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Project assets (Notes) | 9 Months Ended
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Jul. 31, 2016
Project assets [Abstract] |
Project assets [Text Block] | Project Assets Project assets as of July 31, 2016 and October 31, 2015 consisted of the following:
| July 31, 2016 |  | October 31, 2015
Current project assets |  | $ | 15,632 |  |  | $ | 5,260 |
Long-term project assets |  | 18,370 |  |  | 6,922 |
Total Project assets |  | $ | 34,002 |  |  | $ | 12,182 |
The current portion of project assets as of July 31, 2016 of $15.6 million includes project assets that are under construction by the Company under a power purchase agreement ("PPA") and the related expenditures are classified as operating activities in the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. This balance will fluctuate based on timing of construction, expected commercial operation dates and sale of the projects to third parties. The Company expects to sell current project assets to third parties upon achievement of commercial operations. The long-term portion of project assets as of July 31, 2016 of $18.4 million relates to 4.2 megawatts (MW) of project assets that the Company has already developed or is developing which will either be sold in a period of greater than one year or will be retained on the balance sheet. This balance includes assets built or being built under PPAs which will be or already have been retained through a sale-leaseback transaction. The long-term portion of project assets has been partially offset by project related grant awards. Project construction costs incurred after classification as a long-term project assets are reported as investing activities in the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. The proceeds received for the sale and subsequent leaseback of project assets are classified as cash flows from financing activities within the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows and are classified as a financing obligation within Long-term debt and other liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets (refer to Note 13 for more information).

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