Independent power generator Calpine Corp. announced last Friday that one of its biggest single shareholders, Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund Ltd., has agreed to sell 20 million shares of Calpine common stock in a registered public secondary offering, which will close Wednesday. Calpine said it will not receive any proceeds from the offering. Harbinger has granted Morgan Stanley the option to purchase an added 3 million shares solely to cover overallotments, Calpine said. Morgan Stanley is the sale’s sole underwriter. “The common shares purchased by Morgan Stanley are being offered for resale from time to time in negotiated transactions or otherwise at market prices on the New York Stock Exchange prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to such prevailing market prices or otherwise,” Calpine said.

Utah’s state government plans to spend $4.5 million this year to more than double the number of natural gas-fueled vehicles and gas-electric hybrids in its fleet, according to a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune. It is part of a larger plan to lessen the state fleet’s carbon footprint and lower the cost of operating some 7,400 vehicles. Utah officials told the Tribune it plans to be at the forefront of the push to use natural gas in vehicles. “In compressed natural gas (CNG), we’re out in front again,” said Margaret Chambers, Utah’s state fleet operations division director, as quoted in the news report. “I feel like we’re still leading by example.” During the next 14 months, the state is planning to buy 26 new CNG vehicles and convert nearly 100 other vehicles from gasoline to run on natural gas. Utah also plans to buy a total of 343 new hybrid sedans — either Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Malibu — during the same period.

Sempra Energy‘s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) said it expects to award incentives of up to $633,000 to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) for installing the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) system at a transit facility, along with a state-of-the-art energy management system. The county transit organization’s installations qualified for incentives under the Los Angeles-based Sempra utility’s Self-Generation Incentive and Business Energy Efficiency programs. Both programs are state-sponsored efforts providing financial incentives to businesses for generating their own electricity on-site and improving energy efficiency. Metro’s downtown Los Angeles support service center has an installation of 6,720 solar PV panels, which SoCalGas said represents the largest solar installation in the City of Los Angeles, with a maximum generating capacity of 1.2 MW. The Metro facility is expected to cut its annual $1.1 million energy bill in half with the PV system and reduced carbon emissions by more than 3,700 metric tons, the gas utility said. The transit authority also installed a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and compressed air systems, and replaced about 4,000 lighting fixtures, all controlled by a technologically advanced energy management system. Since 2001 Sempra’s gas utility has awarded more than $70 million in self-generation incentives to projects totaling 77 MW. The Metro support center is used for central maintenance of the transit unit’s bus fleet, which includes 2,500 compressed natural gas-fueled buses.

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