ACE

ALLETE Clean Energy Signs Purchase Agreement with AES for 100.5-MW Wind Facility

ALLETE Clean Energy (ACE) agreed to acquire 100 percent of AES Armenia Mountain Wind, (Armenia Mountain) a 100.5-MW wind facility near Troy, Pa., from AES and a non-controlling interest from a minority shareholder for a total of $108 million, plus the assumption of existing debt. ACE had an option to purchase the Armenia Mountain facility, which was exercised on April 1; a purchase agreement with AES was signed April 30. Closing is expected in July 2015. All the facility's energy output is sold through existing PPAs that extend through 2025.

Sun Damage

Geomagnetic storms and the limits of human experience.

On April 30, FERC held a technical conference to review scientific claims and policy arguments about geomagnetic disturbances, known as GMD—how some say that a once-in-a-century solar storm could induce a power surge on the interstate grid so destructive as to cook and fry as many 300 extra-high-voltage transformers, plunging much of the nation into a blackout lasting months or even years. Some researchers even harbor fears that GMDs could end life as we know it.