The language of short-lived sales and low-cost financing is more usually heard around used-car lots and department stores, but there isn’t any reason the same factors can’t apply to the utility business.
The short-term, act-now opportunity open to the power sector in the US is clear in an environment that will dictate significant capital investment, the authors of a new report from consulting firm Booz & Company argue. Keep reading →
Complicated financials in a solar firm with legal issues make it difficult to get through the IPO gate.
After lowering its stock price to a reported $10 per share from a range of $13 to $15, IPO aspirant SolarCity was unable to fill its book and has postponed its IPO, according to Reuters, which quoted an underwriter of the deal. SolarCity has not returned requests for comment. Keep reading →
The municipal and cooperative power companies that make up the country’s public power utilities have a completely different set of concerns and priorities than their IOU cousins. A Users Conference Survey conducted with utility customers of smart grid communications company Tantalus found that their focus and investment priorities for 2013 are the new technologies that will ensure low electricity costs for ratepayers.
Tantalus CEO Eric Murray commented “This survey demonstrates what we already know from our experience working with public power utilities for more than a decade – that they are dedicated first and foremost to serving their customers with reliable, cost-effective power. By adopting energy saving applications that keep rates down, utilities not only show their commitment to their customers, but they also invest in a cleaner, smarter grid.” Keep reading →
With global LNG demand projected to exceed supply by a wide margin, the prospects for North American exports of liquefied natural gas are exceptionally strong. But an unexpected development has raised a question about Canadian participation in this emerging export opportunity.
The question is: Will the Canadian government decide to block any of the pending acquisitions of its E&P players by foreign energy majors? Keep reading →
It might at first glance look like a good omen that the EU has shown up at the current United Nations climate change conference in Doha, Qatar, with its carbon emission reduction goals for 2020 already met.
Eight years ahead of time, Europe’s emissions are below its longstanding goal of a 20% reduction by 2020 compared to a 1990 baseline. In theory, Europe is a clean energy model for other countries striving to achieve the Kyoto-set targets and begin to reign in global warming. Keep reading →
Elite economists and analysts from around North America and the world gathered in Austin, Texas this week for the US Association for Energy Economics North America conference. Breaking Energy has been on the ground at the event, covering sustainable energy and anticipated impacts of the US presidential election, as well as responses to Hurricane Sandy.
Unusual for its diversity of approaches and subject areas, the USAEE conference mixes deep dives into areas of technical and financial analysis with broader sweeps of trends driving the business. The mix of attendees, which includes everything from Pulitzer Prize winning authors and senior energy company executives to college students, also balances the sector-specific discussions with valuable real-world and operational insight. Keep reading →
Power prices are too low. That’s what utility executives believe. They need prices to increase for their generators to return healthy earnings. Otherwise, they will have to retire plants and exit the market.
Dominion Resources decided not to wait. They recently announced plans to retire their Wisconsin-based Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station 21 years early. Dominion concluded they would not be able to achieve any earnings for their 556-megawatt unit, they might even lose money and they could not find anyone to buy it. They had no choice but to shutter and decommission Kewaunee. Keep reading →
The US energy sector has been a rare bright spot through much of the past four years as first financial firms and then the rest of the global economy has struggled to recover from a grinding and often jobless recession.
Statistics about jobs vary, but any region with significant oil or gas resources has noted the uptick in employment in those sectors as development has accelerated. The most recent numbers from Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry, for example, show core employment in the Marcellus Shale developments in the state up by 177.5% from first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2012, even as the state’s overall employment level has lagged that of the rest of the country. Keep reading →
Economists at the National Economists Conference in February 2012.
Every attendee at the USAEE/IAEE conference this week has something important to add, from the university students giving their first professional presentations and preparing to enter a rapidly expanding industry to the former ambassadors and corporate chiefs gathered to headline sessions and lunches at the event Austin. Keep reading →
