Morning Brief: Brookfield to buy Exelon’s solar business for $810 million, NRG Energy issues $900 million in sustainability-linked bond

Also in the brief: Panasonic’s new solar modules

December 10, 2020 Eric Wesoff

Image: Max Pixel

NRG Energy has completed the issuance of $900 million senior secured first lien notes in a landmark issuance, with NRG pioneering the first Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) in North America, and the first issued by any energy company outside of Europe. As a complement to the sustainability-linked pricing metric added to the Company’s corporate credit agreement in 2019, the Company’s issuance of the SLB aligns NRG’s business and financing with company commitments and values by creating a direct link between climate and funding strategies. The SLB links attractive financing to the realization of the Company’s previously announced goals to achieve a 50% reduction of absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2025, and reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, from the current 2014 baseline. Source: NRG

Brookfield Renewable Partners agreed to buy Exelon Generation’s solar business for $810 million. The deal includes 360 MW of generation in operation or under construction across nearly 600 sites located across the U.S. Source: Exelon

Panasonic unveiled its new EverVolt Solar Modules designed to accompany its EverVolt Battery Storage system. Source: Panasonic

Opinion piece from Vote Solar: New Mexicans are no strangers to energy development. Over 130,000 New Mexicans live within a half mile threat radius of an oil and gas well, in addition to almost 100 schools that serve over 32,000 students. From missed school days from air pollution to threatened sacred sites like Chaco Canyon, we know the devastating impacts of the fossil fuel industry. Yet our own electric utility here in Las Cruces is proposing to increase our dependence on these destructive fossil fuels by adding a new gas turbine at its generating station near the Texas/New Mexico border. The additional capacity would only operate for very short periods of time to help meet peak electricity demand, a service that solar energy with battery storage can provide more easily and at a lower cost. If approved, customers in both Texas and New Mexico would pay over $160 million for the plant expansion over its expected life. Analysis from the group Vote Solar and other experts, using the company’s own data, clearly shows that the new turbines are not needed and that El Paso Electric failed to properly value and consider clean alternatives, and New Mexico’s climate laws. Source: Daily Advertiser

Catholic Diocese of Richmond undertaking solar energy projects at schools and churches: When Father John Grace, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Hampton, talks about the hundreds of solar panels that now cover the roof of the church sanctuary, he talks not just about saving money on electricity, but protecting God’s creation. “That is adding something to the quality of life for the future,” Grace said of the solar panel array that was installed in July 2019. Grace said it was a project his parishioners embraced and now look at with pride. “I have got a lot of retirees,” in the parish, he said. When the idea of installing solar panels was first proposed, “they said, ‘Let’s go for it,’ which you might not expect from an older parish, but they did.” “We are saving about 10% or 11%” on energy costs, Grace said. Source: Richmond Times Dispatch

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