Green Wombat

Green Wombat is in Portugal today, where one of the biggest green tech deals of the year has just gone down: the $2 billion takeover of U.S. wind farm giant Horizon Wind Energy by Portuguese utility EDP. One potential beneficiary of the deal is GE Energy Financial Services (GE), the renewable energy dealmaking arm of General Electric. EDP’s acquisition of Horizon from Goldman Sachs (GS) was all the buzz at the opening today of an 11-megawatt photovoltaic power plant – one of the world’s largest – in Serpa, Portugal. PowerLight (SPWR) built the plant, which was financed and is now owned by GE Energy Financial Services. More on the Serpa solar power station in a later post. Among those present at the Serpa event was GE Energy Financial Services managing director Kevin Walsh.  "I see a substantial financing opportunity," Walsh told Green Wombat, referring to EDP-Horizon deal, as he looked out at the Serpa power station’s 52,000 solar panels arrayed among groves of olive trees. The word today was that EDP will need to finance as much as $600 million of the acquisition, and after the solar power plant dedication Walsh headed to Madrid for a meeting with EDP execs.

If the deal goes through, it will make the Portuguese utility one of the largest renewable energy companies in the United States – as well the world – and the acquisition is another sign that European companies are increasingly looking at the U.S. as rich market for green tech. Horizon operates wind farms in 15 states that generate more than 1,500 megawatts, and the Houston-based company has another 9,000 megawatts in the pipeline, according to EDP. Walsh said GE Energy Financial Services could also help EDP navigate the U.S.’s byzantine system of state and federal tax credits for wind power. "I’m happy to congratulate you on the impending invasion of Portguese business into America," joked the U.S. ambassador to the Portugal, Alfred Hoffman, at the solar power plant dedication.