There remains a lot in the US market for onshore wind developers, says Declan Flanagan, CEO of onshore wind developer Lincoln Clean Energy, which became part of the Danish utility Ørsted Monday.

According to industry media Recharge News, the CEO expects the volume of installed wind in the US will reach up to 200 GW over the coming years despite long-term challenges.

"You've got 100 GW of installed capacity or thereabouts now [in the US], and I can see a clear line of sight to that getting doubled," Flanagan told an American Wind Energy Association conference Monday in New York according to Recharge News.

"We're just asleep at the wheel as an industry if we don’t double it."

At the conference the CEO added that the US could ultimately build new large-scale wind farms due to increased competition from other energy forms. However, according to Flanagan this will not mark the end of the wind industry.

"Even if you believe ... that your last large-scale wind farm will be built in the next decade, and after that it’s all DG, you're still going to have 200GW of installed capacity in the US, and a tonne of repowering capacity that will be there for the next 50-100 years," he said at the conference.

Utility Ørsted announced Monday afternoon that it had finalized its acquisition of Lincoln Clean Energy. The Danish utility discussed the acquisition of the Chicago-based onshore wind and solar carrier for the first time in August. The acquisition price landed at USD 580 million, corresponding to approximately DKK 3.7 billion.

Ørsted added that the US developer had a 513 MW portfolio under installation and a project portfolio of more than 1,500 MW ahead to 2022.

Ørsted has not operated within onshore wind over the past few years, focusing instead on the offshore wind market where it is also aiming to expand in the US.

English Edit: Lena Rutkowski

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