Finance

The provincial government of Saskatchewan this week approved construction and confirmed funding for a $1.24 billion rebuild of a SaskPower 110 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant that will integrate one of the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facilities in the world.

Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON) (market cap $43 million) said today it will receive a $22.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for construction of the company’s next 20-megawatt (MW) flywheel energy storage plant. The company also announced it has filed a Form S-3 shelf prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $100 million in equity and/or debt financing.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) said today it has begun construction of the 150 megawatt (MW)Sherbino 2 Wind Farm in Pecos County, Texas. Sherbino 1, which came on line with 150 MW in 2008, was developed with NRG Energy, Inc. Future phases of Sherbino could push capacity to a total of 750 MW, according to BP’s website.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and SunEdison LLC, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR), said today Wells Fargo subsidiaries will invest up to $120 million to fund U.S. solar photovoltaic distributed generation power projects developed by SunEdison over the next year. The program builds on a SunEdison solar investment fund established in 2007 in which Wells Fargo invested more than $200 million in approximately 150 solar projects developed by SunEdison in eight states.

Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR), said Monday that six of its subsidiary operating utilities will join the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO), a regional transmission organization (RTO) that now supports the delivery of electricity of 13 U.S. states and the Province of Manitoba. Entergy said joining MISO could save customers more than $1 billion in power production costs for the 2013 to 2022 timeframe.

The broad stock market monitors roared back during this four-day trading week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting its highest level (+1.23% to 12,506) since June 2008. Clean energy and energy efficiency companies turned in mixed performances, led by the EnergyBoom Efficiency Subindex (+1.34%) and Guggenheim S&P Global Water (+1.36%).

Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) were up 5% in early trading today after the company said it had agreed to acquire DPL Inc. (NYSE: DPL), the parent company of Dayton Power & Light, for $3.5 billion. AES will also assume DPL’s debt of $1.2 billion. Upon closing of the transaction, DPL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AES with headquarters in Dayton, Ohio.

San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) said Tuesday it has signed a 20-year contract for up to 156 megawatts (MW) from the first phase of Sempra Generation’s Energía Sierra Juárez wind project in Baja California, Mexico. Both SDG&E and Sempra Generation are subsidiaries of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE). 

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) said Monday that Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and two Japanese partners -- Sumitomo Corporation and Itochu Corporation -- will pay about $500 million for a majority equity stake in the world's largest wind farm, under construction near Arlington, Oregon. Google’s share will be about $100 million. 

A small handful of companies in the clean/efficient energy sector bucked Monday’s stock market downer by making strong gains. Two of these companies, lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: AONE)) and wind turbine tower manufacturer Broadwind Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: BWEN), also halted months of sinking share prices.