Terra Firma breezes into wind sector

The private equity boss behind the buy out of music industry giant EMI, Guy Hands, has outlined plans for a new record, that of becoming one of the largest providers of wind energy in the UK.

According to reports in The Sunday Times yesterday, Infinis, a waste-to-energy firm owned by Hands' investment firm Terra Firma, has kicked off a £1.2bn investment programme designed to make it a major player in the UK's booming wind energy market.

The company, which claims to be the UK's largest renewable energy firms and specialises in landfill gas to energy projects, has just received approval for a 27MW wind farm on one of its landfill sites in Scotland and said that it is now planning to build up to 800MW of onshore wind capacity over the next decade.

Alan Lovell, chief executive of Infinis, told The Sunday Times that the plan aimed to diversify the company's renewable energy portfolio.

"The challenge when I took over, was to use the strong cashflow from the landfill gas business to build a more general renewables business," he explained. "Our first move is onshore wind."

The company has appointed Alan Baker, former chief executive of Airtricity's Scottish operations, to lead the company's new wind division.

The plans come as opinions remain divided about the short term prospects for the wind energy sector.

Earlier this month, the Carbon Trust warned that the cost of building offshore wind farms had risen 50 per cent in the last three years and were likely to rise further, while work on the £800m Thanet wind farm was recently halted after attempts to find a new backer faltered.

However, investment is continuing to flow into the sector with commentators convinced the long-term outlook for wind energy projects remains strong.

For example, Abu Dhabi investment fund Masdar recently bought a stake in the London Array offshore wind farm, while the Carbon Trust last week announced a £30m investment programme designed to bring down the cost of offshore wind developments.