What: Shares of renewable energy developer SunEdison Inc (SUNEQ) jumped as much as 14% today after the company announced a new partnership.
So what: SunEdison announced after the market close yesterday that it will partner with Dominion Resources (D -0.51%) to build 240 MW of solar projects in Utah. Under the terms of the deal, Dominion will invest $500 million for 99% of the tax equity and 50% of the cash equity of the project and SunEdison will retain the rest. When combined with $250 million of financing, the project is fully funded without additional cash needed from SunEdison.
Now what: This is a good ownership structure for SunEdison, which wants to add long-term cash flows to its business but doesn't have a lot of capital to contribute to the projects themselves. If the company can find ways to finance projects like this in the future, especially with utility partners, it could provide a lot of upside with relatively little downside risk for investors.
SunEdison has a lot of work to do in proving that it can create a profitable business, and shares are still off more than 50% from their 52-week high, but partnerships like this are a step in the right direction.
