New green vendor leasing joint venture formed by Connaught Finance

Connaught Finance’s new green leasing initiatives are starting to make an impact in Asia Pacific.

Its newly-formed joint venture, Connaught Energy, established in Hong Kong but initially operating in Sri Lanka, is set to expand throughout the Asia Pacific area.

Paul Errington, Connaught Energy’s managing director, told Asset Finance International that in addition to Connaught Finance there are two other partners in the company. “A Sri Lankan director brings his networks and local knowledge into the business and Cold Energy Systems from the US, which is currently involved in a wind farm in Japan, adds its extensive experience to the tri-partite joint venture.”

Connaught Energy has the exclusive distribution rights for importing a specific manufacture of high altitude wind systems. These are initially being brought to bear in helping to solve the major power issues facing Sri Lanka.

Errington explained: “The high altitude wind system (HAWS) has been operating in various forms for around 20 years, but only in the last few years has the continuous refinements allowed serious production and the construction of wind farms.

“Harnessing power from the wind is one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to generate electricity as it produces no toxic pollution or global warming emissions. Wind is also abundant, inexhaustible, and affordable, which makes it a viable and large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.”

Currently Sri Lanka only generates some 2.01% of its power from wind farms and Errington explains that there are two major reasons for this. “Firstly, the cost of wind towers such as provided by Vesta is excessively high and secondly the deployment of wind towers is a logistic nightmare on the small roads of Sri Lanka”.

Launching Connaught Energy this week with the aim of promoting the growth of this sustainable energy source, Errington was bullish about the future in Asia. “We tick all the right boxes to replace the towers; far less cost, far less impact on the environment and far greater power production.”

“The high altitude systems,” he stressed, “are about 2% of the cost of existing tower systems, they are more easily deployed and have a capacity production of 55% as opposed to 35% with traditional wind towers.

The kite system 
“The kite system flies between 330 metres to 660 metres up. At this level the continuity of wind is far greater and the strength of wind is far greater than traditional wind towers can reach at their usual 90 metres.”

David Fender, Connaught Energy’s operations director said: “Our KE 100 model generates 36,000 kW/month to 54,000 kW/month – which is 36,000,000 watts/month to 54,000,000 watts/month. In other words, our KE 100 generates 36 MW to 54 MW per month – which translates into about 1.2 MW to 1.8 MW per day!”

The new company will also be offering its own vendor finance options to assist companies acquire the equipment which cost in the region of US$2m.

Errington added: “Whether systems are being used to generate power for their own manufacturing plants or being sold to the national grid, having a monthly repayment plan as opposed to a lump sum capital expenditure, just makes commercial sense.”

Fender explained that, physically, the base unit can be located either on a hotel roof or on the ground. “A wind farm of 30 units,” he said, “would only cover the area of a football field so even in this area of comparison; they use far less area than wind towers.

“The kite system will change the landscape for wind technology, they are less intrusive into the environment, easier to deploy and can be quite mobile if required.”

Although the initial focus is on Sri Lanka, Connaught Energy will be looking to the emerging Asian countries that are seeking reliable and constant power sources such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

For further details contact www.connaughtenergy.net