Reported by Ann Rascalli

The Vice President of the largest wind project developer in the United States says it is not smooth sailing ahead for the utility wind market. His words offer a cautionary tale to the industry everywhere, including here in Colorado where a growing group of  wind-related manufacturers and developers reside.

Bob Opeka of Energy Central, a Denver-based media company serving the utility industry, says Mike O’Sullivan of  NextEra Energy Resources is known for making blunt assessments of the state of the industry during the biggest annual gathering of wind industry professionals.

On Tuesday of this week, he didn’t disappoint when comparing wind with other electricity sources.

“When talking to our customers they’re telling us the gap (in price) has gotten wide and we need to make it lower to be cost-competitive,” he said. Sullivan added that while the overall future for the wind industry is promising, the financial markets would be ruthless in determining which projects and developers are worthy of extending capital.

“I think there’s going to be a few less people in this room (next year),” he told the audience at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference  in Dallas.

Sullivan’s company has a wind portfolio of more than 7,500 megawatts, and has recently added roughly 1,000 megawatts a year. But not this year.

Opeka says Sullivan challenged the conventional view that transmission issues have to be solved externally, noting that many in the industry seemed to be waiting for the government to sort through the contentious issues related to cost allocation for new transmission. “

We went and built a 500-mile high voltage line ourselves,” the NextEra VP said.

Opalka offers a few caveats on the goings on in Big D. He says, “In no way do I mean to disparage the views and statements of O’Sullivan’s peers on stage whose companies have their own billions of dollars at risk in the market. And all have thoroughly legitimate complaints about the unstable policy environment and the havoc it creates in the marketplace.”

Opalka also points out that because of to its size and corporate structure, NextEra holds a rather exalted place in the industry,which gives it the wherewithal to withstand some of the vagaries of the market, or take risks that some players in the industry can only dream about.

The bottom line to Opalka and many of his media counterparts is that  O’Sullivan’s talk is one of the can’t-miss moments of the AWEA conference.

“And I wonder what he’ll say next year, no matter what shape the market is in,” ponders Opalka.