Offshore Wind Energy Investing

His fingers were the size of Italian sausages, and his neck was so big that his silk Brioni tie wrapped around his throat like a struggling Burmese python.

His giant frame could barely fit in the seat next to mine. And if you’ve ever flown first class with Air France, you know those are not small seats.

But Colin Mulloy isn’t your average-sized individual. At 6 feet, 6 inches and built like a Russian T-90 tank, he is beyond intimidating. Sitting next to him, I felt like a sickly, wiry child.

Fortunately, his appearance didn’t match his personality.

Quite chatty and full of laughter, Colin Mulloy made my recent trip to Europe a memorable one. Not only was he a fantastic storyteller, but he also worked in an industry I’ve been writing about for nearly a decade now.

What’s Your Office Look Like?

Colin Mulloy works in the offshore wind power industry. He’s a contract worker, so he doesn’t report to one individual company. But he makes his living primarily as a blade technician. Essentially, he carries out blade repairs on those massive 500-foot wind turbines in the ocean.

Here’s what Colin’s office looks like…

I don’t think there’s any amount of money you could pay me to do that job. But I must admit, I was certainly curious to know what kind of money a blade technician makes.

According to a very reliable source who’s involved in the financing of these massive offshore wind projects, a good blade technician who works consistently can pull in about $140,000 a year.

That ain’t chump change. And apparently, there’s going to be a huge demand for these guys very soon… particularly in the UK.

Sweet Growth

According to a new report from research firm GlobalData, the UK is set to grow its offshore wind power capacity from 3.7 gigawatts in 2013 to 11 gigawatts by 2020. As well, annual investment is set to jump from $3.3 billion in 2013 to $7.53 billion by 2020.

Today, about 3% of the UK’s total energy generation comes from offshore wind. In just five years, it’ll be around 9%. And remember, that’s just offshore.

Onshore wind already ponies up about 7.5 gigawatts today. If that number grows to just 10.5 gigawatts, the UK could be looking at about 18% of its power coming solely from wind in just about five years’ time.

Point is, while wind power is growing all across the globe, the UK is one of the sweetest growth stories. And really, it’s all about growth.

Nice Work (If You Can Get It)

Now, there are two easy ways to invest in UK’s wind power boom.

One I particularly like is through crowdfunding platforms such as Abundance Generation and Trillion Fund. These services allow you to invest in specific wind energy projects that offer small but generous returns.

These are great if you’re looking for a bit of stability (at least more so than stocks) and don’t mind letting your investment sit for a few years.

The downside to these deals is that they are only available to UK investors or those in the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA includes 27 of the 28 member states of the EU as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Another more obvious way to invest in the UK wind sector is by simply taking a position in one the major turbine players. These include, but are not limited to:

• GE (NYSE: GE)
• Vestas (OTC: VWDRY)
• Siemens (OTC: SIEGY)
• Gamesa (OTC: GCTAF)

Of course, if you really want to make some serious scratch in this space, you could always become the next Colin Mulloy and personally get in on the action. It’s not bad work if you can get it.

And the way things are looking, it seems like this is one job market that’ll be white-hot for the next 10 to 20 years.

To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…

Jeff Siegel

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Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.

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