Show Me the Way

Energy Central - energyblogs.com : November 16 2009

By Bill Opalka

I first met Tom Carnahan last spring on a renewable energy tour that made a stopover in his native Missouri. The president of a relatively new wind development company was eager to show one of his first projects, but there was some business to take care of. The tour had just flown into St. Joseph, Missouri, and before we left the small city we had to see the historic sites, the same way somebody might show off the Statue of Liberty: the brick stables from the Pony Express and the house where Jesse James met his violent end were what put St. Joe on the map.

Now, this proud son of Missouri is writing some history of his own, having led the company that’s developed the first utility scale wind farms in the Show-Me state. And there’s more to come, as he explained when I spoke to him this week. Now the president and CEO of St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group, Carnahan is picking up after the hiatus imposed on wind development by the credit crunch over the past year. Less than two weeks ago WCG closed $240 million in financing for its 150 megawatt Lost Creek project in Missouri. Construction started last summer and is expected to be completed in Spring 2010. The company escaped the financial meltdown last year “long on projects, short on turbines” that didn’t tie up capital. WCG now has a 2,000 megawatt pipeline in a dozen states.

WCG started out with financial backing from John Deere, the farm equipment manufacturer that saw rural wind development as a way to support its key customers. Together they developed a 400 megawatt portfolio throughout the Midwest. But the biggest boost came when the emerging company caught the eye of an Irish energy company with a pocketful of cash looking to invest in the U.S. market. NTR plc had just sold its Airtricity wind power unit that included a portfolio of projects in the U.S. in two transactions that grossed $2.7 billion. It was now looking to re-establish in North America with renewable energy, including wind. It invested $150 million in WCG in 2008.

A few years ago Carnahan looked at a United States map of wind energy sites and saw a blank white spot in the middle. It was his native Missouri, with no wind projects, even though neighbors with the same climate, like Iowa, Illinois and Oklahoma were going full blast. He was practicing real estate law at the time and decided to stoke his interest in renewable energy. A change in the renewable energy policy treatment helped as well.

The son of a Missouri political family (his late father was Missouri’s governor and U.S. Senator, his mother served out his term), Tom Carnahan says, while often asked, he has no ambitions of his own. “My father taught us there were many ways to perform public service. What we’re doing is building a business that’s creating jobs and promoting energy independence,” he said.
Not a bad way to start out in business, either.