NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) and Enel North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Enel Green Power, the renewable power company of Enel S.p.A., have closed an agreement for the sale of NRG’s land based wind development company, Padoma Wind Power LLC (“Padoma”), to Enel North America (ENA).

Based in La Jolla, California, Padoma is developing about 4,000 megawatts (MW) of potential projects in California which, once built, will help the state meet its Renewable Portfolio Standard target of 33% of retail sales from eligible renewable energy resources by 2020. Enel North America will retain the entire Padoma development team and the current Padoma development pipeline in California and Texas (“The Padoma Projects”). NRG is maintaining its existing ownership interest in its three Texas wind farms—Sherbino, Elbow Creek and Langford—totaling almost 350 MW of electricity.

The two companies also reached a more general co-investment agreement. NRG will retain a Right of First Offer should ENA seek an equity partner in The Padoma Projects. In addition to that, ENA and NRG will evaluate joint venture opportunities in wind as well as other renewable energy projects in North America.

“Padoma’s current pipeline in California and the experience of its development team will further strengthen our position in the United States and provide us with solid opportunities to grow in attractive markets in the future,” said Francesco Starace, President of Enel Green Power. “Padoma adds depth to our North American development capabilities and provides key geographical diversification to our wind pipeline.”

“Enel’s experience and resources will enable Padoma to realize the full benefits of its development potential, increasing the pipeline of renewable investment opportunities for NRG’s consideration,” said David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy, Inc. “Padoma had considerable success developing terrestrial wind projects under NRG’s ownership and we look forward to working with Padoma and Enel and investing in their projects in the future. NRG believes in the value of strong and strategic partnerships such as this one and together, we hope to speed the deployment of new, cleaner power generation projects to meet growing energy demand and respond to future state and federal renewable energy requirements.”

http://enelgreenpower.com/en/

www.nrgenergy.com – www.sec.gov

In order to foster investment and job creation in clean energy manufacturing, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a tax credit for investments in manufacturing facilities for clean energy technologies. The Section 48C program will provide a 30 percent tax credit for investments in 183 manufacturing facilities for clean energy products across 43 states.

This tax credit program will help build a robust high technology, US manufacturing capacity to supply clean energy projects with US made parts and equipment.  These manufacturing facilities should also support significant growth in US exports of US manufactured clean energy products.

The $2.3 billion in tax credits is being allocated on a competitive basis. Projects are assessed based on the following criteria,: commercial viability, domestic job creation, technological innovation, speed to project completion, and potential for reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.  The Department of Energy also considered additional factors including  diversity of geography, technology and project size, and regional economic development.

The program is currently capped at $2.3 billion in tax credits and was oversubscribed by a ratio of more than 3 to 1, reflecting a deep pipeline of high quality clean energy manufacturing opportunities in the U.S. These tax credits for clean energy manufacturing will help rebuild domestic manufacturing and bring private capital off the sidelines.

With this announcement, IRS has certified applications (MS Excel), and notified the certified projects with the approved amount of their tax credit.  Awardees will receive acceptance agreements from the IRS by April 16, 2010.  Credits will be allocated until the program funding ($2.3 billion) is exhausted.  Subsequent allocation periods will depend on remaining funds.

Estimated Jobs Impact and Timeline of the 48C Manufacturing Tax Credits:

Recovery Act investments of up to $2.3 billion for advanced energy manufacturing facilities will generate more than 17,000 jobs. This investment will be matched by as much as $5.4 billion in private sector funding likely supporting up to 41,000 additional jobs.

Timing of Projects:

The statute authorizing the 48C tax credits allows projects that are completed on or after February 17, 2009, when the Recovery Act was signed.  Projects must be commissioned before February 17, 2013.  The statute favors the selection of projects that are in service early.  As a result, some of the selected projects already have been completed and begun operation.

Applicant Pool:

The application deadline for the 48C program was October 16, 2009.  Over 500 applications were received with tax credit requests totaling over $8 billion.  The 48C applications pool was distributed across many clean energy technologies and was geographically distributed to more than 40 states.

Qualifying manufacturing facilities included the production of a wide range of clean energy products:

• Solar, wind, geothermal, or other renewable energy equipment
• Electric grids and storage for renewables
• Fuel cells and microturbines
• Energy storage systems for electric or hybrid vehicles
• Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration equipment
• Equipment for refining or blending renewable fuels
• Equipment for energy conservation, including lighting and smart grid technologies
• Plug-in electric vehicles or their components, such as electric motors, generators, and power control units
• Other advanced energy property designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may also be eligible as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury.

The statutorily specified review criteria included:

• Greatest domestic job creation (direct and indirect)
• Greatest net impact in avoiding or reducing air pollutants or emissions of greenhouse gases; lowest levelized cost of energy
• Greatest potential for technological innovation and commercial deployment
• Shortest project time from certification to completion

Expanded Support for 48C Tax Credits to Accelerate Manufacturing Job Creation:

Because the 48C program generated far more interest than anticipated, DOE and Treasury have a substantial backlog of technically acceptable applications. Instead of turning down worthy applicants who are willing to invest private resources to build and equip factories that manufacture clean energy products in America, the Administration has called on Congress to provide an additional $5 billion to expand the program.  Because there is already an existing pipeline of worthy projects and substantial interest in this area, these funds will be deployed quickly to create jobs and support economic activity.  In doing so, the Administration will employ new approaches to ensure that we maximize private investment for every dollar we invest.

Your credit card can help save the planet. That’s the message companies are pitching to consumers as they roll out new credit cards designed to cash in on people’s worries about global warming.

These “green” cards allow users to channel a percentage of their spending toward efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. General Electric Co.’s Earth Rewards MasterCard, launched in July by the company’s GE Money unit, targets as much as 1% of total spending on the card toward emission-reduction projects.Bank of America Corp. followed in November with its own green card, Brighter Planet Visa, which matches every dollar spent with one point that can be accumulated and traded in for “carbon offsets.” Carbon offsets are meant to reduce the impact of emissions made somewhere else — such as by planting trees. Additionally, Storm Lake, Iowa, savings bank MetaBank, a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., in August launched its GreenPay MasterCard, which also allows users to accumulate carbon offsets with each purchase.[...]

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Nearly 40 years on Wall Street, plus 12 years before that working for a major oil company, equals a lifetime of experience for Charles T. Maxwell, senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co., known as the “dean of energy analysts.” Now, in an interview that sounded like a preliminary draft of a valedictory address, Princeton and Oxford-educated Maxwell has laid out in stark, uncomplicated terms what might be called the “Nightmare on Main Street” that he sees barreling toward America and the world.

Every investor needs to pay attention to Maxwell’s nightmare scenario, because if the dean’s forecast is correct, it’s going to influence every investment decision made for at least the next 10 to 20 years. As we’ll see in this four-part series, although Maxwell sees much pain being inflicted on consumers and investors, he also sees opportunities to make a lot of money.[...]

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