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E.on Climate & Renewables Spring 2010 $24.00 USD $25.28CAN
CEO Steve Trenholm is in a good position with mega corporations like GE and Siemens competing for exclusivity in his current wind farm project: the largest in the world
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oZ WORLD MEDIA, LLC 1330 New Hampshire Avenue Suite B1 Washington D.C. 20036 www.energyleaderstoday.com Energy Leaders Today is a quarterly B2B trade journal that services the energy industry in solar, geothermal, hydro/tidal/wave, natural gas, wind, nuclear, oil, biofuels, coal & electric, and new technology sectors. ELT has a readership of 50,000 C-Level executives within the energy industry. We do not accept subscription requests from the general public, however an abbreviated version is available on our website.
corporate | profile
Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009 3
EOn corporate corporate| profile | wind
A leading renewable energy company, E. On Climate & Renewables North America is industrializing the energy of future for the people of today
Tomorrrow’s Energy R 4 Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009
windcorporate | corporate | profile profile By Jane Caffrey
Where energy is concerned, North America is rich in wind. Since the first commercial wind farms began to spring up around the nation more than two decades ago, wind power has consistently proven to be a reliable and clean source of economically viable energy. Today, with improved technology making wind one of the lowest costing energy sources, wind power is playing an increased role in reducing U.S. dependence on foreign and carbon intensive energy resources. Yet despite these advances, the wind industry remains somewhat of a novelty in the United States—which Steve Trenholm, CEO of E. On Climate & Renewables North America, is striving to change. “We’re trying to take the industry to the next level,” he said. “We’re going from the smaller wind farms to larger, utility scale projects, to move this business from a boutique to an industrial sized business.” Already a leading energy company that has left its mark on the landscape of renewable energy in the United States, the primary objective of E. On
Climate Renewables North America (E.ON) is to deliver renewable energy that addresses growing concerns about energy security, energy affordability, and climate change. Now the fifth largest energy company in the United States, E.ON has seen extremely rapid expansion in a period of only a couple of years. The North American branch, located in Chicago, Illinois, was originally formed by Irish company Etricity in 2000, but the business saw a burst of growth beginning in 2007, when it became a subsidiary of E.ON. “We put our first project into service in early 2007, so we have had very dramatic growth through that period of only two years,” Trenholm, who became the leading force of the company in July of 2009, said. E.ON has kept pace with the rapidly expanding wind power industry, achieving 1720 megawatts in wind projects in less than three years. The company has greatly contributed to United States’ effort to diversify the nation’s energy profile by investing more than $3 billion to build
Resting on the Horizon
Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009 5
corporate corporate| profile | wind renewable energy projects around North America, and promising an additional $3 billion towards projects in the future. Such investment proves a deep commitment to investing the resources needed to transformation the renewable energy market. Currently the world’s largest investor-owned utility company, E.ON has nearly 200 employees in the North American branch, and owns and operates ten wind farms in the United States. With additional projects both developing and under construction throughout the U.S. and Canada, E.ON is one of the fastest growing renewable power companies in the industry. Several unique characteristics of the company allow E.ON to stand as an industry leader today. The company meets the growing demand for reliable and affordable energy with financial strength, expertise, and commitment—it finances, owns, and operates all of its wind facilities in the United States. The development of a wind park project is executed from start to finish, beginning with real estate agreements and assessments of the potential wind energy of a site. The company then formulates the design for the project, considering factors such as wind direction, speed, topography, and local zoning requirements. While a project is underway, E.ON provides compensation to landowners, ensuring that the park is built as quickly as possible, and that the energy is later utilized in the most useful market for the power. In the last stage, E.ON carries out the construction of the project, utilizing turbines from nearly every major wind turbine manufacturer. “We are very good at construction and executing our projects,” Trenholm said. “We are among the top.” Although the company manages every aspect of development, from land acquisition to wind analysis to construction, commitment does not terminate once the wind park is successfully built. E.ON next forms ground operations and maintenance teams to
6 Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009
windcorporate | corporate | profile profile
We are trying to take the industry to the next level. We’re going from the smaller wind farms to larger, utility scale projects, to move this business from a boutique to an industrial sized business. Steve Trenholm, CEO of E. On Climate & Renewables North America
Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009 7
corporate profile | wind
ensure that the turbines are run under the highest efficiency standards possible. Several of the company’s wind farms currently boast the highest operational rates in the country. The final fruits of the labor: wind farms and renewable energy systems that generate clean, quiet, and emissions free power from domestic resources. Proof of remarkable accomplishment rests in the completed projects of the company. E.ON develops and operates some of the greatest performing renewable energy projects in the nation. The company’s first project in the United States, Forest Creek Wind Farm, started generating power in 2007. In the park, 54 Siemens Mark II 2.3 megawatt wind turbines stand tall on the western Texas horizon, rising 400 feet in the air to produce a capacity of 124.2 megawatts. The wind farm can power up to 37,000 homes, preventing as much as 220,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Another West Texas project completed by E.ON now stands as the largest onshore wind farm in the world. The Roscoe Wind Complex is a compilation of four 8 Energy Leaders Today Winter 2009
projects in one, cumulating in more than 600 wind turbines capable of generating 781.5 megawatts of power. “It’s a massive project,” Trenholm said. The company’s first project in dry land cotton fields, the Roscoe Wind Complex has helped more than 85 farmers continue to plant crops. E.ON’s most recent project, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, will harness inexhaustible wind power over land that once produced the finite resource of coal. The farm will generate 52.5 megawatts of energy from 35 General Electric 1.5 megawatt turbines. “That project is notable because we built it on deep mine spoils. It is in an area that had been mined, and basically the land is not good for very much,” Trenholm said. “It is difficult to build anything on that land, and we built a wind farm on it. We are quite proud of that project because of the technological challenges that we faced.” With new energy projects looming on the horizon, E.ON is rapidly expanding its profile. Trenholm expressed a strong interest in solar projects and other forms of alternative energy, but also reiterated that the E.ON will continue to diversify its abilities in wind power. “We’re going to
continue with wind projects, and we are carefully watching the potential for offshore opportunities in the U.S.,” he said. “E.ON has built a number of offshore projects in Europe. We do have significant offshore expertise, and when the time is right, we’d like to take advantage of the expertise that we’ve gained in Europe for U.S. offshore projects.” Utilizing clean, affordable, and renewable sources of energy to diversify the company profile, and more importantly the North American energy profile, remains at the heart of E.ON’s company philosophy. “The object is to create utility scale projects,” Trenholm said. “We’re trying to industrialize the wind business.” Using cutting edge technology, and at the helm of an industry that is rapidly driving forward, E. On Climate & Renewables North America, LLC is introducing tomorrow’s energy to the population of today, with looming wind towers that are reshaping the landscape of America’s energy industry. ELT
wind | corporate profile
WHITE
Construction is our passion. Long-lasting business relationships are our reward. Thank you to E. On, for entrusting your wind projects to White Construction.
www.whiteconstruction.com
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