Note 9 - Intangible Assets and Goodwill

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Notes to Financial Statements

Intangible Assets Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 9 — INTANGIBLE ASSETS AND GOODWILL

Intangible assets amounting to $186.2 million and $199.9 million consist mainly of the Company’s PPAs acquired in business combinations and its storage activities, net of accumulated amortization of $74.1 million and $61.5 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Intangible assets relating to the Company's storage activities as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 amounted to $30.2 million and $32.2 million, net of accumulated amortization of $5.4 million and $3.4 million, respectively. Amortization expense for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 amounted to $13.3 million, $11.2 million and $6.9 million, respectively. Additions to intangible assets for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, amounted to $0.0 million, $127.0 million and $35.6 million, respectively. The additions to intangible assets in 2018 and 2017 primarily relate to the USG and Viridity acquisitions, respectively. The Company tested the intangible assets for recoverability in December 2019 and 2018 and assessed whether there are events or change in circumstances which may indicate that the intangible assets are not recoverable. The Company's assessment resulted in that there were no write-offs of intangible assets in 2019, 2018 and 2017.

Estimated future amortization expense for the intangible assets as of December 31, 2019 is as follows:

	(Dollars in thousands)
Year ending December 31:
2020	$	12,983
2021		12,983
2022		12,729
2023		12,610
2024		11,255
Thereafter		123,660
Total	$	186,220

Goodwill

Goodwill amounting to $20.1 million and $20.0 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively, represents the excess of the fair value of considerations transferred in business combination transactions over the fair value of tangible and intangible assets acquired, net of the fair value of liabilities assumed and non-controlling interest (as applicable) in the acquisitions.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, the Company determined that certain qualitative indicators of a potential impairment existed in relation to its storage and energy management services reporting unit which required further quantitative assessment of goodwill impairment (step one as described in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements under the caption “Goodwill”). The qualitative indicators included a significant update to the reporting unit’s business forecasts combined with a large-scale restructuring of the way the Company runs this reporting unit which were both executed during the fourth quarter of 2018. As a result of the quantitative assessment, the Company recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $13.5 million in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) for the year ended December 31, 2018. Following this impairment charge, the goodwill allocated to the storage and energy management services reporting unit is zero. The Company estimated the fair value of the storage and energy management services reporting unit by using the income approach based on discounted cash flows, which utilized Level 3 measurement that represent unobservable inputs into the Company’s valuation method.

Except as noted above, for the years 2019, 2018 and 2017 the Company’s impairment assessment related to the Company’s other reporting units for which goodwill (all of which is in the Electricity segment) is allocated to resulted in no impairment to goodwill.

Changes in the carrying amount of the Company’s goodwill for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 were as follows:

	2019		2018
	(Dollars in thousands)
Goodwill as of January 1,	$	19,950	$	21,037
Goodwill acquired		—		12,710
Goodwill impairment charge		—		(13,464	)
Translation differences		190		(333	)
Goodwill as of December 31,	$	20,140	$	19,950