Ever since SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) announced in mid-July that it would acquire Vivint Solar for $2.2 billion, the stock has taken a beating, down more than 60% in just over six weeks. The stock got a boost of up to 10% Thursday from comments CEO Ahmad Chatila made in an interview on Wednesday.

In addition to the Vivint deal, SunEdison-controlled yieldco TerraForm Power Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP) recently acquired 930 megawatts of wind generation assets from Invenergy Wind for $2 billion. SunEdison also recently held an initial public offering for a yieldco to hold assets outside the United States, TerraForm Global Inc. (NASDAQ: GLBL).

Unlike making and selling solar cells and modules, yieldcos are long-term plays based on a steady stream of payments from contracted electric power purchasers. Essentially SunEdison has been building a global utility company that eventually will see the revenues and profits rolling in.

The problem is that the stream, so far, is barely a trickle, although Chatila told Bloomberg Wednesday that this is about to change — and fast:

The most important question for investors is when do we start generating cash for a living. I have said it’s at the end of 2016 or early 2017. But we’ve been signaling it’s going to be a lot sooner than that, probably early 2016 or late 2015.

Chatila also said that he remains “enthusiastic” about the Vivint acquisition, even though SuneEdison’s share price has dropped so much. Vivint shareholders expect to receive $16.50 per share of Vivint they own, consisting of $9.89 in cash, $3.31 per share in SunEdison stock and $3.30 per share in SunEdison convertible notes. On July 20, the day the offer was announced, SunEdison stock opened around $32.50.

Shares of SunEdison traded up about 8.5% in the mid-afternoon on Thursday at $11.72, in a 52-week range of $8.10 to $33.45.

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