AIG sells stakes in three Spanish solar plants
The company’s AIG Financial Products Corp. said the three plants have a combined generation capacity of 35.4 megawatts and a total value of about €300 million ($404 million). HgCapital, a private equity firm in London, bought the stakes for an undisclosed amount of money.
HgCapital said it bought the interests not only from AIG but also from 360 Corporate, an investment bank in Spain. The acquisition is HgCapitalÂ’s first in the solar energy sector, the firm said. The power plants were installed before the Spanish government lowered its solar energy subsidies last fall. HgCapital, which also invests in wind power, said two of the plants have a fix-axis design while the third uses a single-axis tracker system (18MW).
AIGÂ’s spokesman Mark Herr said via email that the operators of those power plants are City Solar, Proener and SunPower (SPWRA). SunPower, based in San Jose, Calif., makes solar panels and single-axis trackers, and it engineers and develops solar power projects. The three power plants are located in the regions of Extremadura, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha, Herr said.
AIG said itÂ’s selling its assets to (hopefully) improve its business prospect. Owning solar power plants is apparently not a prudent idea when business is faltering, but giving out multimillion-dollar bonuses is.
Related News
Battery-electric buses hit the roads in Metro Vancouver
VANCOUVER - TransLink's first battery-electric buses are taking to the roads in Metro Vancouver as part of a pilot project to reduce emissions.
The first four zero-emission buses picked up commuters in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster on Wednesday. Six more are expected to be brought in.
"With so many people taking transit in Vancouver today, electric buses will make a real difference," said Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, a think tank at Simon Fraser University, in a release.
According to TransLink, each bus is expected to reduce 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and save $40,000 in fuel costs…
