News Flash: Endesa Selling Minority Stake, Brazil’s Petrobras Invests Heavily in Renewables

Spanish utility Endesa is looking to sell a minority stake in a 2GW renewable energy portfolio to raise funds for new projects. Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company, unveiled plans to become the country’s largest wind developer through offshore wind projects and partnerships, as part of its strategy to reduce emissions and invest in green energy. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting – https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com<br />Weather Guard Lightning Tech – www.weatherguardwind.com<br />Intelstor – https://www.intelstor.com News Flash September 25 Allen Hall: I’m Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I’m here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer for Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. Spanish utility Endesa is looking to sell a minority stake in a two gigawatt renewables portfolio. Endesa is open to selling up to 49 percent stake in the portfolio, which consists mainly of solar photovoltaic assets, including projects in development and assets in operation with some power purchase agreements. The estimated value of the portfolio is around $2. 14 billion, as per initial valuations by the banks. The company currently has about 10 gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity in mainland Spain. Phil, this is a huge deal. It seems like Indus and a number of other companies are selling a minority stake in their existing assets to help fund the next generation of renewables. Phil Totaro: Exactly. So this actually follows moves by Iberdrola Greenergy, and Repsol in the past, you know, 8 or 12 months or so, to also sell off some minority stakes. It’s, it’s important to note that what, what Indese is doing, and this, keep in mind, this is the Spanish arm of utility company Enel Italian utility company Enel so what they’re doing in Spain is, I think, just trying to free up some cash for reinvesting in new greenfield sites, and keep in mind that they’re going to start building new or repowering some of the wind and solar sites that they have in Spain within the next five years. And I think that they want to start freeing up some, some cash to be able to do that. Phil, I want to ask  Joel Saxum: you a question about this one. Do you think that some of this has to do with, with rising? Interest rates globally as well, because if these assets are, are financed, is it like, hey, man, we’re tired of paying these six and seven percent or whatever the interest rates may be on some of these notes. They think you want to get out from underneath those interest payments a little bit. You think that  Phil Totaro: could be a part of it? Potentially, it depends on what they negotiate in terms of the debt financing. I