By Christoph Steitz
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Wpd, which owns Germany's second-largest pipeline of renewable energy projects, says its manageable scale and decades of experience make it well-placed to fend off looming competition from oil majors entering the sector.
Facing pressure from shareholders worried about the climate impact of fossil fuel and from a fall in oil and gas markets linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, oil majors, including BP (L:BP) and Shell (L:RDSa), are seeking to accelerate a portfolio shift towards greener fuel.
Hartmut Broesamle, wpd's chief operating officer, said that is easier said than done.
"Onshore wind is a small-scale and labour-intensive business. You can't do that out of a large corporate headquarters," he told Reuters.
"You need people on the ground who believe in the cause or experts with a lot of experience in the area of wildlife conservation," he said, adding it took decades to build these teams.
Founded in 1996, wpd has grown its pipeline of onshore, offshore and solar projects to 19.85 gigawatts, making it Germany's second-biggest after that of RWE (DE:RWEG).
The group, which is co-owned by its two founders, is active in 25 countries, with France, Germany, Sweden and Taiwan among the largest markets.
"The oil majors' market entry is driving the sector. I'm happy about every additional euro that flows into renewables and not into developing new oil fields," Broesamle said.
But in financial terms, interest from the sector has not grown materially, he said, adding it was the established players - pension funds, insurers, municipal utilities and mid-sized energy firms - looking to invest more.
Wpd runs and owns most of its projects, with the exception of offshore wind, where co-investors are needed for expenditure of usually more than 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion) per farm.
Wpd, which financial sources say is worth 4-5 billion euros, is selling assets in Canada, Finland and Sweden to fund growth, Broesamle said, adding the U.S. offshore market was not attractive due to very high prices for wind territory.
($1 = 0.8496 euros)