Wind power managing owners

Wind power managing owners are responsible for the operation and maintenance and administration of wind farms which they develop or acquire. All or part of these responsibilities may be subcontracted to third parties. Over the past few years the global trend is toward public utilities and large Independent Power Producers (IPPs) developing and owning large scale (normally about 20 to 500 MW) wind farms. Wind power managing owners, along with other financing parties and equity partners, typically sell the electricity generated from wind farms to other public utilities under long-term (typically 20 years) Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) where they receive a fixed or annually adjusted price for the electricity. Renewable energy incentives (which vary by country) also play a role in the revenue stream of a managing owner.

Largest managing owners in the world
According to the April 2008 press release from Emerging Energy Research, Spain-based Iberdrola (with its acquisition of Scottish Power and its 2nd-ranking U.S. developer PPM Energy) surpassed U.S.-based FPL Energy to become the world's largest wind owner with over 6,900 MW of capacity. After Iberdrola and FPL, the largest wind owners in the world are Energias de Portugal (EDP), Spain-based Acciona, Australian investment bank Babcock & Brown, Longyuan, German utility E.ON, Spanish utility Endesa, U.K.-based IPP International Power, and Électricité de France (EDF) Energies Nouvelles.

Largest managing owners in the U.S.
The largest wind power managing owners in the United States as of May 2008 are given in the table below: