DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

1.	DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Ridgewood Electric Power Trust III (the “Trust”) is a Delaware trust formed on December 6, 1993. The Trust began offering shares of beneficial interest (“Investor Shares”) in January 1994 and concluded its offering in May 1995. The Trust has 391.8444 Investor Shares outstanding. Prior to the adoption of the Trust's Plan of Dissolution (described below), the objective of the Trust was to provide benefits to its shareholders through a combination of distributions of operating cash flow and capital appreciation. The Managing Shareholder of the Trust is Ridgewood Renewable Power LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company (the “Managing Shareholder”). Historically, the Trust focused primarily on power generation facilities located in the US.

On November 19, 2010, the Plan of Liquidation and Dissolution of Ridgewood Electric Power Trust III (the “Plan of Dissolution”) became effective. Under the Plan of Dissolution, the business of the Trust shifted, and became limited to the disposal of its remaining assets and resolution of its remaining liabilities. Upon the completion of these activities, if successful, the Managing Shareholder expects to distribute any remaining cash to the Trust's shareholders and then proceed to terminate the Trust and its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The Trust is required to make adequate provisions to satisfy its known and unknown liabilities, which could substantially delay or limit the Trust's ability to make future distributions to shareholders. The process of accounting for the Trust's liabilities, including those that are presently unknown, may involve difficult valuation decisions, which could adversely impact the amount or timing of any future distributions by the Trust.

Under the Plan of Dissolution, the Managing Shareholder has sole authority to conduct the Trust's dissolution, liquidation and termination without additional shareholder approval. As of the date of the issuance of these financial statements, the Trust has not been liquidated.

The Trust does not anticipate making additional distributions until the Trust has completed the liquidation process. At that time, the Trust's remaining cash, if any, will be distributed to its holders of Investor Shares.

For the purposes of the Trust's estimates of fees and expenses to be incurred during liquidation, management has assumed that the liquidation of the Trust will now be completed by December 31, 2014. If the liquidation of the Trust is not completed by that date, the actual expenses that the Trust will incur will likely further increase.

The Trust has evaluated subsequent events and transactions through the date of the issuance of its financial statements, and concluded that there were no such events or transactions that require adjustment to, or disclosure in the notes to, the condensed financial statements.

RIDGEWOOD ELECTRIC POWER TRUST III 10-Q