INVESTMENTS IN AND ADVANCES TO AFFILIATES

The following table summarizes the relevant effective equity ownership interest and carrying values for the Company's investments accounted for under the equity method as of the periods indicated.



December 31,		2015		2014		2015		2014
Affiliate	Country	Carrying Value (in millions)				Ownership Interest %
Solar Power PR	Puerto Rico	$	—	$	2	—	%	50	%
Barry⁽¹⁾	United Kingdom	—		—		100	%	100	%
Elsta⁽¹⁾	Netherlands	53		54		50	%	50	%
Distributed Energy⁽¹⁾	United States	17		—		94	%	—	%
Guacolda⁽²⁾	Chile	344		285		33	%	35	%
OPGC⁽³⁾	India	195		194		49	%	49	%
Other affiliates	Various	1		2
Total investments in and advances to affiliates		$	610	$	537


⁽¹⁾	Represent VIEs in which the Company holds a variable interest but is not the primary beneficiary.


⁽²⁾	The Company's ownership in Guacolda is held through AES Gener, a 67%-owned consolidated subsidiary. AES Gener owns 50% of Guacolda, resulting in an AES effective ownership in Guacolda of 33%. At December 31, 2014, AES owned 71% of AES Gener, resulting in an AES effective ownership in Guacolda of 35%.


⁽³⁾	OPGC has one coal-fired expansion project under development. The project started construction in April 2014 and is currently expected to begin operations in 2018.

Guacolda — On September 1, 2015, AES Gener and Global Infrastructure Partners ("GIP") executed a restructuring of Guacolda that increased Guacolda's tax basis in certain long-term assets and AES Gener's equity investment. This transaction was reflected within equity at the Guacolda level, but was not with or among the shareholders of AES. Accordingly, the AES proportion of the increased value in equity was recognized in net income. As a result, AES Gener recorded $66 million in net equity in earnings of affiliates for the year ended December 31, 2015, of which $46 million is attributable to The AES Corporation.

On April 11, 2014, AES Gener undertook a series of transactions, pursuant to which AES Gener acquired the interests that it did not previously own in Guacolda for $728 million and simultaneously sold the ownership interest to GIP for $730 million. The transaction provided GIP with substantive participating rights in Guacolda and, as a result, the Company continues to account for its investment in Guacolda using the equity method of accounting. At no time during this transaction did the Company acquire a non-controlling interest. The cash paid for the acquisition is reflected in Acquisitions, net of cash acquired and the cash proceeds from the sale of these ownership interests to GIP is reflected in Proceeds from the sale of businesses, net of cash sold on the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the period ended December 31, 2014.

Distributed Energy — On February 18, 2015, the Company completed the acquisition of 100% of the common stock of Main Street Power Company, Inc., which has been renamed to Distributed Energy Inc. As part of this acquisition, the Company obtained additional investments accounted for under the equity method.

Silver Ridge Power — On July 1, 2014, the Puerto Rico solar business, Solar Power PR, LLC, was distributed by Silver Ridge Power, LLC ("SRP") to AES and Riverstone Holdings LLC and was accounted for as a direct equity method investment. On April 29, 2015, the Company purchased the remaining 50% of the common stock of Solar Power PR, LLC and now consolidates this entity. On July 2, 2014, the Company closed the sale of its 50% ownership interest in SRP for a purchase price of $179 million, excluding the Company's indirect ownership interests in SRP's solar generation businesses in Italy and Spain ("Solar Italy" and "Solar Spain," respectively). The buyer also had an option to purchase the Company's indirect 50% interest in the Italy solar generation business for an additional consideration of $42 million by August 2015. The buyer exercised its option to purchase Solar Italy on August 31, 2015, and the sale was completed on October 1, 2015.

In 2014, the sale of the Company's 50% ownership interest in SRP did not qualify as a sale for accounting purposes as the Company had continuing involvement in the business operations. As of July 2, 2014, the Company no longer retained an equity interest in SRP. As such, the then-remaining investment balance of $32 million related to Italy and Spain and the AOCL balance of $40 million were reclassified to Other noncurrent assets on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of December 31, 2014, the carrying value of these investments recorded in Other noncurrent assets was $64 million.

Solar Spain — On September 24, 2015, the Company completed the sale of Solar Spain, an equity method investment. Net proceeds from the sale transaction were $31 million and the Company recognized a pretax gain on sale of less than $1 million.

Upon the completion of the Solar Spain and Solar Italy sale transactions noted above, the Company ceased its involvement in SRP's business operations and accounted for these transactions as sales of real estate. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2015, the carrying value of these investments recorded in Other noncurrent assets was zero.

AES Barry Ltd. — The Company holds a 100% ownership interest in AES Barry Ltd. ("Barry"), a dormant entity in the U.K. that disposed of its generation and other operating assets. Due to a debt agreement, no material financial or operating decisions can be made without the banks' consent, and the Company does not control Barry. As of December 31, 2015 and 2014, other long-term liabilities included $49 million and $52 million related to this debt agreement.

Elsta — In 2014, long lived assets within Elsta were determined to not be recoverable and an impairment charge of approximately $82 million was recognized. The Company recognized its 50% share, or $41 million, through its proportion of the equity earnings in Elsta.

Entek — In September 2014, the Company executed an agreement, subject to the approval of the Company's Board of Directors, to sell its equity interest in AES Entek. Based on this agreement, during the third quarter of 2014, the Company determined there was an other-than-temporary decline in the fair value of its equity method investment in AES Entek and recognized a pretax impairment loss of $18 million in other non-operating expense. On October 13, 2014, the Company entered into a binding agreement to sell its 49.62% ownership interest in Entek for a purchase price of $125 million. This resulted in the recognition of an additional other-than-temporary impairment of $68 million due to the inclusion of the cumulative translation adjustment in the carrying value of the investment. For additional information see Note 9—Other Non-Operating Expense. The sale represents 100% of the Company's interest in assets in Turkey. On December 18, 2014, the transaction closed which resulted in a final loss on sale of $4 million. Entek does not meet the criteria to be reported as discontinued operations under ASU No. 2014-08, which was adopted by the Company on July 1, 2014. Accordingly, AES' proportion of Entek's results are reflected in the Consolidated Statements of Operations within continuing operations. Excluding the loss on sale, Entek's pretax loss attributable to AES was $9 million and $29 million for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Summarized Financial Information

The following tables summarize financial information of the Company's 50%-or-less-owned affiliates and majority-owned unconsolidated subsidiaries that are accounted for using the equity method in millions.



	50%-or-less Owned Affiliates						Majority-Owned Unconsolidated Subsidiaries
Years ended December 31,	2015		2014		2013		2015		2014			2013
Revenue	$	641	$	928	$	1,099	$	24	$	2		$	2
Operating margin	152		206		295		11		—			—
Net income (loss)	210		59		53		6		—			—

December 31,	2015		2014				2015		2014
Current assets	$	376	$	450			$	20	$	—
Noncurrent assets	2,132		1,748				211		15
Current liabilities	435		299				21		—
Noncurrent liabilities	1,044		935				153		67
Noncontrolling interests	—		17				—		—
Stockholders' equity	1,029		947				57		(52		)

At December 31, 2015, retained earnings included $244 million related to the undistributed earnings of the Company's 50%-or-less owned affiliates. Distributions received from these affiliates were $18 million, $28 million, and $6 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively. As of December 31, 2015, the aggregate carrying amount of our investments in equity affiliates exceeded the underlying equity in their net assets by $162 million.