Will Investors Flock to SunEdison’s Emerging-Market YieldCo?
by Tom Konrad CFA SunEdison is proposing something entirely new: a YieldCo with a focus on projects in Africa and Asia, but it's a long way between an S-1 filing with the SEC and and IPO. The June launch of SunEdison's (SUNE) first YieldCo, TerraForm Power (NASD:TERP), transformed the parent company's prospects. Now it wants to repeat the performance with a first-of-its kind YieldCo that will focus on investment in Africa and Asia. A YieldCo is a publicly traded company that is formed to own operating clean energy assets that produce a steady cash flow,...
List of High Yield Alternative Energy Stocks
This is a list of renewable and alternative energy stocks with dividend or distribution yields above 4%. The list includes most Yieldcos (high distribution companies that own renewable energy operations), but is not limited to Yieldcos. Some Yieldcos may be excluded if their yield is below 4%.
Atlantica Yield plc (AY)
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (AQN, AQN.TO)
Bluefield Solar Income Fund Ltd. (BSIF.L)
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP)
Clearway Energy, Inc. (CWEN,CWEN-A)
Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CIG)
Covanta Holding Corporation (CVA)
Crius Energy Trust (KWH-UN.TO, CRIUF)
Enviva Partners, LP (EVA)
Foresight Solar Fund plc (FSFL.L)
GATX Corporation Series A (GMTA)
Global X YieldCo ETF (YLCO)
Greencoat UK Wind PLC (UKW.L)
Green...
Five Green REITs
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Why Green Buildings are Profitable Buildings
Buildings are responsible for approximately a third of greenhouse gas emissions, so making buildings more efficient and switching them to renewable sources of energy is an essential part in addressing climate change.
Fortunately, new technologies such as cold climate heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, as well as the ever falling cost of renewable electricity and improvements to insulation and building envelopes often provide opportunities to improve buildings while achieving extremely attractive investment returns from the energy and maintenance savings alone.
Because of the great financial returns, building owners who...
Comparative Valuation of 15 Yieldcos
Tom Konrad CFA Compared to the peak of the Yieldco bubble in May, many Yieldcos have dropped by more than half, and most by more than a third. Some of this decline is because rapid dividend growth depends on an endless supply of cheap investor capital which is another way of saying that we can have rapid dividend growth or high dividend yields, but not both. Part of the decline was due to the realization that many Yeildcos (most notably Terraform Power (TERP), Terraform Global (GLBL), and Abengoa Yield (ABY)) were not immune to...
The Green Bond Trend
DTE Energy Company (DTE: NYSE) recently priced a ‘green bond’ issuance of $525 million to support renewable energy and energy efficiency. The thirty-year bonds provide a coupon payment at 4.05%. DTE is planning to buy solar arrays and wind turbines with its newly flush cash kitty. The capital raise is of significance less for its size and purpose and more for the fact that a U.S. electric utility company is tapping this unusual financing vehicle.
True enough, green bonds are nothing new. Created to fund projects with environmental or climatic benefits, the first green bonds were issued in May 2007 by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The...
Buyer’s Guide To Community Solar in New York
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
An updated version of this article is available here.
After a painfully long wait, community solar (also called shared solar) is finally coming to New York state. After years of regulatory uncertainty, the state Public Services Commission (PSC) has put enough of the enabling regulations in place for a number of developers to move forward.
What is Community Solar?
A community solar installation is a large scale (typically 1 to 3 MW, or the size of about 150 to 800 residential solar installations) in which subscribers can sign up to lease or purchase a share of the production...
Climate Bonds 2016 Highlights
by the Climate Bonds Team
A record year with green bond issuance of USD 81bn, up 92% on 2015 figures
The Trends
A maturing of the green bonds market, diversification across issuers, products and use of proceeds are the main trends identified in our Green Bonds Highlights 2016 summary.
The Big Numbers
92% – growth on 2015 making 2016 the most prolific year to date
USD 11.8bn – November issuance, the largest month on record
24 – number of countries with green bond issuers
27% – proportion of Chinese issuers
241 – number of labelled green bonds issued (median size USD133.7m)
>90 – number of new issuers
>50 – number...
YieldCo Bubble: The Aftermath
Readers may be interested in listening to this podcast. Where Stephen Lacey and Shayle Kann of GreenTechMedia speak with me about the current YieldCo landscape. Follow this link to The Interchange Podcast. -Tom Konrad, Editor
Enviva: Wood Pellets Into Dividends
by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week Enviva Partners, LP (EVA: NYSE) reported financial performance for its wood pellets business in its quarter ending September 2015. Sales totaled a whopping $116.6 million, representing a 53% increase compared to $40.5 million in the same quarter last year. The big jump in revenue resulted from higher volumes to larger customers. Distributable cash flow totaled $12.6 million compared to $8.2 million in the year ago period. Quarter performance made possible a declared cash distribution of $0.44 per common unit, which is 7% higher than the minimum quarterly distribution. At its...
Fossil Fuel Companies Should Be Issuing Green Bonds
by the Climate Bonds Team ‘Fossil fuel companies should not be issuing green bonds because they are not green businesses.’ Varying versions of this statement crops up often at green bond conferences and in articles. We disagree, and here is why: It’s use of proceeds that matter Green bonds are about use of proceeds. What matters is the green characteristics and features of the projects that are being invested in, the ‘use of proceeds’, not the balance sheet backing the bond. This is an accepted concept in the green bond market...
Has the Sell-off Created Value Stocks Among Clean Energy Conglomerates?
Tom Konrad CFA The silver lining of all market declines is the chance to buy stock in quality companies at attractive prices. That opportunity has been notably absent over the last two years, which is why my focus has shifted to smaller and smaller companies in search of reasonable valuations over that time. Although I still don't believe the market is cheap by any measure other than comparing it to a couple months ago, the volatility is starting to bring some individual bargains, especially on heavy selling days. For instance, I've started to acquire some of...
See You Later, Hannon Armstrong
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Sustainable infrastructure financier Hannon Armstrong (NYSE:HASI) is not in my Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio for the first year since its IPO in 2013. I still love the company and its business model, but I have become concerned about its short term prospects.
Dividend Disappointment?
In my last update on the 2017 portfolio, I wrote,
“Sustainable infrastructure and clean energy financier Hannon Armstrong reported earnings on November 1st. The headline numbers were lower than expected, but for a very good reason. The company has spent the last few months locking in low interest rates by refinancing its...
Buying Innergex – Texas Was Bad, But Not That Bad
By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
Last week, I published this call to buy Innergex (INGXF, INE.TO) because investors had been overreacting to the losses from the February cold snap in Texas. The stock is up since then, but still seems a decent value.
Canadian Yieldco Innergex Renewable Energy (INGXF, INE.TO) took a big financial hit from the power disruptions in Texas in March.
It's complex, but their financial hedges on power prices for three of its wind farms ended up creating enormous liabilities - more, in fact, than two of their wind farms are worth. Two of their facilities also had benefits...
Five Green Dividend Stocks to Watch
Tom Konrad CFA The Perfect Stock My ideal stock is: Green (in that the company is helping to make the economy more sustainable) Pays a good dividend (in the current low-interest rate environment, I consider 4% to be “good”) Has earnings and free cash flow large enough to easily sustain the dividend, and Has low debt, leading to low earnings and cash flow volatility. I like such stocks because I can buy them, and pretty much ignore them. This leaves me time to research more speculative green stocks, while still knowing that much of my portfolio is producing...
The Pros Pick Three Green Income Stocks For 2014
It’s now possible to invest in green stocks for income, not just for growth. Here are three picks for 2014 from green investing professionals.
Northland Power’s Solar-Backed Bond
New Canadian Climate bond: Northland Power releases a pretty big ABS - CA$232m (US$206m) - backed by solar projects with proceeds for renewables. 18-year tenor, 4.397% coupon, BBB. Securitisation key future area for green bonds.
