After dipping their toes into the US renewable energy market a few years ago, Germany’s largest energy players are now increasing their investments, even as renewable energy sales in the US have slowed under the weight of the financial crisis. The hope is that a potential climate change bill in the Senate and billions in stimulus money aimed at building a clean energy sector in the US will pump life into the market.

“The US has enormous growth potential,” Frank Mastiaux, head of the Climate & Renewables division at German energy giant E.on, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “It’s not the most attractive market in terms of revenue, but markets change,” he adds.

To that end, E.on invested $1 billion to build the largest wind farm in the world with 627 wind turbines in Roscoe, Texas, which opened this month. E.on has also opened two other wind farms in recent weeks, both in Texas, representing 600 additional megawatts of clean energy. That will bring the total capacity in the United States to over 1,700 megawatts, or more than half of the company’s total wind energy capacity worldwide. In terms of the impact to its bottom line, the US market is becoming more important to the company everyday, Mastiaux says.

[1] http://ow.ly/15Y9Jy