Today, NRG Energy, Inc. announced that it has acquired the first and largest utility-scale photovoltaic Blythe Solar Project in California, through its wholly owned subsidiary NRG Solar LLC. The 21 megawatt project will be NRG’s first solar generation facility; NRG acquired the site from First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR).

As part of the acquisition, NRG Solar has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with First Solar for completion and performance testing. Testing will commence later this month; the company expects the project to be completed by year’s end.

Located in Riverside County, California, the solar PV field will provide electricity to Southern California Edison (SCE) under a 20-year power purchase agreement. At peak capacity, the site will be able to meet the needs of almost 17,000 homes. The site uses approximately 350,000 2×4 foot photovoltaic solar modules that convert sunlight into electricity using First Solar’s advanced thin film semiconductor,

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American Electric Power Co. Inc.’s (AEP) subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Co. signed a letter of intent to buy transmission and distribution assets worth $94 million from the Valley Electric Membership Corp. Southwestern Electric’s acquisition of the cooperative will double its presence in Louisiana.   Valley Electric Membership Corp. is a Louisiana cooperative with more than 7,000 miles of distribution lines, 90 miles of transmission lines and 29 substations. Southwestern Electric expects to shell out $124 million overall for the deal. Although this is over the value of the assets, the company would be adding 30,000 customers of the cooperative.   A deal is expected to be formalized by the end of fiscal 2009, with a formal vote on the dissolution of the cooperative expected by February 2010. However, a number of regulatory approvals are required, as well as approval from the board of American Electric Power.   Southwestern Electric

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The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is evaluating a proposal to ban energy-inefficient television sets in the state. The proposal intends to lower electricity demand, and if implemented would be a first in the country. This would stipulate televisions sold in California to be more energy efficient from the inception of fiscal 2011. The standards would apply to all television sets up to 58 inches. For example, all new 42-inch television sets have to use less than 183 watts by fiscal 2011 and less than 116 watts by fiscal 2013. That's considerably more efficient than current models in the market. A 42-inch Hitachi plasma TV sold in 2007 uses 313 watts while a 42-inch Sharp Liquid-crystal display, or LCD, TV draws 232 watts, according to Energy Commission research. However, as of now only one-quarter of the television sets on the market meet the required standard. Television sets ...

August 27, 2009 ndash; LDK Solar (NYSE:LDK) announced an agreement with Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province for the development of a number of PV projects (ground-mount, roof and BIPV) totaling up to 500MW over the next five years. And Canadian Solar (Nasdaq:CSIQ) said it has signed a LOI with the Administration Committee of Baotou National Rare Earth Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, for rights to design, install, operate and maintain a 500MW solar facilitynbsp; in Baotou. The three-phase project is expected to start in September 2009 and run through December 2011 (phase 1: 100MW; phase 2 and 3: 200MW). These announcements mark an important trend in the solar markets and one that we have been commentating on a lot lately ndash; the further move by midstream solar firms to vertically integrate downstream and even moving into operations of solar facilities. Cowenrsquo;s Raj Seth this morning commented on the ...

Our long-term recommendation for Peabody Energy (BTU) is Neutral, indicating that the stock will perform in line with the broader market. We like the company due to its leverage to emerging Asian markets (especially China and India) as these will be the drivers of demand-growth in both near and long term. Peabody’s Australian operations will allow the company to obtain higher prices and better margins, besides providing a diversified platform for long-term growth.

Peabody has sufficient liquidity with $446 million of cash in hand at the end of the second quarter of 2009. This will help the company to explore earnings accretive investment opportunities in high-growth markets, particularly at a time when valuations are depressed.

However, Peabody’s profitability in recent quarters got affected by lower demand of coal. Decreased demand for steel and electricity caused by a global slowdown has pushed coal prices down from its highs of 2008. The Energy

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Cree Inc (CREE) has announced that the city of Gwangju in South Korea has joined its LED City initiative. Gwangju is the South Korean center for the advancement of photonics, housing more than 180 companies carrying out research, development and commercialization of LED lighting products.   The LED city program essentially converts an entire city to the LED lighting platform, studying the resultant impact on cost, energy savings and benefit to the environment. It is currently expected that the program will result in a 30% reduction in energy consumption, compared to compact fluorescent lamps. Power savings are expected to be 234,000kWh per year, and carbon emissions are expected to go down by 8,465 kg annually. The lighting installations will receive further exposure at the World Photonics Expo to be held in Gwangju from October 9 to November 5.

Cree is as close to an LED pureplay as one can get.

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In looking for an economic recovery, one of the things to be looking at is rail traffic. While an increasing part of the economic output of the country (and the world) moves electronically, there is still a very important role for, to use a technical term, "stuff." So far, nobody has figured out how to move a ton of coal or wheat over a fiber optic line.Granted the "stuff" that moves on the rails is mostly lower value, but it is also at the base of the economic pyramid. In short, if stuff is not moving on the railroads, then the economy is not moving forward.The volume of traffic is important for the information it provides about the economy as a whole, not just because it gives insight into what the earnings are going to be for the major railroads like CSX (...

Our near-term (6-18 months) outlook for the coal industry has improved somewhat from our previous neutral sentiment to a more positive undertone. Based off of various recent economic indicators, the U.S. economy appears to be stabilizing. Although the rest of 2009 is likely to continue on a path of weak steel and electricity demand relative to 2008 levels, several factors should help lift the coal producers in 2010.Reductions in capex spending from both coal and natural gas producers, the weakening of the U.S. dollar and most importantly, increased steel and electricity consumption in '10 should all be positive catalysts for the coal industry next year.As stated in earlier outlook summaries, benchmark metallurgical prices for fiscal 2009 have been set around $120/mt -- off markedly from the $300/mt level seen in 2008 but still above historical met price levels. This means that in 2010, producers will ...

As the economy begins its comeback, the utilities companies that will benefit the most are the ones whose stock prices have suffered for being located in poor housing markets and those with significant counter-party risk. These companies lack the stability an investor looks for in utilities companies during a time of economic hardship. However, as the economy begins its turn around, these investments will once again become attractive. A company that fits the aforementioned profile is Sempra Energy [SRE: 44.25, -0.57 (-1.27%)], a diversified gas utility company based in Southern California. Sempra has two core utility subsidiaries in Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), the largest gas utility in the United States and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which serves 3.4 million customers in the San Diego area. Combined, these two entities comprise 60% of Sempra’s revenue stream. The remaining 40% comes from its natural gas infrastructure businesses, which includes ...

President-elect Barack Obama has made no bones about wanting to jump-start the renewable energy markets – pledging $150 billion for the development of biofuels, solar and wind power, other alternative energy sources during his first term.

But what might the new administration mean for more traditional – and more reliable –energy sources?

Oil is always the first energy source to spring to mind. But it’s hardly a solo act – coal and nuclear make up the other two-thirds of the top fuel trio. Coal delivers 50% of U.S. electricity needs, and nuclear power brings another 20% to the table.

The cold truth is that demand for energy of all types – and especially electricity – is going to keep advancing, domestically and worldwide. And developing alternatives to coal and nuclear will take time. For instance, tying wind and solar into the existing power grid will be enormously expensive and is likely

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