Clearway's wind Performance Index reaches 98% as third-quarter output falls from the second quarter

Clearway Energy, Inc. published third-quarter operating data on October 20, 2026 under the earnings item of a current report, and the document stops there: no revenue, no net income and no Cash Available for Distribution for the quarter. What it does show is a wind Performance Index of 98% against 96% in the second quarter, solar at 93% against 95%, and compensable generation of 2,424 GWh of wind and 3,366 GWh of solar.

Clearway Energy, Inc. filed its third-quarter operating data on October 20, 2026, and stopped short of results. The Form 8-K carries Item 2.02 and a single exhibit, an operating data preview dated the same day; it reports no revenue, no net income, no Adjusted EBITDA and no Cash Available for Distribution for the quarter, and it restates no part of the 2026 guidance range.

One exhibit of megawatts, gigawatt-hours and an index

Clearway's table covers 3,569 MW of wind, split across CAISO, other Western markets, Texas, the Midwest and the East, plus 3,249 MW of solar in total. A footnote adds that the metrics leave out equity-method investment projects, naming San Juan Mesa, Elkhorn Ridge, Avenal, Desert Sunlight and the Cardinal Fengate joint venture. The two summary metrics need definitions the exhibit supplies in its notes. Compensable Generation counts the gigawatt-hours a plant is paid for, adding power it did not produce but is compensated for under its customer or supplier contracts. Performance Index divides that volume by the generation assumed in the original guidance midpoint, so 100% is the budgeted volume rather than a physical ceiling, and the index is weighted by the volume-related revenue assumed in that midpoint.

Wind held close to budget while producing less than in the spring

Wind's Performance Index was 98% for the third quarter, against 96% in the second quarter and 95% for the first nine months. The company credited resource and contractual recoveries: “Wind Compensable Generation in 3Q 2026 was in line with expectations, supported by favorable wind resource through much of the U.S. and liquidated damages paid by third-party OEMs.” It attributed offsets to “minor variances driven by Midwest Wind availability.”

Compensable wind generation was 2,424 GWh, 26.14% below the second quarter's 3,282 GWh. CAISO fell 34.54% to 508 GWh from 776 GWh, and Texas dropped 18.66% to 1,138 GWh from 1,399 GWh. Wind and solar together produced 5,790 GWh of compensable generation in the quarter and 17,928 GWh in the first nine months.

Solar's index was 93% against 95% in the second quarter, with the company noting that “Solar resource was slightly below P-50 in the Western US.” Solar compensable generation was 3,366 GWh versus 3,585 GWh in the second quarter, a 6.11% decline.

Availability is strong at the fleet level and thin in the Midwest

Plant Availability was 91% for wind, 97% for solar and 94% for flexible generation. The regional detail is less even: the Midwest ran at 83% and the East at 88%, against 94% in CAISO and 92% in Texas. Clearway linked the gap to equipment rather than weather, pointing to “small projects using discontinued wind OEM technology, which are being addressed through an active improvement campaign.” The Midwest is the weak spot in both measures: its Performance Index was 81%, the lowest of the five wind regions, while Texas reached 113% and the East 116%.

An index near 100% is the number tied to the dividend

Cash Available for Distribution is the non-GAAP cash measure Clearway ties to its dividend, and the preview links the quarter's resource to it: the Index was “consistent with quarterly CAFD expectations within the range of the 3Q 2026 sensitivity disclosure” published with second-quarter results. Clearway's prior-year release labels CAFD “a non-GAAP measure” and cautions that it is not a GAAP liquidity measure and should not be read as an alternative to cash provided by operating activities. The resource also matched “the updated forecasts underlying the Company’s revised 2026 financial guidance”, which the exhibit says was issued on August 5, 2026 and assumed a strong El Niño / Southern Oscillation pattern.

For scale, the company's third-quarter 2025 release reported net income of $60 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $385 million and CAFD of $166 million, with nine-month Adjusted EBITDA of $980 million and CAFD of $395 million.

The next dated document

The comparison document is the release Clearway filed on November 4, 2025, which carried the income statement, the CAFD reconciliation and a table of selected operating results. That table reported wind generation and sales of 2.22 million MWh and solar of 2.93 million MWh for the third quarter of 2025 on a narrower basis than compensable generation, so the two measures should not be read as a growth rate.

This filing sets no date for third-quarter 2026 results. When they arrive, the figures that matter are CAFD against the quarterly sensitivity range published in the second-quarter materials, and whether the Midwest availability campaign lifts the 83% reading toward the fleet's 91%.