YieldCo & MLPs: A new method to finance wind projects

About 8 YieldCos have been formed in 2014 as a way to tap the stock market for funds.  NextEra, SunEdison and others have created yieldCo companies, and sold a lot of their renewable assets to these new companies.  The new companies pay dividents to shareholders based on revenues from electricity generation.  Selling assets to YieldCos frees up a lot of capital for new RE investments.

According to Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) “By statute, MLPs have only been available to investors in energy portfolios for oil, natural gas, coal extraction, and pipeline projects. These projects get access to capital at a lower cost and are more liquid than traditional financing approaches to energy projects, making them highly effective at attracting private investment."  He continues, “Investors in renewable energy projects, however, have been explicitly prevented from forming MLPs, starving a growing portion of America's domestic energy sector of the capital it needs to build and grow.”

For more see http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2015/01/solwind_new_yieldco_with...

 

Wind generation in Denmark

 

Denmark generated a record amount of from wind in 2014, it amounted to 39% of electricity consumption in the country.  This twice the percentage 10 years ago.

Energinet.dk, the Danish national transmission operator reports that Denmark is on track to reach 50% of electricity from wind by 2020.  The key challenge is to better use wind energy for heating.

For more details see, http://cphpost.dk/news/denmark-nearing-2020-wind-energy-target.12139.html

 

Wind farm fined for bird deaths

PacificCorp Energy was fined $2.5m for bird deaths in Wyoming wind farms.  The US government alleged that "PacifiCorp Energy failed to make all reasonable efforts to build the projects in a way that would avoid the risk of avian deaths by collision with turbine blades, despite prior guidance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

 

For more see, http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27269019/company-fined-2-5-million-aft...

 

Uncertain future of the first US offshore wind project

Two power companies terminated the PPA contract with Cape Wind, the wind project in Nantucket Sound which was projected to be the first offshore wind farm in the US.  The reason given: "failure to obtain financing and begin construction by Dec 31, 2014."

 

For details see, http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/01/06/major-setback-for-cape-wind-...

China lowers Feed-in Tariff for wind

For details see, http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1328437/china-confirms-cut-onsho...

FiT will be cut down by $0.02 for type 1, type 2 and type 3 wind regions, reducing electricity prices to CNY 0.49 ($0.078), CNY 0.52 and CNY 0.56 per kilowatt hour.

The CNY 0.61/kWh FIT will be unchanged in the type 4 region, which has low wind resources.

Tetra Tech ES, Inc.

South Asia Regional Initiative in Energy (SARI/E)

  1. Wind energy specialist
  2. Countries:  Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India
  3. Consultations to facilitate wind energy development
  4. Workshops to utility, developers, ministry and others
  5. Workshop for lenders on evaluating wind projects

 

Indonesia Clean Energy Development (ICED)