Pension-Denmark Invests in Wind Farm Offshore Nantucket

Pension-Denmark has pledged $200 million in funding for a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, in the
first committed investment in Cape Wind Associates LLCs proposed 468-megawatt park offshore
Cape Cod.
The Danish pension fund, with $26 billion under management, is providing the investment as a
mezzanine loan. The $2.6 billion project has encountered opposition from residents in affluent
Nantucket, Massachusetts, members of the Kennedy family and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head.
It will be the first offshore wind park in the U.S., the Copenhagen-based pension.

More details on the following link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-18/pensiondenmark-invests-in-wind-farm-offshorenantucket.html

At first look it might seem strange for a Danish pension fund to invest in an offshore wind farm in the
United States. Although the US is second only to China in producing wind energy onshore (the US lost
first place to china a few years ago), its offshore wind industry is basically nonexistent.
However, the investment of Danish money in the US wind industry has to be examined in an
historical context.
At the beginning of September 1982, a handful of European manufacturers of agricultural machinery
flew to California to assess the market for wind energy. A few weeks later they returned with enough
orders to start series production of wind turbines. Before the year was over, 25-30 turbines had been
shipped and installed. The year after, 350 wind turbines, with a total capacity of 20 MW, were
exported. This was the start of what became known as the "California wind rush". The modern wind
energy industry was born (http://www.ewea.org/history/).
The 55 kW generation of wind turbines which were developed in 1980 - 1981 became the industrial
and technological breakthrough for modern wind turbines. Literally thousands of these machines
were delivered to the wind program in California in the early eighties. The Micon 55 kW is one
example of such a machine, delivered to one huge park of more than 1000 machines in Palm Springs,
California. Having started series manufacturing of wind turbines about 5 years earlier, Danish
manufacturers had much more of a track record than companies from other countries. About half of
the wind turbines placed in California are of Danish origin
(http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~wind/en/pictures/windrush.htm).

The market for wind energy in the United States disappeared overnight with the disappearance of
the Californian support schemes in the late 1980s. After the California wind rush ended, some of
the Danish wind turbine manufacturers (and almost all American wind turbine manufacturers) went
bankrupt and some had to merge to form bigger companies. However, the California wind rush had
huge contribution to the creation of the Danish wind industry. Companys like Vestas and Siemens
wind (previously Bonus) are the world leaders in wind turbine production.
130 Siemens 3.6MW turbines are expected to be erected in the Cape Wind project
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Wind). In some respect, the money invested by the Danish
pension fund is going to be sent back to Denmark to be used by the Danish wind turbine industry.