Power Production

Tom Konrad, CFA Boralex Inc. made an offer to buy out the Boralex Power Income Fund on May 19.  The price is reasonable.  Boralex (BLX.TO, BRLXF.PK) announced on May 2 that it would offer C$5 per share in convertible bonds for all outstanding shares of the Boralex Power Income Fund (BPT-UN.TO, BLXJF.PK) that it did not already own in an acquisition approved by both boards.  As usual with mergers, the Boralex Power Income Fund's ("the Fund's") unit price jumped from C$4.61 to C$4.90 the next day, but then if started to fall back as people had...

Atlantic Power (AT) presents itself as a "clean" electricity generator. People who don't consider natural gas "clean" will disagree.

Tom Konrad CFA Location of the Miekle wind energy project. Photo source: Finavera On June 21st, Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) announced the ratification of the sale of its Tumbler Ridge and Meikle wind energy projects to Pattern Energy with 99.63% of votes cast in favor (a 2/3 majority was needed). The result should have surprised no one, given that the sale was essential to Finavera’s liquidity and ability to fund its operations.  After shareholder, stock exchange, and regulatory approval, Pattern will forgive C$9.3 million of Finavera’s...

Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy Yesterday, I wrote about Western Wind Energy’s (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) plans to increase the 1603 cash grant for their Windstar wind farm.  But that was not the only thing discussed in Monday’s conference call. Investor Frustration During the Q&A, many investors were concerned about Western Wind’s recent deal to acquire a 4 GW wind development pipeline from Champlin/GEI Wind Holdings.   The concern was that the company would be issuing 8 million shares for the assets, but the company...

Wind farm owner and developer stocks are publicly traded companies that site, permit, develop, construct, own, or operate wind farms for producing electricity. This list was last updated on 3/22/2022 Acciona, S.A. (ANA.MC, ACXIF) Adani Green Energy (ADANIGREEN.NSE) Algonquin Power and Utilities (AQN, AQN.TO) Atlantica Yield PLC (AY) Atlantic Power Corporation (AT) Avangrid, Inc. (AGR) Boralex (BLX.TO, BRLXF) Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (BEP) China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited (0916.HK, CLPXF) China Ruifeng Renewable Energy Holdings Limited (0527.HK) Orsted (ORSTED.CO, formerly DENERG.CO) E.ON AG (EONGY) Enel SpA (ENEL.MI, ESOCF) Greencoat UK Wind (UKW.L) Infigen Energy Limited (IFN.AX, IFGNF) Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. (INE.TO, INGXF) Neoen S.A (NEOEN.PA) NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NEP) NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) Nordex AG (NRDXF, NDX1.DE) Northland Power Inc....

Tom Konrad CFA When it emerged that Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (“Brookfield”, TSX:BRP.UN, OTC: BRPFF) had acquired approximately one sixth of Western Wind Energy’s (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) stock last Thursday from Western Wind’s largest institutional shareholder, Goodman & Company, investors cheered. The transaction was seen as a signal that Brookfield intends to bid at least C$2.25 for Western Wind in its upcoming sale, and so the company’s stock has been trading for slightly more than C$2.25 since the announcement. Despite this, the Brookfield/Goodman transaction may not prove to be a good deal for Western Wind’s other shareholders.  Goodman had not...

Tom Konrad CFA Disclosure: I am long TSX:PRI / PENGF. The poster child of energy efficiency has long been changing a light bulb.  First, it was swapping out an incandescent for a compact fluorescent, now the swap is to an LED.  Changing a light bulb is a small step that anyone can take, and it’s so cost effective that it can pay for itself in months if the bulb is used frequently. This is a good example of household energy efficiency measures: a small action requiring a limited investment that anyone can take that pays back quickly....

Tom Konrad CFA Renewable energy power producer Western Wind Energy Corp (WNDEF.PK, WND.V) feels it gets no respect.  In particular, they have long felt that the investing public does not recognize the value of the company's existing and nearly completed wind farms.  Western Wind's Kingman I Wind & Solar park. Photo courtesy of the company. Independent Valuation Almost every company will tell you that their shares are undervalued, but what's a bit more unusual in this case is that their assets (Wind farms with a little solar thrown in) are...

Jim Lane In New York, NASDAQ shares in Abengoa SA (ABGB) plunged 49% in Wednesday trading after the embattled renewable energy developer said it would seek bankruptcy protection as it seeks to reorganize nearly $9.4 billion in debt. The protective filing was announced after an expected infusion of nearly $300 million from Spanish steelmaker Gonvarri did not materialize. The company’s debt had been previously downgraded to a B3 rating by Moody’s, six rungs on the ladder beneath investment grade. Last week, Moody’s described the company’s cash reserves as “insufficient” and expressed that asset sales and a round of...

FPL Group Inc (FPL) is currently in the advanced stages of negotiations to acquire Constellation Energy Group (CEG). An FPL-Constellation merger would create a giant East Coast-based utility with a market capitalization, based on Tuesday's closing stock prices, of $26.97 billion - $16.93 billion for FPL and $10.04 billion for Constellation. Constellation Energy Group is based out of Baltimore Maryland and is the holding company for Baltimore Gas and Electric. They also have an extensive presence in the wholesale power supply and generation business. The Power Generation Division currently uses 4.6% alternative sources for power generation. ...

By Jeff Siegel  President Obama gave renewable energy investors a very nice gift this week... As a part of his new budget proposal, the president is seeking a 7.2% increase in funding for “clean energy.” As well, he is asking for a permanent extension for the solar investment tax credit (ITC) and the wind energy production tax credit (PTC). The solar ITC is set to expire at the end of 2016, and the wind energy PTC has already expired. I can pretty much guarantee that a permanent extension of these tax credits is not going to happen....

Tom Konrad CFA On April 22nd, the court ruled against Power REIT (NYSE:PW) in the summary judgement phase of its litigation with Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE:NSC) and Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad (WLE).  At issue were if NSC and WLE were in default on a lease of 112 miles of track, and a number of claims surrounding the lease, and if they owed Power REIT's legal fees under the lease. Had power REIT prevailed on any of a number of counts, it could have been worth as much as $15 dollars a share to Power...

Tom Konrad CFA Western Wind and the Toronto Hedge Funds Last October, Western Wind Energy (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) received an unsolicited takeover bid of $2.50 a share from Algonquin Power (TSX:AQN, OTC:AQUNF) to buy the company.  Before the bid, the stock had been trading in the $1.20-$1.25 range, but President and CEO Jeff Ciachurski felt that it did not fully value the company’s projects and assets, including approximately $1 per share of US tax assets which the Canadian company Algonquin would not be able to use. Large shareholders at the time were in favor of the sale, including at least one shareholder...

by Debra Fiakas CFA Renewable energy producer Juhl Wind filed to terminate registration of its common stock and cease filing financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2015, but the company was not withdrawing from the wind energy industry.  Instead Juhl expanded.  Now called Juhl Energy (JUHL:  OTC/PNK), the company’s corporate website boasts of its corporate headquarters in Minnesota powered exclusively by wind and solar energy.  The company also claims the successful development of over 350 megawatts of wind power generation capacity at 25 different wind projects.  Additionally, the company has dipped its corporate toe...

The Pendulum Swings to Cash Over the long term, market cycles are characterized by swings of sentiment, and changes in investor preferences.  The recent cycle was characterized by an emphasis on growth and capital gains.  In the current financial crisis, investors are again learning the value of cash, and companies which produce steady cash flow and dividends.  Since the market tends to overshoot, I expect there will be a time a few years hence when, once again, the first question any investor asks about a stock is "What's the yield?" If I'm right, companies with strong cash flows that...