Away with Anything

Renewable Energy

Are Muslims “Dangerous?”

Published

19 hours ago

November 9, 2026

Alice Rush

Some of my old prep school chums from the Class of 1973 convene via Zoom approximately every six weeks for a 90-minute discussion of current events, science, and anything else that sounds interesting.

Our professions range from medicine, law, finance, and business management. All from highly ranked colleges. Over 50% hold doctorate degrees.

Here’s something I find fascinating about the group: it includes one right-wing conservative. I don’t mean a Reaganite; I mean a Trump supporter. This guy is incapable of any thought that doesn’t come directly from Nexsmax.

It’s almost eerie how closely he toes the line of the far-right. Yesterday he echoed the Newsmax talking point and told the group that all Muslims holding public office are “very dangerous” and should be removed.

Now, the rest of us are sitting there, dumbfounded at this idea, unwilling waste our breath on this racist and utterly preposterous concept.

All this raises the question: How are our political viewpoints formed? How much of this is genetics? Epigenetics? Early childhood experiences? How do take a boy from among the best environments and turn him into someone who struggles to understand the most basic principles on which our country was founded?

https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/11/09/principles-country-was-founded/