QUICK NEWS, October 4: IKEA BUYS MORE WIND; SOLAR POWER PLANT BOUGHT; HOSTILE WIND TAKEOVER BREWING

IKEA BUYS MORE WIND
Ikea enters Polish wind market with €87.3 million deal
Marcin Czekanski, 3 October 2011 (Windpower Monthly)

"Home furnishings retailer Ikea has bought three wind farms in Poland from Martifer Renewables, a subsidiary of Portuguese Martifer SGPS…Ikea agreed to pay €87.3 million for wind farms totalling 56MW.

"Two of the wind farms: Leki Dukielskie (10MW) and Bukowsko (18MW) are online, but the third project Rymanow [28MW] is expected to be commissioned in the coming months…"

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"All three wind farms are located in the mountainous Podkarpackie province in south-east Poland, which offers very good wind conditions of 7.5-8m/s.

"…[For] Martifer… the sale of the wind farms in Poland was a result of [its] "asset rotation policy"…[while Ikea said] the transaction [will allow it to] meet half of its stores in Poland electricity demand with renewable energy…The retailer has projects in France, Germany and the UK."


SOLAR POWER PLANT BOUGHT
NRG Energy Completes Acquisition of 250-Megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch from SunPower
September 30, 2011 (PR Newswire via SunPower Corp.)

"NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) has completed its acquisition of the 250-megawatt (MW) California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) project from SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRA, SPWRB)… immediately prior to…[the] closing of the project's loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Loan Programs Office.

"Construction on the project began this month, with approximately 350 jobs expected to be created in San Luis Obispo County over the two-year construction period…[T]he California Valley Solar Ranch will power about 100,000 homes and will be one of the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plants in the world. NRG also owns five other large-scale solar projects in California, Arizona and New Mexico…"

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"NRG now bears full ownership responsibility for the project, which is expected to begin partial operations by early 2012, with the balance of the project coming online later in 2012 and 2013. SunPower will complete the project's design and construction, working with Bechtel, which is providing balance of plant engineering and procurement services and construction services. Once completed, NRG and SunPower will jointly operate and maintain the project for two years, and then NRG assumes sole responsibility…

"The project has received a loan guarantee of up to $1.237 billion from the DOE's Loan Programs Office…Clean, renewable power from California Valley Solar Ranch will be sold to PG&E through 25-year power purchase agreements that have been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission."


HOSTILE WIND TAKEOVER BREWING
Western Wind Energy Corp. – Trading Review
October 1, 2011 (Western Wind Energy Corp and PR Newswire via Daily Markets)

"Western Wind Energy Corp. - (Toronto Venture Exchange – “WND”) (OTCQX – “WNDEF”)…has notified the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (“IIROC”) of the obvious pre-conditioned trading activity that has been occuring for the past several months…

"…The main complaint from shareholders is the copious amounts of matched trades occuring on a daily basis, with the emphasis being on downward price trading after real-time market orders. This trading occurs almost daily, and also after significant positive material news announcements…"

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"…The large number of very small trades on a daily basis are uniquely matched as equal buy/sell amounts. On an arm’s length basis, it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, for individual purchase and sell orders to be coincidentally matched and timed by independent and arm’s length Buyers and Seller’s…

"…[T]he Company informed IIROC, that it has been made aware in the past few days, that a certain party would like to make a take-over bid of certain or all of [its] assets…The suggested offer price… is above the current market price but below the independent valuation amount…"