RE: according to General electric Interesting, but an acquirer will not be choosing between building one (much less in 2009) and buying an existing project with an existing power sale contract, known maintenance costs, and EBITDA.
And of course, an end to subsidies will result in few, or no, more projects being built until the cost becomes competitive with alternative generation methods. The fact that there are subsidies tells you that they would not be built without them. This is very good for the value of existing wind installations in CA where there is a renewables mandate, restricting the supply of renewable generators and increasing the cost of building more of them. Good for tghe future value of WND's assets and an attraction to a potential buyer.
In effect, it is a smart time for WND to exit the development business, with its last (Puerto Rico) project still getting a huge construction subsidy. As the US struggles to reduce its $1.2 Trillion deficit, it can't afford to keep borrowing so it has the cash for so many discretionary programs. In fact, there is minimal pollution from NG-fired plants and they are much cheaper to build and operate, even cheaper than coal.
Back to the original point...What counts the most to an acquiror is the EBITDA thrown off by the projects they are thinking of buying. They are buying the cash flow, which is basically a predictable number for the 20 year life of the project (plus perhaps another few years thereafter). The lower the cost of funds to the acquiror, the more the project is worth to them.
That is why touting that the Puerto Rican project being financed in November may be an ill-advised thing to do. In fact, with possible buyers like Brookfield that could get company financing under 5%, they should allow the high bidder to do the financing once a deal has been acted upon. Perhaps this might make some bidders push for an earlier decision or ask WND to hold off cementing the financing in place.