Europeans eye American wind energy market

[jpak]

http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-6/1177821094189230.xml&coll=1

Worries about the environment, technology advances and tax break extensions are leading European wind energy companies to try their luck in the United States.

The U.S. has led the world in installing wind turbines for the past two years, but it still ranks behind Germany and slightly below Spain in wind power production, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. America's renewed embrace of policies to encourage energy alternatives have led companies with years of experience in Denmark, Germany and Spain to invest in U.S. shores, challenging both the U.S. market leaders and any environmental opposition to building giant turbines.

"We're like the Saudi Arabia of wind, and we just haven't had the big exploration boom yet," said Michael Peck, a spokesman for Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, a Spanish company that makes wind turbines in Pennsylvania and develops wind farms around the country.

Two deals announced last month reflect the competition. Portuguese utility EDP Energias de Portugal agreed to pay $2.15 billion to buy Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy, from investment bank Goldman Sachs, giving the company its first toehold in the U.S. And Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems, the world's largest wind turbine maker, announced plans to build a $60 million wind turbine blade factory in Colorado, its first U.S. manufacturing plant.

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