China's Goldwind Sci & Tech IPO hoping for success like Suzlon, Vestas

Goldwind IPO as China seeks 120,000 megawatts of windpower

Goldwind Plans IPO as China Combats Climate Change (Update2)

By Ying Lou

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Goldwind Science & Technology Co., China's largest maker of wind turbines, plans to raise 1.8 billion yuan ($244 million) in an initial share sale to boost output as the country seeks to reduce its reliance on coal.

Goldwind will sell 50 million shares at 36 yuan apiece, the Xinjiang-based company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. can buy the stock today and tomorrow, and it will start trading ``soon'' after the sale, Goldwind said.

Chinese officials at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Indonesia are showcasing their government's efforts to curb emissions of gases that cause global warming. The nation's climate-change program sets a target to slash 950 million tons off greenhouse emissions by 2010 by using nuclear energy, biomass fuels, hydropower, gas and wind power.

``China is already the world's factory,'' Yang Ailun, climate change program manager at Greenpeace China, said in an interview in Bali, Indonesia on Dec. 11. ``It could be and should be the manufacturing hub of clean technology for the world as well.''

The nation wants to reduce a reliance on coal for almost 80 percent of the electricity used in the world's fastest-growing economy. China passed the U.S. last year to become the world's largest source of carbon dioxide gas, from burning fossil fuels and producing cement, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

`First Mover Advantage'

The share sale will help fund Goldwind's plan to spend about 1.9 billion yuan to expand capacity and on research and development, according to a Dec. 6 share sale document.

``As China's wind power sector takes off, we think Goldwind is well-positioned to become a major beneficiary, thanks to its strong brand and first-mover advantage,'' KGI Securities analyst Steven Liao wrote in a Dec. 12 report. ``We think Goldwind is an attractive investment target,'' Taipei-based Liao said. Goldwind has a 33 percent share of China's wind-power equipment market, according to KGI.

China became the world's sixth-largest wind power generator last year, with 2,604 megawatts of installed capacity, according to KGI. Capacity is forecast increase by 54 percent in the five years ending 2010, the fastest pace in the world.

A megawatt of wind power generating capacity produces about as much electricity as 225 to 300 U.S. households use in a year, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Three Gorges

China may have installed wind power generation capacity of 120 gigawatts by 2020, given state backing for such projects, Greenpeace's Yang said.

``The power generated from the wind generation units will be the equivalent of five Three Gorges projects,'' Yang said. The Three Gorges Dam, on China's Yangtze River, is the world's largest hydropower venture, with planned capacity of 18,200 megawatts.

The project, in the central province of Hubei, can generate 84.7 million megawatt-hours of power annually, equal to 10 nuclear reactors, and is due for completion in 2009.

Liao estimates Goldwind's 2007 sales at 3.2 billion yuan and 7.2 billion yuan in 2008.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S, based in Randers, Denmark, is the world's largest maker of wind-powered turbines and forecasts sales of 3.85 billion euros ($5.67 billion) this year.

Suzlon's Sales

India's Suzlon Energy Ltd., which aims to be the world's third-largest wind power company by 2010, may have sales of $3.31 billion in the 12 months ending March 2008, according to the average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

China wants renewable energy make up 10 percent of its total energy consumption by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020 from about 8 percent now. China will spend 1.5 trillion yuan by 2020 to develop renewable energy sources including solar, wind and biomass.

China's investment on renewable energy will reach $20 billion this year, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said yesterday at the UN conference in Bali.

Environment ministers from more than 180 countries are meeting in Bali to discuss an agreement to succeed the emissions-limiting Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.


full article at:

Goldwind IPO article on Bloomberg.com; windpower stock news

EWEA DEcember 5th Press Release - full text online, European wind energy

December 5th 2007
Barriers must be removed for full exploitation of offshore wind

Press Release from European Wind Energy Association
Berlin

To support the necessary growth and expansion of offshore wind in order to meet the EU's 20% renewables target, several barriers need to be overcome. Low feed-in tariffs for offshore, limited and costly grid connections and complex authorisation procedures are seen as key obstacles by the offshore industry, delegates heard at the second day of the European Offshore Wind Energy Conference in Berlin.

Five countries have operating offshore wind farms so far: Denmark, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland. Other countries, such as Germany and France, are developing new offshore capacity. In a session today on national and EU policy, speakers from Germany, the UK, Spain, the European Commission and industry explained how certain barriers are slowing down the development of offshore and presented recent and necessary changes to policy framework.

In Germany, there are no current operational offshore wind farms. However, 22 projects have been approved in the Baltic and North Seas. The first project to be up and running should be the Alpha Ventus site, near the island of Borkum. This is currently a testing site for 12 x 5 MW turbines. It should be connected to the power grid from 2008.

Speaker Hermann Albers, from the BWE (German Wind Energy Association) focused on the key steps needed to help offshore wind power take off in Germany. Two of the barriers are the current tariffs, which are too low to encourage offshore development, and the grid connection costs.

“However, the meeting of Angela Merkel’s cabinet this morning should result in a changed feed-in tariff, which would be more attractive to developers”, he continued. This would be an important step towards offshore expansion in Germany. “For the future, a key challenge is to push turbine production to ensure a sufficient supply chain”, he added.

The session then moved on to the UK, where offshore wind is growing and could be supplying 17% of the country’s electricity by 2020, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). The rapid development is partly the result of an increase in government funding through Renewable Obligation Certificates which will take effect in 2009.

Gordon Edge, from the BWEA sees the main obstacle in the country as the “over-long and complex authorisation process for offshore farms, which can take up to 14 years”.

He gave two key methods, amongst others, of speeding up the process, by shortening the consenting time and the delivery time. In this way, the currently very strong UK offshore growth can be maintained.

Spain is one of the global leaders in onshore wind. Although it does not yet have any operating offshore wind farms, a programme has been launched in order to identify suitable development zones and establish a licensing procedure. Several projects have been suggested for the area of Cape Trafalgar, off the south coast.

Félix Avia, of CENER, the Spanish National Renewable Energies Centre explained, that offshore development had not taken off until now due to two main reasons: an over-complex authorisation process – once again – and feed-in tariffs which were not specific to offshore.

However, a Royal Decree from July 2007 helped remove these obstacles, redefining the procedures and criteria for offshore authorisation. Furthermore, it gave the power to authorise projects to just one office, and set the expected time period for installation to three years.

Mr Avia finished by saying, “Now that the new legal framework has tackled the key barriers, the future seems optimistic for offshore wind in Spain.”

Wolfgang Kerner, from the European Commission’s DG TREN, explained how the Priority Interconnection Plan (PIP) of the January 2007 energy package seeks to create a European electricity market and grid in order to facilitate cross-border exchanges. Thirty-two electricity lines have been selected around Europe and should be upgraded to help enable this. EWEA has been insisting on the need to upgrade interconnectors in order to promote cross-border exchange of power and to ensure security of electricity supply for a significant amount of time.

In addition, the European Commission has appointed four energy coordinators, including Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch, whose specific role will be to facilitate future offshore projects.

Bo Mørup, from Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark, gave the investors’ point of view, focusing on the question, “why do some countries take off while others do not?” He discussed the criteria that made some countries attractive to investors, namely the tariff level and the wind resource available.

More information on different national approaches can be found in EWEA’s policy recommendations document, launched yesterday, entitled “Delivering offshore wind energy in Europe”.

Visit www.ewea.org to learn more.

Asia's 5th richest billionaire powered his fortune with wind energy play Suzlon (SUZL.BO)

Sunil Mittal 3rd richest self-made billionaire in Asia: Forbes
Sunday December 2 2007 21:51 IST

article from: http://www.newindpress.com

NEW YORK: Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal has been ranked third in Forbes magazine's 20 self-made Asian billionaires list, which also has five other Indians including Unitech's Ramesh Chandra, Suzlon's Tulsi Tanti, Gautam Adani, GM Rao and Uday Kotak.

In the latest list of 20, Sunil Mittal has grabbed the third place with a net worth of 12.5 billion dollars while Ramesh Chandra is at the fifth place with an estimated worth of 11.6 billion dollars.

Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon Energy holds the fifth position, while Adani Group's Guatam Adani is ranked 10th, G M Rao of GMR Infrastructure 13th and Uday Kotak of Kotak Group 20th.

The top two positions have been cornered by two billionaires from Hong Kong - Li Ka-shing (23 billion dollars) and Lee Shau Kee (17 billion dollars).

Hong Kong is represented by five people, while China and Malaysia have two each.

According to the US business magazine, Sunil Mittal began his first business in 1976 with "1,500 dollars borrowed from his father. Later, co-founded Bharti Group with two brothers. Now, their Bharti Airtel is nation's largest mobile phone operator, with more than 50 million customers."

Sixty-eight-year-old Ramesh Chandra studied structural engineering in the UK before moving into real estate business. The publicly-listed Unitech, run by his two sons, is currently expanding into developing theme parks and shopping malls.

Tulsi Tanti and family estimated to be worth 10 billion dollars is described as a former textile trader who turned to alternative energy when rising power costs threatened to put him out of business.

"With three brothers, he started a wind power venture in 1995. Now, his Suzlon Energy is the largest wind power company by market cap in the world," the magazine said.

Interestingly, Gautam Adani who is worth 6.7 billion dollars, dropped out of school and started his group way back in the 1980s. He began importing scarce plastic polymers and the company was listed in 1994. Later, he expanded his business into ports, call centers and edible oils.

Net worths are based on the most recently published Forbes magazine figures. March billionaire figures were used for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Regional rich list valuations were used for the other fortunes, it said.

Meanwhile, G M Rao -- estimated to be worth 6.2 billion dollars -- is described as the son of a commodities trader.

"(He) joined the family's small commodities trading company before moving into sugar and alloys. In 1996, he bought a license to build a power plant in Chennai when his original idea, a brewery, was stalled by prohibition. Since then he has won bids to modernise airports at Hyderabad and Delhi. In July, he won a 2.7 billion dollars contract to build a new airport terminal in Istanbul in a consortium with Malaysia Airports," Forbes said.

An ardent cricket fan, Uday Kotak, who is worth 4.6 billion dollars, left the family's trading business to start a finance company. He later converted the firm into a bank in 2003 and "stock soaring since buying out longtime partner Goldman Sachs last year." MORE

Taiwan, Japan and Singapore have one 'self-made billionaire' each in the top 20 list.

Vladimir Kim (worth 5.5 billion dollars) ranked at the 14th position is from Kazakhstan and is head of Kazakhmys "world's 10th largest copper producer."

"...All of these tycoons made their money the old fashioned way--hard work, determination, ingenuity and a little bit of luck," the magazine said in an accompanying report.

"Although these 20 have diverse interests in industries ranging from plastics to telecommunications, property seems to be the most lucrative industry for the self-starters. Seven entrepreneurs made all or part of their fortunes in real estate, more than any other industry," it added.