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How Leasing Can Maximize Benefits in Wind Power Project Financings

By Allan Marks and Alyssa Frederick
April 26, 2011

Building wind farms is big business. The Global Wind Energy Council reports that wind power installations in 2010 represented $65 billion worth of investment, and expanded global wind energy capacity by 22.5%. From 2005 to 2009 the world saw an average annual increase in installed wind capacity of 27%, with a high of 32% in 2009. Those new wind farms helped boost renewable energy to account for fully one quarter of global power generation capacity in 2010.

A growing share of new wind projects are being built in developing countries, which are rapidly adopting pro-renewables policies. In 2010, China surpassed the United States in total installed megawatts (“MW”) of wind energy capacity. But even in the United States, where electricity demand fell during the 2008/2009 recession, aging power plants and a suite of policies that support a shift toward cleaner energy sources continue to drive investment in wind power. In 2008 and 2009, the construction of wind power projects in the United States added 8,500 MW and 10,000 MW, respectively, to our national electricity grid. That accounts for 40% of all new electricity-generating capacity to come online during that period; a bigger share than any other technology. In 2010, 5,100 MW of new wind power projects were constructed. Meanwhile, the size and complexity of projects increased, capped with the financial close on Dec. 16, 2010 of the largest land-based wind farm in the world ' the $1.3 billion, 813 MW Shepherds Flat project in Oregon.

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