IKEA made its first wind farm investment in the United States with the purchase of 98-MW Hoopeston Wind in Hoopeston, Illinois. The project is currently being constructed by Apex Clean Energy and is expected to be fully operational by the first half of 2015. The Hoopeston Wind project will install 49 Vestas V100-2.0 MW wind turbines near Hoopeston in Vermilion County, Illinois, approximately 110 miles south of Chicago.

Energen signed a definitive stock purchase agreement to sell its natural gas utility business, Alabama Gas Corporation (Alagasco), to The Laclede Group. The value of the transaction is $1.6 billion, subject to customary closing adjustments, and is comprised of $1.28 billion in cash and approximately $320 million of debt. Energen's after-tax proceeds are estimated to be $1.1 billion, after consideration of accelerated intangible drilling costs.

Accenture and Siemens completed the formation of a joint venture company called OMNETRIC Group. OMNETRIC Group will bring together Siemens' smart grid products and solutions; Accenture's management and technology consulting, systems integration and managed-services capabilities.

Car Charging Group, through its partnership with City Park, has expanded the availability of EV charging services at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Garage in San Francisco. CarCharging originally deployed EV charging services at the MOMA Garage in 2013 and over the past year, the demand for EV fueling has continued to expand. The charging stations have been consistently utilized, which demonstrates the need for additional public EV charging infrastructure.

The Energy Storage Association (ESA) began engaging directly in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) stakeholder driven market redesign process. The Texas Energy Storage Alliance (TESA) had convened a group of industry members to work collaboratively; that effort has now been folded into the larger national organization. ESA is the forum for broad industry input that will ensure proposed rules will enable the advancement of utility scale energy storage technologies.

Three nuclear energy plants owned by Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG) officially joined Exelon Generation's fleet of nuclear plants. The three CENG plants include five reactors capable of generating more than 4,200 MW at full power, they include: R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario, NY, a single 583-MW, Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Scriba, NY, 1,937 MW, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Md., 1,768 MW.

ABB won an order worth around $40 million from Energinet.dk, the Danish transmission system operator, to build an AC power cable system that will help integrate and transmit power from the 400 MW Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm. ABB´s project scope includes the technical design, engineering and production of the high-voltage cable system including accessories and installation. Energinet.dk is an independent public enterprise owned by the Danish state as represented by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building.