David Willetts
Stable policy and massive infrastructure needs will limit the impacts of a looming double-dip recession in one of the world’s leading advanced economies, a government minister told Breaking Energy last week. Keep reading →
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Duke Energy and Progress Energy said Monday that they have accepted federal regulators’ conditions for completing their merger and hope to close the deal by Sunday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled earlier this month that the utility companies could combine their operations, but only if they meet conditions designed to ensure that the company wouldn’t exercise undue influence over the power markets in the Carolinas. Duke and Progress are also working to secure approval from regulators in North Carolina and South Carolina by this weekend. The all-stock deal, announced in January 2011 and valued at about $26 billion, would create the nation’s largest utility. Duke, of Charlotte, N.C., serves 4 million customers in the Carolinas, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, operates wholesale power and renewable-energy businesses and has international operations in Brazil and elsewhere.
It is the best of times for renewable energy project developers and it is the worst of times for renewable energy project developers, and the difference lies in a single contract.
The existence of a signed power purchase agreement (PPA) between the developer of a renewable energy generation project and an established utility marks the divide between a premium-valuation market for renewable assets and a deeply discounted valuation in an overcrowded market. Keep reading →
Sustainable investing is an increasingly mainstream activity. But utilities are only beginning to adjust their business approaches to get in on the popularity of using those sustainability metrics to evaluate company performance and outlooks.
While the industry may appear to be awash in metrics, and the sector was in large part born out of an indexation process kicked off by the United Nations and continued in this year’s high-profile Sustainable Energy for All initiative, a new company from a father-and-son pair of energy experts says it has identified a remaining gap in the market for indices. Keep reading →
There is a looming renewable energy crisis, but it’s probably not the one you think. While national headlines over the past few months have focused on controversial federal loan guarantees, or the approaching expiration of key tax credits, the threat to renewable energy is much deeper than just these two areas.
Through Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), 29 states and the District of Columbia require electric utilities that supply power to their residents to obtain a specified percentage of their electricity from renewable energy sources by a specified date. For the last decade, RPS has been a resounding bipartisan success story, popular in both “red” and “blue” states alike. Today, they are the linchpin of our country’s investment in renewables, setting the requirement that a host of other public subsidies, including tax credits, are intended to support. Keep reading →
Renewable energy project financing and development is being challenged by regulatory uncertainty and historically depressed natural gas prices. This is probably not a surprise to industry participants and observers, but these were two predominant themes among the bankers, developers, lawyers and other participants at the 9th annual Renewable Energy Finance Forum Wall Street in New York on June 19th.
The situation is risky right now for investors, said Nicholas d’Arbeloff, President of Regional Development and National Programs for Advanced Energy Economy, an industry association. How heavily do you want to bet, given the current political uncertainty? Keep reading →
States should abandon the “venture capital” approach to supporting renewable energy and focus on a fuel and technology-agnostic portfolio approach, Connecticut’s energy and environment commissioner says.
Connecticut is abandoning technology-specific renewable energy credits and instead funding a “green bank” that tightens the focus on creating scale in the deployment of both renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel Esty said at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum – Wall Street in New York City today. Keep reading →
The power industry has conducted a complex dance of consolidation and division over the past few decades in response to technological disruption, regulatory trends and financial shifts.
Recent years have brought about a new wave of consolidation and utility bankers have been busy ushering companies into new larger footprints through buying complementary assets rather than embarking on broad new competition-based construction and infrastructure investment programs. Constellation is now part of Exelon, and Duke Energy is adding further to its portfolio with the acquisition of Progress Energy, the two highest-profile deals in a spate of transactions all the more surprising for the tightness in financial markets since the 2008 crisis. Keep reading →
Despite adverse conditions, carbon market still grew by 11 percent in 2011 http://ow.ly/btLQ0
By Peter GardettDespite adverse conditions, carbon market still grew by 11% in 2011 http://ow.ly/btLQ0 rioplussocial
US President Barack Obama (L) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R) tour Photovoltaic Array at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 27, 2009 with Base Commander Colonel Howard Belote.
The US military services want to derive 3 gigawatts of electric capacity from renewables by 2025, but they don’t have the budget to pay to build it. Keep reading →
