NRG Energy sees the (green) light, buys Bluewater Wind

NRG Energy (NRG) a $3 billion company with 24,000 megawatts of coal, natural gas, nuclear and solar power plants in its portfolio, has acquired Bluewater Wind, based in Hoboken, N.J., for cash on hand. The deal, announced in a press conference last Monday with Drew Murphy, NRG's Northeast regional president and Bluewater Wind President and CEO Peter Mandelstam, marks the end of a long, strange saga. The two companies, once rivals, engaged in a bitter competition to provide energy to Delaware. Now they will operate in conjunction under NRG's large, well-financed roof.

The background to the acquisition provides a study in the power that some investor-owned utilities have had to block the entrance of renewable energy into electricity markets -- and in how that is rapidly changing.