GREEN ENERGY CHRONICLES

John's latest update on graft, corruption and waste in the energy sector.

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Renewable Energy Is An Economic, Political And Environmental Crime

BOTH OF SUNEDISON YIELDCO'S IN TROUBLE

SunEdison yieldco TerraForm Global (GLBL) has 90 days to file its delayed 10-K or be required to immediately repay $810 million in defaulted loans, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Goldman Sachs and other lenders backing the 9.75% senior notes, due in 2022, agreed to reduce TerraForm Global’s commitment to $350 million. TerraForm Global has until June 30 to comply with Nasdaq listing requirements by turning over the late 10-K, the annual financial report that the SEC requires of all publicly traded companies. A number of energy companies have formed publicly traded yieldcos designed to hold assets and provide steady cash flows and certain tax benefits.

Fellow yieldco TerraForm Power (TERP) is also facing Nasdaq threats of delisting. Neither SunEd nor either of its TerraForm yieldcos have turned over their 10-K reports. Parent SunEdison technically defaulted on $725 million in second-lien loans — unless extensions were granted — before declaring bankruptcy earlier this year.

More here at The Daily Bail

YIELDCO STOCK CHART DELINES

Credit: Mercatus Energy Investment Management

YIELDCO PROBLEMS, SYSTEMIC OR SPEED BUMP?

In some ways, yieldcos were imported from Canada, where a financial vehicle known as the income trust had attracted the attention of U.S. financiers looking for ways to raise cheap capital for renewable energy projects.

Yieldcos took off in the United States in July 2013 when NRG Energy launched NRG Yield to great fanfare, with some analysts suggesting that it would “transform” the market.

Then, about a year ago, a series of events hit the market, tanking yieldco shares across the board. It began with investors concerns about the effect falling oil prices would have on master limited partnerships (MLP) and with the overall decline in stock prices. Those conditions were exacerbated when SunEdison’ announced plans to acquire Vivint Solar using $789 million from TerraForm Power to partially fund the acquisition. The deal collapsed in March, but it scared potential investors.

That raises the question: Is the yieldco model broken?

“The growth model broke because it was unsustainable,” says Tom Konrad, a financial analyst and money manager at AltEnergy Stocks. 

LIST OF YIELDCOS

Firstly, we see  4 yieldcos that are only traded in Canada which represent 20% of the overall portfolio by market cap (market cap in USD billions) :

Then we have 6 yieldcos that are only traded in the U.K. which can be seen below (market cap in USD billions):

This leaves us with one last company that is traded outside the U.S which is a Spanish company called Saeta Yield and which makes up 3% of the portfolio by market cap:

This gives us 10 remaining companies that are all U.S. traded, but that are not all yieldcos. Sunedison (NYSE:SUNE) and FirstSolar (NASDAQ:FSLR) are included in the index. We’ll drop Sunedison because while they were responsible for the creation of Terraform (TERP), they are not a a yieldco. First Solar helped create the most recent solar yieldco IPO, 8point3, so we’ll replace them with 8point3. (Wondering where the name 8point3 came from? It’s the amount of time it takes sunlight to reach the earth; 8.3 seconds). We are then left with the following 8 U.S. traded yieldco stocks:

 Source: Nanalyze

Larry Summers 'Really Shitty Deal' 

NEW YORK – When solar energy giant SunEdison, together with its spinoff TerraForm Power, acquired wind-turbine powerhouse First Wind Holdings LLC for $2.4 billion in May 2015, the deal was touted as “transformative,” as SunEdison’s stock rose 29 percent and TerraForm gained 27 percent.

But when SunEdison finally declared bankruptcy on April 21, investors were forced to face the sad reality that the company’s cash flows from its various solar and wind-turbine energy projects had proved to be insufficient to cover debt-payment requirements.

Now, the First Wind acquisition that arguably made SunEdison “one of the world’s largest, if not the largest renewable energy developers,” has returned to haunt the renewable energy conglomerate. New York-based investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. and Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners have filed suit against TerraForm Power, seeking $231 million in deferred payments the two investment firms claim they were owed but never paid in the SunEdison acquisition of First Wind.

According to OpenSecrets.org, D. E. Shaw & Company contributed in excess of $5.6 million in 1992-2014, primarily to Democratic Party political candidates.

As noted by Peter Schweizer in his 2011 bestselling book “Throw Them All Out,” David E. Shaw, the firms founder and the largest shareholder in First Wind, was a two-time bundler for President Obama and one of the top three donors to the Democratic Party prior to First Wind receiving $232 million in Obama stimulus funds, including $115 million for a wind-turbine project in Hawaii called Kakuku Wind for which First Wind created a total of 125 jobs.

Shaw served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under President Clinton in 1994 and President Obama in 2009.

Lawrence Summers, a part owner of First Wind, was a part-time employee of D. E. Shaw from 2006 until 2008, earning approximately $5 million with the New York-based hedge fund, working one day a week for the firm in an advisory capacity, at what Business Insider calculated was a rate of $52,000 per day or $4,333 per hour. 

Also see Wind Jammers at the White House

Here is the Summers WH Memo

Evidence Of A Renewable Resource Curse (PDF)

This MUST READ paper analyzes the economic and political crimes.

NEWS FROM CANADA

Ontario, Canada Approves Wind Farms In Municipalities That VOTED AGAINST THEM

The Ontario government has betrayed rural municipalities by approving new wind farms in places that have explicitly voted against them, mayors say — including just east of Ottawa. 

 No Say For Communities regarding Wind Development

Ontario's Wind Energy Plan Ignored Impact On Rural Communities

The Trouble With Statistice Canada's Solar and Wind Energy Data

How Renewable Energy Is Raising Hackles In Ontario

Wind Turbine Fire In Ontario

ONTARIO HAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE ELECTRICITY RATES IN NORTH AMERICA

We are subsidizing the wind industry.

4% of our power is from wind energy, yet it costs us 20% of our electrical bill.

Ontario pays 11-13.5 cents per kWh for wind power.
The average price in the U.S. is 7 cents.
The average price for Ontario nuclear, water and gas is 7 cents.

Ontario is the only province/state that charges HST, delivery, and regulatory fees on electricity.
Your rates increase every May and October
(Also increased in November, 2014 to pay for the $1billion loss in October)

ONTARIO CLIMATE PLAN LEAKED: ALL HOME MUST HAVE ELECTRIC HEAT BY 2030

The Globe and Mail claims to have seen a leaked confidential seven billion dollar Ontario master plan, for all new homes to use geothermal or electric heating by 2030, and to provide grants to retrofit older buildings.

Renewable Companies Pay Off Liberal Party 

US NEWS

Donald Trump On Energy Policy (MUST READ)

President candidate Donald Trump responded to ten questions submitted by the free-market energy advocacy group, American Energy Alliance (the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research, of which I am founder and CEO). Overall, there is great promise of market-oriented reform, reinforcing Trump’s earlier statements about reigning in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The questions and answers follow. For proponents of a fuel-neutral, pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer energy and climate policy, there is more to like than dislike below...

“8). Do you support a carbon tax? Do you support the Obama administration’s use of the social cost of carbon in rulemakings?

A. No and No.

 9). Do you think federal agencies have abused the cost-benefit process to suit their political agenda? Would your administration end the process of underestimating costs and inflating benefits of agency regulations?

A. Yes and Yes.”

RENEWABLE ENERGY: LIGHTNING, FIRE, LAND USE AND LIABILITY

 When Lightning Strikes A Wind Turbine

A team of storm chasers from Tea, South Dakota, spotted a wind turbine damaged by a lightning strike ear Ruthton, Minnesota. The Tea Storm Chasersgave me permission to post the image here. 

The only wind farm I can find in the area is relatively old. The Ruthton Wind Farm went online in 2001. It's operated by Xcel, a large utility.

One thing we do know: Lightning strikes on wind turbines happen frequently. A 2007 journal paper on lightning protection for wind turbines reported that lightning damage is the "the single largest cause of unplanned downtime in wind turbines."

Lightning Loves Wind A Little Too Much

Wind turbines seem to attract more than their fair share of lightning damage as compared to buildings and towers of a similar height. This has prompted research into why that might be and how turbines could be better protected. The distinguishing characteristic of a wind turbine as compared to, say, a cellular tower is obviously the giant, whirling blades. So what are the blades doing?

Most of us are familiar with cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning, but the sensors picked up a fairly extraordinary ground-to-cloud-to-ground strike during one storm. For most cloud-to-ground strikes of tall objects, fingers of positive charge called “leaders” often travel upward from the object before reaching a region of negative charge in a cloud. Current then courses downward through the path of that leader, through the object being struck, and into the ground.

In this case, a negative leader reached upward from the turbine and into an area of positive charge about 5 kilometers up. This is the kind of strike that can damage turbines so badly. In this case, however, there were both positive and negative charges interacting in the clouds, and the downward strike lashed out laterally, striking the ground fully 20 to 25 kilometers from the turbine. 

 Lightning Discharges Produced By Wind Turbines  (MUST READ)

Abstract

New observations with a 3-D Lightning Mapping Array and high-speed video are presented and discussed. The first set of observations shows that under certain thunderstorm conditions, wind turbine blades can produce electric discharges at regular intervals of ~3 s in relation to its rotation, over periods of time that range from a few minutes up to hours. This periodic effect has not been observed in static towers indicating that the effect of rotation is playing a critical role. The repeated discharges can occur tens of kilometers away from electrically active thunderstorm areas and may or may not precede a fully developed upward lightning discharge from the turbine.

The frequent upward directed discharges from wind turbines are poorly detected by conventional lightning detection networks and therefore have often been underestimated in risk studies. The capability of mapping upward leaders by the LMA offers a unique opportunity to investigate the frequency of events and the favorable conditions of occurrence. Moreover, the high-speed video record showed a poor screening effect between the developments of upward leaders from wind turbines at close distances. This needs to be considered when studying the initiation of leaders from multiple tall objects on the ground and in the risk assessment of lightning to wind turbines.

Finally, as wind turbines enhance conditions for the triggering of lightning artificially, given a background electric field provided by a thundercloud, it raises the question to what extent this anthropogenic cause influences regional lightning rates. 

Fire A Main Cause Of Wind Farm Failure

Wind farming is one of the leading industries in the renewable energy sector. However, the industry faces a number of challenges, such as opposition by wind farm lobbyists. Today’s research suggests that incidents of wind turbines catching fire are a big problem that is not currently being fully reported.

Fire destroys $4 Million Turbine Raises Serious Questions Over Lack Of  Reporting Requirements

Why is there no federal requirement for wind farm operators to report fires? 

A sensor in the turbine detected the fire. But an employee did not arrive on scene until the next morning, after the fire had burned itself out.  The fire department was never notified, nor was any state agency.  Had the blaze not occurred in winter with snow on the ground, the fire could have spread to the adjacent forest, a Maine forestry official has stated.

The wind industry claims wind turbine fires are rare.  But the facts suggest otherwise.  Vestas is not the only manufacturer plagued with fires linked to equipment failures.  Hundreds of fires have occurred, and likely more, since there is no reporting requirement in many locations.

More here

GCUBE Tackles Turbine Fires

Paris, 17^th November 2015 – Specialist renewable energy underwriter, GCube Underwriting Ltd. (GCube) has today launched a unique report into wind turbine fires, drawing from its extensive claims data and experience.Towering Inferno is the latest in a series of reports for GCube’s insured and broker community, analysing the root causes, impact and mitigation of wind turbine downtime events.

A track record of incidents – affecting almost every manufacturer and operator – has highlighted the inherent fire risk involved in the operation of modern wind turbines.

Despite the increasing use of fire suppression throughout the industry, turbine fire incidents typically result in the total or near-total loss of a multi-million dollar asset. GCube estimates that a wind turbine fire and its associated downtime will cost a project owner a total of $4.5 million on average.

Concerns about the safety of wind turbines have been fuelled further by recorded incidents of bush fires sparked by burning debris from turbine fires in high-risk locations such as South Australia and California. Similarly, as the number of projects increases in remote, forested regions of North America and Europe, so too does the risk of consequential forest fires.

Iberdrola Wind Farm has 2 Fires In 2 Years

LIVINGSTON CO, IL. (ECWd) –

Last Friday, another turbine caught fire in Livingston County, Illinois. It was close in location to the turbine fire from last summer (here) and part of Iberdrola Renewable’s Streator Cayuga Ridge project

There were high winds at the time, and local fire departments at the scene could do nothing but watch it burn.

Pontiac and Saunemin Fire Departments were on scene.

Study Points To Fire Related Turbine Failures

Reports of fires in wind farms are increasing, the researchers said. However, the true extent of these fires has been hard to assess because official reports about fires are either incomplete, biased or contain non-publically available data.

In an effort to get a clearer picture about the true extent of fires in wind farms, the team carried out an extensive analysis of data from sources including government reports, data from anti-wind farm lobbyists and information gathered by major newspaper investigations. In the future, the team aims to study the impact of fire in other renewable energy technologies such as solar panels.

RECENT SOLAR PLANT FIRES

Solar Plant Fire in Gila Bend

SunEdison Solar Plant Fire Injures 4

Second Fire at Abengoa Plant in 3 Months

Fire at Adani Solar Plant 

Fire Breaks Out At Topaz Solar Plant

 Solar Plant Sets Birds On Fire