Minnesota Power, a division of ALLETE, and the Minnesota National Guard signed a memorandum of understanding outlining plans to build a 10-MW utility-scale solar energy array at Camp Ripley, located in central Minnesota. The project will be the largest solar energy installation on military property in the state. The solar farm and backup generation will be designed and constructed to allow Camp Ripley to use the energy produced by the project during infrequent periods when the electric grid is down, providing enhanced energy security for the military site.

Dynegy plans to buy Duke Energy’s non-regulated Midwest Commercial Generation Business for $2.8 billion in cash, which includes ownership interests in 11 power plants and Duke Energy Retail Sales, the company's retail business in Ohio. The completion of the transaction is conditioned on approval from FERC, the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott Rodino Act, and the release of certain credit support obligations. Closing is expected to occur in three to six months.

Echelon signed a definitive agreement to sell its grid operations to S&T AG, a publicly traded European IT systems provider. The companies expect the deal to close by the end of the year. Under the terms of the agreement, Echelon will receive approximately $5 million in upfront consideration, dependent in part on the value of net assets at closing. Echelon will also become a supplier of its narrowband high-reliability power line communications chips to S&T for use in their smart meters and related products.

Boart Longyear was awarded a contract for drilling services at the Magnum NGLs (natural gas liquids) Storage Project at central Utah's Western Energy Hub. Magnum is building the first underground salt cavern NGLs storage facility in the Rocky Mountain region at the site. Development will include the construction of solution-mined storage caverns in a salt dome approximately 3,000 feet below the natural surface. Initially, the facility will feature two caverns each capable of storing between 1 and 2 million barrels of NGLs such as propane and butane.

Calpine plans to purchase a nominal 809-MW, combined-cycle power plant and related plant inventory from Exelon for $530 million, subject to working capital adjustments. The natural gas-fired plant is located in North Weymouth, Massachusetts, 12 miles southeast of Boston. Built in 2003, Fore River Generating Station features two Mitsubishi 501G combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and one Mitsubishi steam turbine. Calpine expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of 2014 and intends to fund the transaction with cash on hand.

ABB successfully commissioned the HVDC converter stations to the Rio Madeira HVDC link in Brazil and delivered the project to Abengoa. The approximately 2,400 km, 3,150-MW power connection is the longest transmission link in the world, and will bring electricity from two hydropower plants in the northwest of the country to São Paulo, Brazil's main economic center. Apart from the two 3,150-MW HVDC converter stations, ABB has also delivered an 800-MW HVDC back-to-back station that transmits power to the surrounding AC network in the northwest of Brazil.

Renewable Energy Systems Canada (RES Canada) was selected to construct a 10-MW solar PV facility, GoldLight Solar, for Canadian Solar Solutions. Located in Georgina, Ontario in the Regional Municipality of York, construction of GoldLight Solar will begin in summer 2014 with the facility expected to be fully operational by the end of the year. Once completed, the project will provide electricity to the Ontario Power Authority under a 20-year feed-in-tariff (FIT) contract.

Canadian Solar Solutions completed the sale of Good Light, a 10-MW solar power plant located in the town of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada, valued at over $60.3 million (USD) to a BluEarth Renewables subsidiary. This is the second of four planned solar projects being acquired by BluEarth from Canadian Solar, totaling 38.5 MW AC.