Wind is FAR from dead

Wind projects will continue because wind works.  Get the right site, and a well-maintained wind turbine will make someone very prosperous.  In the case of Vattenfall, they also invest in wind projects because they are FAR more green than their brown coal generation and the aging fleet of nukes.

There is also in institutional influence.  Vattenfall has a corporate division called Vattenfall Renewables.  The company has already accumulated a vast store of expertise in wind—an investment in institutional memory that only pays off if they keep doing wind projects.

Vattenfall blows life into Europe wind projects

Published: 14 Jun 12

Swedish power group Vattenfall said Thursday it was moving ahead with four new European wind farm projects and would invest €4.2 billion ($5.2 billion) in the field over the next five years.

"During 2012, Vattenfall has received permission to go ahead with planning for four new wind farms," the company said in a statement -- in Germany, Wales, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The company said it had received approval for the Forst Briesnig project in Germany; a 250-megawatt wind farm called Pen y Cymoedd in southern Wales; a wind farm at Tamholt in Jutland, Denmark; and a 340-megawatt project in the Netherlands.

"Wind power is a prioritized investment area for Vattenfall," Anders Dahl, the head of Vattenfall Renewables, said in the statement.

Between 2012 and 2016 the company would invest an additional €4.2 billion and hire another 200 people to develop that side of its business, the statement added.

It already operates some 40 different wind farms with 900 wind power turbines, generating a total of 3.7 terawatt/hours, or enough electricity to supply about one million households, it said.
The company claims to be the world's second-largest player in terms of offshore wind farms. more