'Call us crazy, but we’re betting on a big future for small renewable energy players – even in offshore wind'

Every few years, sales of smaller renewable energy developers to large industrial players prompt talk that the sector is now well and truly “for the big guns only”.

That line of thought has only been reinforced by the arrival of deep–pocketed oil & gas majors and of big financial funds with their multi–billion-euro investment targets looking for ‘platforms’ – the latest buzzword for developers.

The recent purchase of Parkwind by JERA, after the sale a few months ago by wpd of its offshore arm to GIP (giving birth to Skyborn), which followed the record amounts paid for offshore wind leases in the UK and the US could be seen as the final nail in the coffin of a supposedly romantic era of renewables development where dreamers and idealists could still make it.

And yet, we at SNOW are choosing this moment to launch a company focusing specifically on small developers – and what’s more, we intend to be very active in the offshore wind sector. Are we crazy? Is it hubris? Time will tell, obviously, but there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the prospects of small scale, early-stage development work even in the most capital–intensive of sectors.