Sardinia’s New 1 MW Wind Farm

I’ve recently made another addition to my list of renewable energy investment opportunities: the development of a smallish wind farm in Sardinia.  In a recent call I had with a colleague in Europe, I learned something interesting, and quite important for potential investors: in order to encourage distributed generation from small and medium-sized devices, the power coming onto the grid from wind turbines on Sardinia that are rated under 60 KW is rewarded with a huge feed-in tariff (more than 26 Eurocents per KWh over 20 years), where power from anything over that rating receives less than half that amount. 

My colleague, who lives and works in Paris, has assembled a seasoned team of proven professionals and a very insightful business plan around the deployment of an array of 18 specially built small/mid-sized turbines (55 KW apiece) to generate a total nameplate capacity of 1 MW, using land high up on a rocky mesa, leased from a farmer with huge flocks of sheep.  He expects (as do I) an impressive capacity factor, as the wind resource up there is amazing.  “It very nearly blows you off your feet,” he explained in his solid, but heavily accented English.

He invited me to come meet him and take a tour of the site, pointing out that Sardinia is a great place to combine business with pleasure – something I’ve done once or twice in my life.  Right now, I actually have five or six other reasons to go to Europe, and I guess I’ll fit this in next time I go, even though, in this case, the business purpose really is debatable.  Yes, I need to meet my colleague in person, but I could do that in Paris quickly and easily; Sardinia’s not that easy (or inexpensive) to get to, and I already know what sheep and rocky bluffs look like.

In any case, to any accredited investors out there: if you’re interested, please let me know; because of the generous PPA (power purchase agreement), the IRR (internal rate of return) on the project is attractive, to say the very least.