SUNE SETS: SunEdison Files For Bankruptcy
DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD
John's latest update on graft, corruption and waste in the energy sector.
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SUN EDISON FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
SunEdison SUNE, +0.83% said Thursday that it filed for bankruptcy protection, a move that has been expected by investors for weeks. The renewable energy company's stock was halted for news. The company said it has secured $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing to minimize business disruptions while it restructures. "Our decision to initiate a court-supervised restructuring was a difficult but important step to address our immediate liquidity issues," said Chief Executive Ahmad Chatila. SunEdison said its yieldcos, TerraForm Power TERP, +8.11% and TerraForm Global GLBL, +9.62% were not part of the filing. TerraForm Power's stock surged 4.1% in morning trade and TerraForm Global shares climbed 3%.
SunEdison's Failed Deals Could Bite Back in Bankruptcy
Potential legal damages stemming from deals SunEdison failed to close while its finances were deteriorating could total hundreds of millions of dollars, according to court filings and people familiar with the deals. Litigation over the failed deals could add to the company’s already lengthy list of creditors and possibly extend to its publicly traded subsidiaries.
SunEdison’s swift rise and fall was fueled by its appetite for takeovers and the availability of cheap money from Wall Street to finance them. When that financing dried up during a volatile period in the markets and a slide in oil prices, SunEdison backed out of several transactions.
Of 11 deals reached since last May, SunEdison has failed to close five with a combined value of about $3.8 billion, according to FactSet. It is in active litigation or arbitration on two of them, and other counterparties are reviewing litigation options, according to people familiar with the matter.
This is a frightening clip from February last year. SunEdison CEO tells CNBC that his company is at least 25% undervalued.
SunEdison CEO: We are 25-30% Undervalued
Why SunEdison Could Pull It's Yieldco's Into Bankruptcy
While SunEdison's fate is all but sealed, the fates of its yieldcos TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global are less certain. But they could be in trouble as well if SunEdison does go under.
In late March, TerraForm Global warned investors that some of its debt repayments could be accelerated if SunEdison files for bankruptcy and some power purchase agreements on projects could be reduced. One of the core problems was $231 million it paid to SunEdison for 425 MW of uncompleted projects in India. By all accounts, those projects either won't be completed on time or at all, which led TerraForm Global to sue SunEdison earlier this month.
What makes TerraForm Global so risky for investors is the fact that a SunEdison default could lead to a cascade of financial impacts that could lead to a default for the yieldco. And without updated financial statements since the end of September, it's hard to assess what SunEdison's finances really look like.
TerraForm Power, a "yieldco" of SunEdison, has a recently-confirmed, but undisclosed SEC probe. In a letter to us dated March 14, 2016, the SEC confirmed enforcement proceedings were ongoing at TerraForm Power.
At the end of Mar-2016, SunEdison disclosed both a DOJ and SEC investigation. This followed the company's delayed 10-K filing announced at the end of Feb-2016. Yet information recently received from the SEC shows TerraForm Power, a "yieldco" of SunEdison, was already under investigation by the SEC prior to either of these two events occurring at SunEdison. To this day, the SEC investigation of TerraForm Power, which was confirmed as on-going as of 14-Mar-2016, remains undisclosed.
Terraform Global 'Bad Boy' Utility Dog Shows Top April Yield Gains
Tesla hires SunEdison’s energy storage lead as the company is going bankrupt
Through the troubles, Electrek has learned that Tesla hired a key member of SunEdison’s energy storage team. Mohammad C. Bozchalui is an expert in grid solutions. He holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tehran and a Ph.D. in Power and Energy Systems from the University of Waterloo, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Lowers Stake in SUNEDISON (SUNE) to 2.8%
In a 13D filing on SUNEDISON, Inc. David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital disclosed a 2.8%, or 11,331,833 share, stake in the company. This is down 58.26% from the 27,151,576 shares held at the end of the latest quarter ending March 31, 2016.
Nancy Pelosi's Husband Snared in Sun Edison Scandal
Paul Pelosi Invested in SunEdison Weeks Before First Wind Purchase
WASHINGTON-- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in SunEdison, a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent its stock price soaring. SunE's 2014 purchase of wind energy company First Wind “further bolstered the reputation of the company,” wrote one market-watcher at the time. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, SunEdison’s stock soared 29% on news of this acquisition alone.”
Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, had invested just in time. He bought between $100,000 and $250,000 in SunEdison stock on Oct. 24, 2014, according to congressional financial disclosures. The company announced its First Wind acquisition on Nov. 17.
Pelosi has previously been accused of trading stock based on information gleaned through her official duties. A law passed in the wake of that controversy prohibits members of Congress from using nonpublic information for personal gain. Language in that measure was informally dubbed the 'Pelosi Provision.'
Multi Million Green Jobs Loan Given To Nancy Pelosi's Brother In Law
Additionally, Federal Election Commission records made available by the Center for Responsive Politics show that SolarReserve board member James McDermott has contributed $61,500 to various Democratic campaigns since 2008, including $30,800 to Obama’s presidential election campaign.
McDermott’s U.S. Renewable Energy Group has a significant financial stake in SolarReserve, and has drawn scrutiny for its ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — and for reportedly driving green jobs to China.
And Lee Bailey, a fellow SolarReserve board member and U.S. Renewables Group investor, has donated $21,850 since 2008 to Democratic candidates including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
SolarReserve’s board of directors also includes Jasandra Nyker of Pacific Corporate Group Asset Management, where former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law, Ronald Pelosi, holds a leadership position.
Another Taxpayer Funded Solar Energy Company Fails
NEW YORK – The collapse of a Spanish-based multinational renewable energies company could cause election-year embarrassment not only to President Obama, Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic Party, but also to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi, through their ties to Goldman Sachs.
MUST READ: Spanish Firm Abengoa Bagged Over 3 Billion In Taxpayer Funds
This blockbuster saga entails the law-breaking Spanish conglomerate that carries direct ties to a slew of powerful U.S. Democrats, which bagged over $3 billion of American taxpayer money, with the vast majority coming from President Obama's trillion-dollar stimulus package, coupled with high-praises from the president, is now imploding.
How Pelosi Helped Billionaire Tom Steyer Nab Millions in Taxpayer Funds
Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer has donated more than $20 million to candidates and outside groups to influence this year’s election, making him the top individual contributor in 2014. And that’s just a fraction of the $50 million Steyer has said he’s willing to spend.
Pelosi, the former House speaker who currently serves as Democratic leader, has used her Washington perch to boost some of Steyer’s projects with government aid. In total, Steyer has benefited from more than $1 billion in taxpayer money. According to her own press releases, Pelosi is responsible for a share of that total.
OIL AND GAS BANKRUPTCY
4 More Bankruptices in Texas Energy This Week
Four more Texas energy companies filed for bankruptcy last week, bringing the total to 21 North American producers that have filed since the start of the year, according to data from Haynes & Boone. Since the beginning of 2015, there have been 63 North American producers that have filed for bankruptcy. Of those companies, the largest concentration is Texas-based, with 31 of the companies stemming from the Lone Star State. Here are the latest companies to join the Texas energy bankruptcy club.
Complete Haynes and Boone List of Bankruptcies for 2016
Haynes and Boone has tracked 63 North American oil and gas producers that have filed for bankruptcy since the beginning of 2015. These bankruptcies, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 15, and Canadian cases, involve approximately $22.5 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt. As of April 15, 2016, 21 producers have filed bankruptcy so far this year. All indications suggest many more producer bankruptcy filings will occur during 2016.
Previously:
SunEdison: The Biggest Implosion In U.S. Solar History
The Five Circles Of Carbon Tax Hell
Why Wind Power Won't Work
BUSTED: Deutsche Bank Raided In Carbon Tax Fraud
Apr 20, 2016 at 2:15 PM
Reader Comments (60)
Those who fail to learn from mistakes repeat them, No? Here we are again, a little more than a decade following the CA Energy Crisis, with fraud and larceny by ENRON that was never properly addressed by then FERC Chairman Patrick Wood III.
Remembering Senator Carl Levin Senate Government Affairs Committee Chairman's words to Wood at ENRON hearing:
Chairman Levin: “corporate executives have walked away from corporate disasters with millions in their pockets, often from exercising stock options, while pension funds, investors, employees and creditors have lost everything.”
SunEdison, Inc., Compensation by Company
Name and Title
Shaker Sadasivam President and Chief Executive Officer, SunEdison Semiconductor Limited $4,142,142
Ahmad Chatila President and Chief Executive Officer $7,707,079
* (Mr. Ahmad Chatila has resigned)
Brian Wuebbels Executive Vice President, Chief Administration Officer and Chief Financial Officer $3,073,197
* (Brian Wuebbels CEO of TerraForm Power Inc has resigned)
*Carlos Domenech President and Chief Executive Officer TerraForm Power, Inc. $2,556,478
* (Mr. Carlos Domenech Zornoza was removed as President and Chief Executive Officer)
David Ranhoff Senior Vice President; President Solar Materials $1,721,508
* (David Ranhoff SVP has stepped down)
http://www1.salary.com/SUNEDISON-INC-Executive-Salaries.html
History repeats. Enron lives.
Chairman/Senator Carl Levin was addressing the future Director of First Wind (bought by SunEdison and Terraform), Patrick Wood III, then FERC Chairman (by recommendation of Enron CEO Ken Lay!?!), in the below transcript clip.
Patrick Wood III was charged by then President George W. Bush to address corporate fraud by ENRON.
From the Senate Government Affairs November 12, 2002 ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH: FERC'S OVERSIGHT OF ENRON CORPORATION--VOL. I
The 107th Congress transcript, in part, states-
Senator Levin: “The Enron scandal began by exposing dishonest accounting at a number of major U.S. companies that, unbeknownst to most, had begun to eat away at the reliability of their financial statements. It has since exposed the conflicts of interest that have made investors distrust investment reports issued by leading U.S. financial firms. It has exposed how those firms have become unwilling participants in shell companies, phony trade deals, and complex financial transactions used to inflate earnings, hide debt, and increase stock prices..”
Levin: “corporate executives have walked away from corporate disasters with millions in their pockets, often from exercising stock options, while pension funds, investors, employees and creditors have lost everything.”
Pity the poor investors in SunEdison who have lost everything.
http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/04/21/one-time-star-in-solar-energy-sunedison-files-for-bankruptcy-protection/
ohn Lamontagne, spokesman for SunEdison in Massachusetts, said the bankruptcy filing “should have little impact” on wind energy facilities already operating in Maine.
The five wind farms that SunEdison was involved with – back when the company was known as First Wind – are now owned by TerraForm and TerraNova Partners. While TerraForm is a so-called “yieldco” of SunEdison, that firm has not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. TerraNova Partners, which is majority held by JP Morgan Infrastructure Fund, also owns the wind energy projects under construction in Bingham and Hancock.
http://phys.org/news/2016-04-volcanoes-tied-shifts-earth-climate.html
A new study in the April 22 edition of Science reveals that volcanic activity associated with the plate-tectonic movement of continents may be responsible for climatic shifts from hot to cold over tens and hundreds of millions of years throughout much of Earth's history.
The study, led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, addresses why the Earth has fluctuated from periods when the planet was covered in ice to times when even the polar regions were ice-free.
The study explores very long-term shifts in Earth's baseline climate, not short-term or human-induced climate change.
Lead researcher Ryan McKenzie said the team found that periods when volcanoes along continental arcs were more active coincided with warmer, or greenhouse, conditions over the past 720 million years. Conversely, periods when continental arc volcanos were less active coincided with colder, or icehouse, conditions.
Continental volcanic arc systems such as the Andes Mountains are created at active continental margins where two tectonic plates meet and the oceanic plate descends under the continental plate, forming a subduction zone. When this happens, magma mixes with carbon trapped in the Earth's crust and releases carbon dioxide (CO2) gas into the atmosphere when volcanoes in the system erupt.
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Solar activity also plays a role.
http://in.reuters.com/article/sunedison-inc-bankruptcy-india-idINKCN0XJ0ZU
U.S. renewable energy company SunEdison Inc, which filed for bankruptcy Thursday, aims to secure partners for about 1.7 gigawatts of planned projects in India within two months, the head of its Asia business said on Friday.
Pashupathy Gopalan, president of SunEdison Asia Pacific, told Reuters the company had excluded India - its largest market outside the United States - from its bankruptcy process. As a result, it planned to keep growing in the country.
"Nothing really has changed other than that we will look for equity partners in our India projects and India business," he said by telephone from the United States.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week that the company is in talks to sell stakes in the planned projects with India's Adani Group and Finland's Fortum. None of the parties have commented.
Gopalan did not comment on why India, which accounts for a fifth of SunEdison's total business, was excluded from the bankruptcy. Officials at the U.S. parent did not immediately comment.
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And I'm glad you're here to cover it. But I had to laugh at the thought of this website actually making any money. In this my first month back, we will end up doing about 250,000 pageviews with 150,000 unique visitors and the total revenue will be around $500. Then I have to pay server fees for all the bandwidth I use (videos use A LOT of bandwidth) and I might have enough left over for a giant porterhouse steak at Jankos.
Jankos Little Zagreb Steaks
http://www.littlezagreb.com/
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1774&dat=20030510&id=cvEeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8IQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6311,5138141&hl=en
Enron Sets $2.9 Billion Deal for Overseas Assets
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/enron-sets-29-billion-deal-for-overseas-assets/
Here is an odd quirk of timing: On the same day a jury convicted Enron‘s former chief executives of fraud and conspiracy related to its spectacular collapse, the company announced the sale of its last major business unit. Enron — yes, it still exists, as a vehicle to pay its creditors — said Thursday that affiliates of Ashmore Investment Management have agreed to buy its international assets, operating as Prisma Energy International. The sale should raise $2.9 billion for Enron’s estate, including about $800 million in cash dividends already paid to Enron by Prisma, the company said.
The expected value of the Prisma sale is three times what it forecast when it presented its bankruptcy plan to creditors for approval, Enron said. Enron chairman John Ray III said in a press release that the transaction will be a “substantial benefit to the Enron creditors” and called the deal an “enormous milestone” for the Enron estate.
Another of Enron’s three major businesses, Portland General Electric, formally split from Enron last month and now trades on the New York Stock Exchange. The third major asset, Enron’s North American pipelines, were sold in 2004.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2015/05/07/367252.htm
According to William W. Windle, managing director of Munich Re Trading LLC, business has been brisk lately in the weather derivatives market.
Evans launched Artemis in 1999, and as a long-time market expert he has watched the market change from the time of the Enron collapse to energy regulation to its current evolutionary phase. In the last few years, he’s seen growing interest from insurers and reinsurers, and he thinks that interest is going to continue to build thanks to changing appetites, investors seeking ever-diverse opportunities and talk of climate change.
“I think it’s something that should pick up,” said Evans, whose site reports an average of 30,000 readers per month. “I think it makes sense as a product, since every business is exposed to the weather. I think the real opportunity, and where we’ll see the market growth, is how big companies can bundle weather components in insurance policies for large corporations. I think a lot of insurance and reinsurance companies would like to be offering complex solutions combining weather products.”
Evans and other experts credit climate change, or more precisely all the publicity climate change gets, with helping to make people more aware of the weather, and helping drive interest in weather derivatives and weather-related financial products.
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More on wind derivatives here:
http://energy-base.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SEFI-Feasibility-Study-for-Weather-Derivative-Solutions-for-Wind-Farms-Financing-in-Mexico.pdf
More on solar derivatives here:
http://www.meike.com/solarpaces.au/symposium/papers/Kist1.pdf
http://appinsys.com/globalwarming/CarbonMonetization.htm
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/biznext/2016/01/sunedison-completes-300-million-dominion.html
SunEdison, the Maryland Heights-based renewable energy developer, has closed on the second phase of a $300 million acquisition of a solar portfolio from Dominion Resources.
SunEdison closed on the $180 million first phase at the end of 2015.
The second phase, worth roughly $117 million, is for 33 percent in the remaining portion of a 567-megawatt solar portfolio that has 24 projects located in Indiana, Georgia, Connecticut, California, Tennessee and Utah.
As part of the deal, Terra Nova Renewable Partners will have the option to buy the remaining 67 percent of the portfolio. SunEdison also has options to repurchase projects from Terra Nova over a five year period. Those projects, if bought, could be assigned to its domestic yieldco, TerraForm Power.
Fraud is the big growth industry these days.
Great to see you alive and kicking!
Yeah, I heard there might be a little money in fraud.
"On December 16, 2011, Andy Fastow was released from prison. As a speaker at a national convention of fraud examiners in Las Vegas in the summer of 2013, Fastow told his audience that corporate practices had gotten worse than ever. "In my opinion," he said, the problem today is ten times worse than when Enron had its implosion."
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/enron/enronaccount.html
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
TO RECEIVE TESTIMONY ON THE IMPACT OF THE ENRON COLLAPSE ON ENERGY MARKETS
__________
JANUARY 29, 2002
Prepared Statement of Patrick Wood, III, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
a clip-
While I have an open mind on whether the Commission should continue
to exempt power marketers from its accounting requirements, our
accounting requirements are not aimed at the kind of activities
allegedly undertaken by Enron. Based on our historical
responsibilities, FERC's accounting requirements are focused on
providing useful and accurate information for determining cost-based
rates. Cost-based ratemaking encourages utilities to maximize their
claimed costs and minimize their expected revenues, to justify the
highest possible rates. The Commission's accounting rules and auditing
are designed to ensure that utilities with cost-based rates do not
overstate costs or understate revenues. On January 22, 2001, the
Securities and Exchange Commission proposed additional accounting-
related disclosures from a broad universe of companies, including those
exempt from FERC's reporting requirements. Adoption of that proposal
could eliminate the need for the FERC to alter its reporting
requirements in this regard.
v. additional statutory authority
Before we can understand how to prevent another Enron-like
collapse, we must first understand what internal actions and external
events caused Enron to fail. That effort is now underway by this
Committee and elsewhere. Then we must ask whether those actions and
events can and should be prevented in the future.
Whether the Commission needs any additional statutory authority
depends on the role Congress intends for the Commission. Historically,
the Commission's economic regulation has focused on ensuring that
energy markets deliver adequate energy at reasonable prices. The demise
of Enron has had little or no effect on the supply or price of energy.
Instead, Enron's collapse has primarily harmed its investors and
employees. Since it appears that few of Enron's problems affected the
narrow scope of wholesale energy markets, it is not clear that giving
the Commission additional authority within its current scope would
prevent further Enron-like problems.
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-107shrg79753/html/CHRG-107shrg79753.htm
SEC Statement of beneficial ownership
Patrick Wood III Director First Wind Holdings Inc.
Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol First Wind Holdings Inc. [ WIND ]
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1344507/000095010310003125/xslF345X02/edgar.xml
http://joannenova.com.au/2016/04/poland-bill-threatens-polish-wind-power/
Another snippet for the next time a climate saviour tells you the “whole world” is moving to clean energy.
Last year Poland installed almost as many new wind turbines as Germany (the Kingland-of-Wind-towers). Wind make about 13% of Poland’s electricity. This year, according to the wind industry, the new conservative Polish government wants to regulate them out of existence.
Poland’s thriving wind energy industry has warned that it faces bankruptcies, rapid divestment
and an end to growth under a bill that threatens executives with prison.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ruling Law and Justice party, which campaigned on a promise to crack
down on the industry, said it wants to make legislation on turbines more “citizen-friendly”.
The government has a majority. The bill is being debated.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shareholder-alert-pomerantz-law-firm-reminds-shareholders-with-losses-on-their-investment-in-terraform-power-inc-of-class-action-lawsuit-and-upcoming-deadline---terp-2016-04-22
NEW YORK, April 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against TerraForm Power Inc. ("TerraForm" or the "Company") TERP, +2.58% and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of Maryland, and docketed under 16-cv-00981, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased TerraForm securities between May 7, 2015 and March 15, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"). …
...The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) TerraForm's Management Services Agreement with SunEdison exposed TerraForm to risks associated with SunEdison's internal financial controls and any deficiencies therein; (ii) consequently, TerraForm lacked effective internal financial controls; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, TerraForm's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times….
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/04/22/climate-science-might-become-the-most-important-casualty-of-the-replication-crisis/
The replication crisis in science has just begun. It will be big.
By Larry Kummer. From the Fabius Maximus website.
Summary: After a decade of slow growth beneath public view, the replication crisis in science begins breaking into public view. First psychology and biomedical studies, now spreading to many other fields — overturning what we were told is settled science, the foundations of our personal behavior and public policy. Here is an introduction to the conflict (there is pushback), with the usual links to detailed information at the end, and some tentative conclusions about effects on public’s trust of science. It’s early days yet, with the real action yet to begin.
“Men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.”
— Goethe, from Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret…
This crisis emerged a decade ago as problems in a few fields — especially health care and psychology. Slowly similar problems emerged in other fields, usually failures to replicate widely accepted research. Even economics, with its high standards for transparency — has been hit. The landmark 2010 paper “Growth in a Time of Debt” by Harvard professors Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff — used to justify austerity policies in scores of nations — was found to have serious errors in their spreadsheets. Even physics has been affected, as William Wilson notes:
“Two of the most vaunted physics results of the past few years — the announced discovery of both cosmic inflation and gravitational waves at the BICEP2 experiment in Antarctica, and the supposed discovery of superluminal neutrinos at the Swiss-Italian border — have now been retracted, with far less fanfare than when they were first published.” {See this about the former and this about the latter.}…
Many sciences are vulnerable, but climate science might become the most affected. It combines high visibility, a central role in one of our time’s major public policy questions, and a frequent disregard for the methodological safeguards that other sciences rely upon.
Watch for news developments in this important story.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/john-kerry-signs-climate-deal-granddaughter-seated-lap/story?id=38600097
In a symbolic photo opportunity designed to remind the public of its duty to protect the health of future generations, Secretary of State John Kerry brought his young granddaughter with him to the United Nations as he signed an international commitment to curb the pace of global warming.
Over 150 nations are expected to sign the agreement today, a truly historic feat based on a previous accord set in Paris that aims to limit the Earth's temperature to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The deal still has to be ratified by each signatory nation. In the United States, President Obama is expected to ratify the agreement through executive action, bypassing a Republican Congress skeptical of the overwhelming consensus presented by climate scientists. The deadline for ratification is April 21, 2017, one year from now.
========
Also see this:
http://dailybail.com/home/john-kerry-comes-out-swinging-on-climate-change.html
GE invests $25m in SunEdison yieldco
http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1351722/ge-invests-25m-sunedison-yieldco
As part of the deal, GE will provide servicing support for the projects TerraForm owns. GE has refused to comment the size of the stake in TerraForm it now owns.
The group's renewables business CEO Anne McEntee said the investment would also help develop projects in Latin America, India, China and Europe.
The company said it was the first wind manufacturer to invest in the yieldco since it was floated on the Nasdaq stock market in 2014.
TerraForm has a portfolio capacity of 1.7GW worldwide, mostly in solar. In November, SunEdison agreed to acquire US developer First Wind. It's 1.3GW portfolio of wind projects was shared between SunEdison and the yieldco.
Last month, the Atlanitc Power Corporation also sold its 521MW wind portfolio to TerraForm for $350 million.
Acquisitions
Elsewhere, SunEdison has announced the 100% acquisition of Indian wind project developer Continuum and Central American renewables developer Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy (GME).
Continuum has a portfolio of over 1.4GW of projects in development, in construction or online in India.
Private equity firm Actis held a 70% stake in GME, with Mesoamerica Power holding the remaining share. Its portfolio includes four operating wind projects with a combined capacity of 243MW and has a further 80MW under construction and 246MW in development across Central America.
The US-based firm said it intends to offer the projects to TerraForm.
=============
From earlier this year...
SunEdison, TerraForm to Acquire First Wind for $2.4 Billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-17/sunedison-and-terraform-to-buy-first-wind-for-2-4-billion
http://punchingbagpost.com/inside-trading-nancy-pelosi-finds-a-loophole
Throughout its financial decline, SunEdison has maintained a presence in Washington with over $1 million spent on lobbying. In recent years, SunEdison has employed lobbyists with Podesta Group and green-energy focused lobbying firm 38 North Solutions in an attempt to preserve federal tax credits for the renewable energy sector.
Unsurprisingly, Pelosi fought to extend those tax subsidies.
Even more interesting is the incestuous relationship between Podesta Group and the Clintons Foundation: Podesta’s cofounder currently chairs Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and both SunEdison and the Clinton Foundation have donated to each other in years past.
http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/04/27/solar-energy-bill-compromise-fails/
Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a landmark solar energy bill Wednesday, after failed attempts by Democratic leadership to reach a compromise during extensive negotiations.
Solar advocates now plan to press lawmakers to override the veto when they reconvene on Friday.
Rep. Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, the assistant majority leader, said a request by the governor to cap at a very low level the price that homeowners receive for solar power they generate was a deal breaker.
“That would have tanked this market immediately,” she said.
The controversy centered on “net metering,” the state rule by which utility companies provide a one-to-one credit to home customers for solar power they generate and feed back into the grid. The credit is based on the retail price of power.
Net metering rules across the country are under fire by politicians and utility representatives, who say the price amounts to a subsidy that’s forced on all utility customers. In Maine, however, the bill was supported by Central Maine Power and Emera Maine.
According to Gideon, LePage asked for a price cap that would have started at 10 cents per kilowatt hour and declined in 18 months to the standard offer price for energy supply, which is around 6 cents. By comparison, the retail price, which includes energy and distribution charges, is around 12 cents in southern Maine.
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I would like to let all the DB'rs know that I played a very large role in the formation of the Net Metering law in Maine back in 98-2000 when electric de-regulation was being implemented.
http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/legislative/rules/archive/part_3/ch-313.pdf
Enron (and a couple of very prominent political figures) did some really nasty shit. Thus, I write about it and them here at the DB. Renewable energy credits (REC's) were not yet in place and carbon markets were just a twinkle in Al Gore's eye. Now it's a shit show and the only real use for small scale renewables (if you can afford the extremely high cost) would be for limited off grid applications.
http://www.lw.com/MLP-Portal/SiteAttachmentHandler.ashx?attachmentid=5b0cbfea-4bca-4d4d-9746-c3d51e1e1f2c
http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/04/29/lepage-veto-of-solar-bill-still-stands-after-house-vote-for-now/
House lawmakers upheld Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a closely watched solar energy bill Friday in a blow to supporters who argued the measure would boost the industry and create jobs.
The House actually voted twice on the bill but, despite a heavy State House presence of solar users and industry representatives, the outcome did not change. In the end, the 93-50 vote in the House was a few votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto from LePage, a frequent critic of Maine’s renewable energy policies.
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ABENGOA DIDN’T PAY AMOUNT DUE ON GREENFIELD 2019 NOTES IN APRIL. paging @ECB
5:20 AM - 4 May 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSFWN18717A
May 10 Terraform Power Inc :
* Terraform Power Operating, LLC entered into a sixth amendment to its credit and guaranty agreement
* Amendment extends date by which Terraform Power, LLC must deliver 2015 financial statements to may 28, 2016 from may 7, 2016
* Amendment extends date by which co must deliver unaudited qtrly financial statements for quarter ending march 31, 2016 to may 28, 2016
* "continues to work constructively with its lenders and intends to seek additional amendments under revolver as necessary"
* Approved retention awards to "encourage" certain employees of sunedison, units to remain employed by sunedison
* Chairman and interim chief executive officer Blackmore did not receive a retention award
http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TERP.O
https://morningconsult.com/opinions/sunedison-bankruptcy-three-times-bigger-solyndra/
In the most recent fire failure, a damaged turbine will take 6 months to replace and will not be operational for a year.
http://stopthesethings.com/2015/02/01/2-year-old-siemens-turbines-falling-apart-wind-farm-investors-get-out-while-you-can/
Six months after the project officially went online, a 173 foot-long-blade flew off one of the turbines.
The project is now two years old and, according to Ocotillo resident Jim Pelley:
the developers have replaced 10 blades;
they have replaced the “Yaw Gear Drives” on about 3 different turbines;
There is no known tally of the number of turbines leaking oil, but Pelley believes that it is around 70%;
The wind speeds at Ocotillo are usually slight, in most videos he reports somewhere between 0 and 4 mph, and the turbines do not even produce much energy.
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http://www.archipelagofiles.com/2014/03/this-photo-of-two-engineers-hugging.html
http://talking_points.tripod.com/enron/id9.html
"Enron did surprisingly well during the Clinton years," declared NBC News reporter Lisa Myers on the February 25 NBC Nightly News. She explained: "Lay played golf with the President, and Enron received $1.2 billion in government-backed loans for projects around the world. Documents obtained by NBC News show the Clinton administration billed three Enron projects in India and Turkey as success stories, personally pushed by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. About that time, Enron made its first $100,000 contribution to the Democrats." (Source: NBC Nightly News, February 25, 2002)
Under the Clinton administration, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "gave hundreds of millions of dollars" in loans and other government support to risky Enron-related projects overseas, according to a Senate Finance Committee audit released today.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161005005246/en/Longroad-Announces-Investors
Angel Investors
http://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36143
http://www.reuters.com/article/terraform-results-idUSL1N1DB2SG
Brookfield ponders takeover of SUNE Yieldco’s
http://renewables.seenews.com/news/brookfield-ponders-takeover-of-sunedisons-2-yieldcos-546456
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/86665285/when-will-obama-visit-ne...
This is why....
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161005005246/en/Longroad-Announces-Investors
https://cases.primeclerk.com/sunedison/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTAyODkx&id2=0
http://cases.primeclerk.com/sunedison/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTAyODkx&id2=0
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4030452-sunedison-shareholders-made-stunning-accusations-court
Summary
Shareholders have submitted 60 letters to Honorable Judge Bernstein, the U.S. Trustee, and the Wall Street Journal.
The letters implicate at least five high-ranking businessmen and politicians of wide spread collusion, corruption, and fraud.
SunEdison was ordered to answer allegations that its value has increased since it filed for bankruptcy.
Since my last article covering SunEdison Inc (OTCMKTS: OTCPK:SUNEQ), there have been several developments in the bankruptcy proceedings. October's Monthly Operating Report was released, Homer Parkhill gave a statement for the first time since early summer, and SunEdison formally objected to the Unsecured Creditors' motion to claw back Terraform Global (NASDAQ: GLBL) and Terraform Power (NASDAQ: TERP). In addition, a number of shareholders have inundated the court's inbox with letters and emails (60 as of this writing) in a mad attempt to reopen the case for an Equity Committee....
http://www.longroadenergy.com/investors/
EASTERN MAINE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE WINS $13.6 MILLION JURY VERDICT
http://www.emec.com/node/183
On Friday November 18th, a Bangor, Maine jury found, after a four day trial, that five wind power companies breached their contractual obligation to negotiate in good faith, and returned a $13.6 million verdict in favor of Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative (the “Cooperative”). The unanimous verdict against the defendants was reached after about two hours of deliberations.
The Cooperative’s CEO, Scott Hallowell said, “The defendants’ breach denied the Cooperative of the benefits of the deal, and forced the Cooperative to take legal action.” Hallowell said, “We are extremely pleased with the verdict, as it vindicates the Cooperative’s position that the wind companies did not negotiate in good faith. We have not yet heard whether the defendants will appeal, but if they do so we will vigorously defend the jury’s verdict.”
The contract required the wind power companies to act in good faith to finalize the sale to the Cooperative of a section of an electric transmission line, which provides transmission services to wind farms owned by three of the defendants. The parties had agreed that the three wind farms would pay for costs, including repairs and upgrades to the line, which is standard electric utility practice across the country.
The Cooperative was represented by Sigmund Schutz, Joe Donahue, and Ben Piper of the law firm Preti Flaherty, LLP. The Cooperative’s lead trial counsel, Sigmund Schutz, said, “The Defendants had sellers’ remorse and breached their good faith obligation. The jury agreed and awarded all of the damages we requested at trial.” Schutz added, “The verdict is among the largest jury verdicts ever awarded in Maine.”
The Cooperative entered into the contract in 2011 with First Wind Holdings, LLC and four of its former subsidiaries (Evergreen Gen Lead, LLC; Evergreen Wind Power III, LLC; Stetson Holdings, LLC; and Stetson Wind, II LLC), for the sale of a section of an electric transmission line, the Stetson Line, to the Cooperative. First Wind Holdings, LLC is now owned by SunEdison. The subsidiaries are three companies that own wind farms, Stetson I (Stetson Holdings, LLC); Stetson II (Stetson Wind II, LLC); Rollins (Evergreen Wind Power III, LLC); and the company that owns the Stetson Line (Evergreen Gen Lead, LLC). These four entities are now owned by TerraForm Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP).
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Note: First Wind was sold to SUNE. They went under and the First Wind crew has formed another company, Longroad Energy Partners, based in Boston and San Francisco.
I'm not finished with them at all....
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4042276-sunedison-shareholder-uncovers-billions-dollars-taxpayer-money-hidden-bankruptcy
Summary
Congressional investigators are examining the use of tax incentives for solar-power companies.
SunEdison has received "the vast majority" of a $1 billion credit line the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. extended to India.
SunEdison has been successful in bypassing Sarbanes-Oxley regulation that should be a tool to avoid a new Enron scandal.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4077979-sunedison-bankruptcy-case-something-seriously-wrong
In their May 8 objection to the disclosure statement, the lawyers for the equity committee, Nastasi Partners, raised some key questions:
**Why did the Debtors (SunEdison)... decide to liquidate rather than reorganize?
**How did the Debtors raise $24 billion between 2013 and 2016, but manage to dissipate approximately $20 billion?
**How much are the Debtors' interests in their myriad direct and indirect subsidiaries worth - and what happened to the $9 billion the Debtors invested in them?
**Were the Debtors' servicing contracts with the YieldCo modified around the time of the bankruptcy filings to provide for unilateral termination by the YieldCos on 30 days' notice - thereby stripping the estates of significant value?
**How does the value ascribed to the Debtors' servicing business under the proposed YieldCo Settlement square with an enterprise value of $2.231 billion - the value SunEdison ascribed to that same business in January of 2016?