Institutional Investors Give Europe Wind Projects a Needed Lift

LONDON--Europe's ambitious plans for offshore wind projects have some important new backers: pension funds and other institutional investors.

Pity that the article is so clueless

Before the global financial crisis of 2008, utilities and banks typically supplied the financing for offshore wind farms. But since then utilities have grown more cautious about funding projects and bank capital has been in short supply. The European Investment Bank, the EU's lending arm, has picked up some of the slack, along with member nations' export-credit agencies, but it isn't enough to keep development on target. Institutional investors are stepping up to help fill the gap.

Hmmm, before 2008, there were only a few hundred MWs in the water - now we're building a GW or more per year and funding has not been in short supply - it's been increasing at a record rate across all categories - from utilities, bank financing and the rest.

Also, because wind power in Europe is heavily subsidized, the economics of these projects can change overnight if governments trim those subsidies, as Spain has done in recent years.

Wind power ,again, is NOT heavily subsidized, and changes in solar tariffs are not a serious argument to make about the supposedly unstable framework for wind, a much more mature technology...

Wind power