EDP Chief Maps Solar Strategy on Cheap Land in U.S.
BLOOMBERG - EDP-Energias de Portugal SA, the country’s biggest power company, said the U.S. is the most attractive market for expanding in solar energy.
The company, the world’s fourth-biggest generator of wind power since acquiring Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2007, is considering solar projects after developing wind farms from New York to Oregon.
“Concerning solar energy, we are mainly considering the U.S. market,” EDP Chief Executive Officer Antonio Mexia said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We believe it makes more sense: closer to big consumption centers and because the opportunity cost of land is much lower than in Europe.”
Lisbon-based EDP is investing about $1.3 billion on average every year in the U.S., where President Barack Obama has set a goal of getting 25 percent of the country’s power from renewable sources by 2025. Solar developers from Germany and Japan are also entering the U.S., attracted by the Treasury’s plan to pay out $3 billion in cash for solar, wind and biomass energy projects as part of Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
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