This is a serious question and I am seeking serious answers - i.e. people willing to potentially invest significant (for an individual) amounts in such a project.
I think that a dKos branded wind turbine or wind farm would be a great symbol for the site, as well as a very concrete reply to people that ask us what to actually do to solve problems. As you know, I write about energy and I consider that wind power is a viable part of the solution to our coming energy crunch.
I think that it would be possible for me to mobilise the necessary people and companies for such a project, but I need to be able to show that we can put enough equity on the table to be taken seriously.
I explain below how things could move forward. So please take the poll - and please answer honestly about the kind of money you would SERIOUSLY consider investing in such a project; Please also recommend so that this gets as much exposure as possible.
(UPDATE at the end of the diary)
A modern wind turbine, like the 1.5 MW GE model which is the most frequent in North America, or the various 2 MW models from other manufacturers, typically cost 1-1.5 million $/MW. A typical wind farm will consist of 5 to 50 such wind turbines.
Debt financing (what I do) can typically provide 80% of the investment amount.
Depending on the amounts that we can raise, we would be looking at various options:
- find a developper and buy a full permitted (small - around 15-20 MW) wind farm from it before it is built or upon construction. We'd probably need at least 3-4 million $ to do that, so that may be a bit ambitious.
- find a developper currently building a wind farm and willing to sell a portion of its equity so that we own the equivalent of 1 or 2 turbines in the lot (w<hich we'd get to "decorate" in dKos orange). That could conceivably be done with as little as 200,000-500,000 dollars if we find the right developer and a financing is put in place.</p>
- develop our own stand alone turbine. That would require 2 million $ minus whatever financing can be found (but I don't do small projects like this, so I can't really say how easy that would be).
With serious commitments from you guys, I'd be willing to work with my colleagues in NY to approach various developers that we are working with and see if they could be interested in selling all or part of any of their projects. (Note that I cannot promise anything at this point. I am testing the idea here first and am not quite sure how it will fly in my real world... But if we have something to offer, I see that this can be taken very seriously).
If any of you have serious contacts in the industry, with developpers, with local banks, or anyone else who could help such a project in concrete ways, I'd love to hear form you. If you are a lawyer that could help sort out the intricacies of such a collective ownership endeavor, ditto.
In any case, I see this as a real financial/industrial investment. Returns can be in the low teens or even higher depending on a lot of things, and they can of course be negative if the project is delayed, or if the wind is not as good as estimated, of if the regulatory framework changes - but it's an investment, not a donation. This should be seen as a for-profit venture.
This is admittedly still vague at this point, and I can only assure you that everything would be fleshed out in detail at the appropriate moment in the future; the idea is to get things started, and start getting other players interested. To do this, we have to show that we bring something to the table.
We bring a highly visible community, strongly involved in public affairs, very opinionated, and hopefully a brand some companies will be happy to be associated with, but we have to bring some hard cash to get this going.
For now, I don't actually need money, just information. I'd like to know the following things:
- if you think this is a good idea or not;
- if you'd be willing to help in any way (if you are or know people within a utility, within GE Wind or another manufacturer, within any other entity active in the business that could be interested);
- if you'd be willing to put up some real money in such a project.
If this generates enough interest, I'll push this further. If you think you can help, please write me at jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr before taking the poll (if you can put money, choose that!)
If you think this idea makes any sense, please kindly recommend so that more people can see it and provide their input. Thanks!
(And no, I have no idea what I am getting myself into!)
Update [2005-7-13 14:52:37 by Jerome a Paris]:
Thanks to all for the feedback. I am trying to reply to all individual e-mails but it takes a bit of time as quite a few of you have written, for which I am grateful. Now let me make a few points clearer:
- I am writing about an investment for profit, not for a cause. The fact that it is indeed supportive of some causes may make some investors willing to accept lower rates of return, but the goal is to make a profit.
- I am currently not trying to sell anything or to make a profit myself (other than I would as a simple investor). I also would not likely be involved in a professional capacity even if my bank were ever to be involved in this, as this would be done from the NY office, which is pretty much independent from Paris. In any case, as it seems that that the most feasible option will be a fairly small wind farm, it is likely that my bank would NOT be involved, as we do only bigger projects.
- So I am currently hoping to get the project started, do some of the early coordination, and maybe provide some of my specialist knowledge to the project when it gets off the ground. What is clear is that I will not do this on my own. As has been pointed out in comments and e-mails, a lot of legal issues come up pretty quickly, and I will need help on that topic, help that I hope some of you on the site will help provide one way or another. I am not going to hire lawyers on my own!
- So a result of the early feedback is pretty clear - I need volunteers to help me build a team. I thank those that have offered various competences or services and will get in touch with you if I have not yet done so. Those of you that want to be in the loop one way or another please e-mail me. Specific advice on (or ideas on how to find) how to create a fairly small corporate structure with lots of shareholders, about investment (IRA and the like) taxation aspects, and about the Securities issues that have been flagged in the thread would be really helpful at this stage.
- Finally, it is also logical that this will not be pursued further on dKos itself, beyond some updates as (and if) this moves along towards something concrete.
Again, thanks for the early support and feedback. With close to 400,000$ of potential interest expressed, it is clear that this is an idea worth pursuing, and I hope to be able to do this with as many of you as possible.