Finance

Power Market Transparency: Money Out of ‘Negawatts’

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Americans are accustomed to being told that they are running behind other countries, that other places are doing a better job of educating their young or building high-speed railroads or ensuring access to healthcare. Energy efficiency would seem to be the last area in which the US, with its famously well-lit and climate-controlled lifestyle, would be leading.

But in fact, demand response markets that allow customers and power providers to reap the benefits of “negawatts” (essentially un-used power they would traditionally demand or need to supply) are highly developed in the US, if admittedly still imperfectly understood and applied. The market for demand response, which is the activity that creates “negawatts,” has grown from essentially nothing a decade ago to a $3 billion market today, Joule Assets CEO Mike Gordon told Breaking Energy on the sidelines of the AGRION Energy & Sustainability Summit in New York City this month. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 26, 2013 at 8:00 AM

Challenge and Opportunity: Financing Renewable Energy Projects

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Structuring renewable energy projects that provide acceptable investment returns is often helped by using feed in tariffs in European and other markets, but tax equity vehicles are more common in the US. Tax equity arrangements can be structurally complicated and difficult to administer, but can also provide double-digit returns when done properly.

These were some of the issues discussed by an expert panel at the AGRION Energy Summit and Sustainability Meeting held this week in New York City. The production tax credit for wind projects – recently extended for one year after much controversy – and the investment tax credit for solar are two tax equity vehicles commonly used in the US to help finance projects. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 21, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Three Ways for a Solar Energy Deal to Fail

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The solar business has been overshadowed in the past two years by rapidly declining prices, related “trade wars” replete with accusations of dumping on global markets and the failure of a high-profile company – Solyndra – pushing an unproved technology.

But solar power has in the past decade gone from a hippie style accessory and an expensive small-scale solution to a large, proven generation source with installations that can rival and exceed the scale of competing fossil fuel plants. Nonetheless, financing remains a fundamental challenge, with many projects highly dependent on market forecasts that have too little historic data for banks wary of lending to any but the most traditional enterprises at a time of intense regulatory oversight. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 20, 2013 at 10:30 AM

The Man With Money in His Voice: NY State’s Richard Kauffman

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Richard Kauffman had a rapt audience at the AGRION Energy and Sustainability Summit in New York City as he opened the event with a largely off-the-cuff speech. He is a man known in the industry for handing out (and making) serious sums of money in energy, and has just been handed one of the highest profile, but least understood, new positions in the New York state government. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 20, 2013 at 7:30 AM

Continued Strong Growth for Energy Mergers and Acquisitions in Q4

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Generally driven by a bump in generation asset and renewables transactions, mergers and acquisitions more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2012 over the same period in 2011 for a whopping 116% increase, according to the PwC U.S. quarterly report North American Power Deals: Q4 2012.

Here are some takeaways from the report: Keep reading →

 /  Published February 15, 2013 at 3:00 PM

Natural Gas Market Transparency: What does FERC Want?

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Everyone wants Washington to take action, but when politicians and regulators start moving ahead with reform plans it is a good bet almost no one is going to be happy with the outcome.

The energy sector, as one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country, has some surprisingly freewheeling elements following the piecemeal and incomplete deregulation of energy trading that followed decades of extreme centralization. Efforts to dismantle the old central-planning model of energy markets were halted by the extraordinary complexity of market disruptions in the late 1990s and early 2000s and have been lagging in the decade since. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 15, 2013 at 11:15 AM

Tech Advantages Favor ‘Big Three’ Firms in Oil Services

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The largest energy services companies are set to benefit from a focus on oil drilling in the US as the shale oil boom in North America continues, analysts at Barclays claim, even as drilling for natural gas in shale – largely an “efficiency game” – becomes commoditized.

Much has been made of the boom in development of both oil and natural gas fields in the US, stemming from advances in the efficiency and deployment of hydraulic fracturing. That technological advance has created a price dynamic that weighs on the very industry that has taken advantage of it, while comparatively high global oil prices have made drilling for crude – a more complicated business – more attractive. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 5, 2013 at 9:00 AM

Cleantech Innovation in New York City Gets a Boost

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In the popular imagination, New York City is dominated by finance, media and other professional jobs of the kind likely to feature in glossy television shows. But the steady departure of manufacturing jobs that once employed many of the city’s residents has been embraced by city leaders as a challenge they can meet by leveraging access to the centers of commerce, education and technology for which the city is famous.

New York has traditionally ceded energy and cleantech leadership to other places, notably Houston and San Francisco, but is increasingly building public support for clean energy companies and projects that can replace its traditional manufacturing base and diversify the city’s economy. Hard on the heels of Governor Cuomo’s announcement of a billion-dollar Green Bank to underpin infrastructure development, the New York City Economic Development Corporation says it will open a new NYC Clean Technology Entrepreneur Center. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 1, 2013 at 9:00 AM

Activist Investor Elliott Management Seeking to Remake Hess

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Elliott Management Corp. confirmed it is seeking five seats on Hess Corp.’s (HES) board in order to push the company to separate its assets in the oil-rich Bakken Shale region from less prolific international assets.

 /  Published January 29, 2013 at 3:15 PM

$1 Billion Green Bank to Advance New York’s Clean Energy Economy

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In his 2013 State of the State Address, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo proposed a $1 billion “Green Bank” to draw in private sector money and spark investment in clean energy projects. The Governor also named a “Cabinet-Level Energy Czar” to advance his clean tech strategies. The announcements are a step forward to promote renewable energy development and boost New York’s clean energy economy.

Governor Cuomo, at his 2013 State of the State address on January 9, 2013, announced innovative proposals to continue clean energy economy advancement. Central to his strategy is a $1 billion Green Bank, a fund that will draw in private sector money to match public funds and spur investment in clean energy technologies. The goal is to provide low-cost and low-risk financing for renewable projects and energy efficiency programs. Part of the funds from Energy Efficiency Portfolio, Renewable Portfolio Standards, and System Benefit Charge will fund the Bank and attract private investment. Governor Cuomo also named Richard Kauffman, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, as “Cabinet-Level Energy Czar.” Kauffman will oversee the Green Bank and head the new sub-cabinet formed to oversee clean energy policy and funding. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM
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