Tradition Brokers 20-Year REC Off-Take from Idaho Wind Project With Seattle City Light and 3Degrees

NEW YORK, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Tradition, a leading global interdealer broker, today announced its environmental team brokered two significant renewable energy certificate (REC) deals with a Pacific Winds Inc. subsidiary, Idaho Winds LLC, a wind farm developer, regarding the 22 MW Sawtooth Wind Project, located in Elmore County, Idaho.

The first deal is with 3Degrees, an environmental commodities sales, trading and advisory firm, to purchase the RECs generated by the Sawtooth Wind Project in 2011-2014. The second deal is with Seattle City Light (SCL), Seattle's publicly owned electric utility, to purchase the Sawtooth Wind Project's RECs generated in 2015-2029.

Purchasers of RECs provide renewable energy project owners with a revenue stream that supplements the revenue they secure from the sale of the project's electricity. These additional revenues improve renewable energy project economics, increasing their competitiveness with fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

"At a time of low natural gas prices and thus low power prices, REC revenues are an increasingly important component of wind project finance," said Morgan McGovert, vice president of Idaho Winds LLC. "Commitments like those from Seattle City Light and 3Degrees enable us to improve our returns on investment and build more projects."

Over the next 20 years, the Sawtooth Wind Project will provide significant economic benefits and jobs to the State of Idaho by injecting over $40 million into the local economy, as well as providing the average energy supply for approximately 14,000 homes within the Idaho Power Company's service territory. PowerWorks LLC, an affiliate of Idaho Winds LLC, will operate the project. In addition, the RECs from the project will also enable 3Degrees and SCL to provide the positive environmental attributes of renewable energy to their respective customers.

"We have made this commitment to the Sawtooth Wind Project on behalf of our customers," said Jay McCall, vice president of environmental markets, 3Degrees. "Commitments like this improve our ability to help utilities, corporations, LEED green building professionals and other partners use RECs to meet government renewable energy mandates or mitigate the environmental impact of their energy use."

SCL's commitment to the Sawtooth Wind Project will help the utility in its effort to meet the requirements of Initiative 937. Under I-937, large Washington utilities must obtain at least 15 percent of their electricity from new renewable energy resources by 2020.

"This agreement provides excellent value for Seattle City Light's customer-owners," Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said. "It provides the utility with some of the renewable energy credits we need to meet our environmental requirements under I-937, at the time when we'll need them, and at an affordable price."

"We are pleased to have facilitated these two substantial RECs trades," commented Eric Klein, director of global environmental markets at Tradition in New York. "It is gratifying to see that multiple counterparties can come together and enable a great project to go forward."

About Tradition

Tradition is one of the world's largest interdealer brokers in over-the-counter financial and commodity related products. Represented in 27 countries, Tradition employs 2,530 people globally. Tradition is the interdealer broking arm of Compagnie Financiere Tradition (CFT) and listed on the Swiss stock exchange. For more information, please visit www.tradition.com.

About Idaho Winds LLC

Idaho Winds LLC, a subsidiary of Pacific Winds Inc., and its affiliates, own and operate over 900 wind turbines in California, in addition to the Sawtooth Wind Project, with offices located in Idaho and California. The Company is also pursuing new utility-scale wind projects across the nation. For more information, please visit www.powerworks.com.

About Seattle City Light

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

About 3Degrees

3Degrees' mission is to mitigate the effects of climate change by accelerating the development of a lowcarbon, renewable energy economy. 3Degrees realizes this mission by helping its utility, business, green building and other partners utilize environmental markets to build stakeholder value. Through these partnerships, 3Degrees increases demand for renewable energy and carbon offsets, channels capital to renewable energy and carbon reduction projects and improves the efficiency of environmental markets.

Winner of the U.S. Department of Energy's Green Power Leadership Award four straight years, 3Degrees is headquartered in San Francisco's Presidio and operates regional offices in Portland, St. Louis and Seattle. To learn more, visit www.3degreesinc.com.

SOURCE Tradition