U.S. pays $3.9 billion to cancel offshore wind leases and redirect capital to gas

The equity and derivatives market strategist at InnovestX Research, InnovestX Securities, said efforts to push Thailand as a regional data center hub are taking clearer shape after the first meeting of the Data Center Business Policy Committee resolved to accelerate integration of data and legal provisions into a single dashboard, in order to set a clear industrial strategic framework within one month. The criteria define data centers using more than 2 MW of electricity as industrial businesses, set resource utilization fees to reflect true direct and indirect costs, and impose strict energy conditions to support Green Data Centers, including a separate electricity tariff category for the group, a mandatory clean energy share of no less than 60% to meet Net Zero goals, and tighter standards for backup power systems. Four subcommittees will be set up covering the economy, infrastructure, land and buildings, and the environment to draw up technical standards, and decisive measures are being prepared to suspend water and electricity allocation for projects not yet under construction if they fail the criteria. InnovestX assesses that these clearer policies will create significant positive ripple effects for two main industries. The first is clean energy, where the 60% minimum clean energy requirement will turn clean power from an option into a necessity, sharply driving real demand. The second is industrial estates, where classifying data centers as industrial businesses will draw foreign direct investment, or FDI, into leading estates equipped with smart grid networks and environmental management, leaving estates reliant on fossil fuels far behind. The investment strategy therefore recommends Selective Buy, focusing on accumulating leaders in these two main industries. For industrial estates, it favors companies with stable smart grid networks sufficient for Tier 3-4 data centers, joint ventures with multinational technology firms, and their own water recycling management systems, namely AMATA and WHA. For clean energy, it favors companies making progress on direct power purchase agreements, or Direct PPAs, with global hyperscalers, with high ESG scores and green certificates, and investing in battery energy storage systems, or BESS, to maintain the stability of electricity supplied to data centers, namely GULF, GPSC and BGRIM, as well as GUNKUL, a contractor for high-voltage transmission line systems.

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg and its partners Allianz, AIP Management and Norges Bank Investment Management have inaugurated the 960MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm in the German North Sea. The project, which comprises 64 turbines installed last month, is being commissioned in stages, with operations expected in the coming months, and the first turbines are already supplying electricity to the grid. He Dreiht was built without state funding and is financed through long-term power purchase agreements, with total investment of approximately $2.75bn (€2.4bn). EnBW holds a 50.1% stake through a project company, while the remaining 49.9% is owned by a consortium comprising Allianz Global Investors on behalf of Allianz entities, AIP Management and Norges Bank Investment Management. The wind farm is expected to generate enough electricity to cover the annual needs of the equivalent of around 1.1 million households, and its PPA partners include Evonik, Google, the Telekom subsidiary PASM, Fraport, Bosch, Salzgitter, SHS Stahl-Holding Saar, Deutsche Bahn and DHL Group. EnBW board of management chairman Georg Stamatelopoulos said He Dreiht is the largest single investment made by EnBW in renewables, and the company is developing further offshore projects including Dreekant (1GW) in the German North Sea and Morven (2.9GW) in Scotland.