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The $26 Billion Hole That Has Clean Power Scrambling for Cover

  • Yield companies `stranded' after plunge cuts off share sales
  • Yieldcos hammered by commodities selloff, Fed rate outlook
Golf carts stand under solar panels in a parking lot in Tempe, Arizona.

Golf carts stand under solar panels in a parking lot in Tempe, Arizona.

Photographer: Laura Segall/Bloomberg
Updated on

For investors in yieldco stocks, it’s been a quick and wild ride.

Two years ago, yield companies like TerraForm Power Inc. and NRG Yield Inc. were the newest, hottest thing for energy investors -- a way to make steady returns off the booming clean energy sector. Share values soared after they were spun off by parent companies eager to cash in. Today, those same parent entities have put as much as $26 billion worth of sales to their affiliates on hold after the market value cratered.