TUCSON, Ariz., Jul 29, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has approved Tucson Electric Power's (TEP's) plan to provide customers with an affordable way to meet their electric needs with locally generated solar power.
By the end of this year, participants in TEP's Bright Tucson Community Solar Program will be able to purchase shares of solar energy for as little as $3 per month. The power will be produced by local photovoltaic (PV) systems, including an array that will be built at the University of Arizona's Science and Technology Park later this year.
"The Bright Tucson Community Solar Program will make it easy for customers to shrink their carbon footprint while helping us reduce our community's reliance on fossil-fueled power," said Paul Bonavia, Chairman, President and CEO of TEP and its parent company, UniSource Energy Corporation (UNS 32.78, -0.40, -1.21%) .
Program participants will be able to purchase 150 kilowatt-hour (kWh) "blocks" of solar energy at a rate that adds $3 per month to their bills. Six blocks would cover the annual electric use of a typical household at a premium of just $18 per month. Customers can buy as many blocks as they like until the available solar energy is fully subscribed, and they can cancel at any time.
"It's a great way to enjoy the benefits of solar power without the up-front cost," said David Hutchens, Vice President of Energy Efficiency and Resource Planning for TEP and UniSource Energy. "The program will make solar power available to renters and others who would have difficulty installing a PV array at their home or business."
The Bright Tucson Community Solar Program also offers protection against future energy cost increases. The rate paid for each block of solar power will remain fixed for 20 years. Since each block offsets the cost of an equivalent amount of traditional generation, the price premium paid by program participants would effectively be reduced if those traditional charges increase.
"Customers would have a chance to insulate themselves from the impact of new carbon taxes or other factors that could drive up the cost of power from traditional generating resources," Hutchens said. "By locking in a slightly higher rate now for solar power, customers could end up realizing significant savings over the long term."
The program was designed to parallel the benefits of installing solar arrays subsidized by TEP's popular SunShare program. Each 150-kWh energy block is comparable to the typical monthly output of a 1-kilowatt (kW) SunShare solar array. And just as solar array owners earn credit for any excess energy their systems provide to TEP's local distribution grid, Bright Tucson Community Solar Program participants would receive credits on future bills if the energy blocks they've purchased exceed their electric use during a billing period.
TEP plans to continue offering its SunShare program, which provides subsidies that, when combined with state and federal tax benefits, can significantly reduce the cost of installing PV systems at homes and businesses.
Power for the Bright Tucson Community Solar Program's first subscribers would be provided by a 1.6-megawatt (MW) single-axis tracking PV array that will be built this year at the UA Science and Technology Park by Solon, a Tucson-based solar manufacturer and system developer. Future demands would be met through new solar power systems located in the Tucson metropolitan area.
"Our customers will be able to drive past these arrays and know that they own a share of the energy they produce," Hutchens said. "It's a way to take ownership of solar energy in way that truly benefits our local electric system and the community as a whole."
The Bright Tucson Community Solar Program will be funded in part by an ACC-approved surcharge intended to support the state's Renewable Energy Standard (RES). The RES calls on utilities to increase their use of renewable energy each year until such resources represent 15 percent of their power by 2025.
TEP is pursuing those goals through a combination of utility-owned installations, purchased power contracts and "distributed" resources like PV systems and solar water heaters installed at local homes and businesses. Through the first quarter of 2010, TEP had developed nearly 10 MW of company-owned renewable energy generating capacity in addition to nearly 6 MW of customer-owned PV systems.
In addition to the new 1.6 MW array, TEP will add 1.8 MW of capacity this year to its 4.6-MW Springerville Generating Station Solar System, which already is one of the largest grid-tied PV arrays in the United States. TEP also has agreed to purchase the output of a dozen new solar power systems, a landfill gas generation project and a new wind farm that together would generate nearly 190 MW, enough renewable energy to power nearly 40,000 Tucson homes. Those systems, which are being built by private developers, are scheduled to come online in 2011 and 2012, pending ACC approval, site selection and other contingencies.
Tucson Electric Power provides safe, reliable power to more than 400,000 customers in southern Arizona. To learn more, visit tep.com. For more information about UniSource Energy, TEP's parent company, visit uns.com.
SOURCE: Tucson Electric Power
Tucson Electric Power
News Media Contact: Joe Salkowski, 520-884-3625
Financial Analyst Contact: Jo Smith, 520-884-3650
Copyright Business Wire 2010
Auto Repair Lynnwood
13432 Mukilteo Speedway
Lynnwood, WA 98087-1665
(425) 224-6309
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
China Loading Up on Renewable Energy Sources
The year 2009 was "unprecedented" in the history of renewable-energy production, with China adding more capacity than any other country in the world, according to two new reports from the United Nations Environmental Program and the Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).
The U.N. report states that for the second year running, the U.S. and Europe added more energy capacity coming from renewable sources like the sun and wind than from conventional coal, gas or nuclear plants. And as that trend spreads to the developing world, it's likely that this year or next, global investment in renewable energy will outstrip spending on conventional power stations."
"We're almost at a turning point," REN21 Executive Secretary Virginia Sonntag-O'Brien told AOL News. "In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. and Europe were building more new plants for wind, solar and biofuels than for oil, gas and nuclear. You don't need to be a fortune teller to say that even more capacity will be added worldwide." A big reason is China, which used half as much energy as the U.S. eight years ago but is now the world's most voracious energy consumer. To help meet that demand, China added a world-best 37 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity in 2009, according to the REN21 report, bringing its national total output to 226 GW. (A gigawatt is one billion watts.)
China led the way with 13.8 GW in wind power additions, which is more than one-third of the world market; in 2004, it accounted for just 2 percent globally. The U.S. was second, adding 10 GW. The share of wind power generation in several countries reached record highs, including 14 percent in Spain and 6.5 percent in Germany. Germany led solar additions with 3.8 GW, more than half of the global market.
As those numbers indicate, renewable-energy sources still meet only a fraction of global energy demand. Of all energy used worldwide, according to REN21, only 3 percent comes from renewable sources. If hydroelectric power is factored in, the number rises to 18 percent.
"The big thing is, we have to attack energy demand," said Sonntag-O'Brien. "But renewable energy, despite the recession, is moving ahead slowly but surely."
Filed under: World, Tech
The U.N. report states that for the second year running, the U.S. and Europe added more energy capacity coming from renewable sources like the sun and wind than from conventional coal, gas or nuclear plants. And as that trend spreads to the developing world, it's likely that this year or next, global investment in renewable energy will outstrip spending on conventional power stations."
"We're almost at a turning point," REN21 Executive Secretary Virginia Sonntag-O'Brien told AOL News. "In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. and Europe were building more new plants for wind, solar and biofuels than for oil, gas and nuclear. You don't need to be a fortune teller to say that even more capacity will be added worldwide." A big reason is China, which used half as much energy as the U.S. eight years ago but is now the world's most voracious energy consumer. To help meet that demand, China added a world-best 37 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity in 2009, according to the REN21 report, bringing its national total output to 226 GW. (A gigawatt is one billion watts.)
China led the way with 13.8 GW in wind power additions, which is more than one-third of the world market; in 2004, it accounted for just 2 percent globally. The U.S. was second, adding 10 GW. The share of wind power generation in several countries reached record highs, including 14 percent in Spain and 6.5 percent in Germany. Germany led solar additions with 3.8 GW, more than half of the global market.
As those numbers indicate, renewable-energy sources still meet only a fraction of global energy demand. Of all energy used worldwide, according to REN21, only 3 percent comes from renewable sources. If hydroelectric power is factored in, the number rises to 18 percent.
"The big thing is, we have to attack energy demand," said Sonntag-O'Brien. "But renewable energy, despite the recession, is moving ahead slowly but surely."
Filed under: World, Tech
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Solar Powered Cell Phone for India
By DA YAN (AP) – 6 hours ago
MUMBAI, India — Vodafone Essar Ltd. has unveiled a solar-powered mobile handset in India to better serve the nation's energy-starved rural masses.
India has been adding nearly 20 million mobile subscribers each month, many of them in rural areas, where electricity supply can be patchy at best.
A third of Indians don't have access to electricity, but they do get plenty of sun.
Samsung launched a solar-powered handset about a year ago, and Vodafone is now joining in the effort to bridge that infrastructure gap.
"This launch is likely to enable more people in rural India to go mobile," Vodafone Essar Chief Executive Marten Pieters said in a statement.
The VF 247 Solar Powered phone, priced at 1,500 rupees ($32), should be available in stores next month.
It needs eight hours of direct sunlight to be fully charged and can support more than eight days of use on standby and four hours of talk time. It also comes with an electronic charger, an FM radio and a powerful torch light.
Vodafone Essar, a leading wireless provider in India, is a unit of Vodafone Group PLC.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
MUMBAI, India — Vodafone Essar Ltd. has unveiled a solar-powered mobile handset in India to better serve the nation's energy-starved rural masses.
India has been adding nearly 20 million mobile subscribers each month, many of them in rural areas, where electricity supply can be patchy at best.
A third of Indians don't have access to electricity, but they do get plenty of sun.
Samsung launched a solar-powered handset about a year ago, and Vodafone is now joining in the effort to bridge that infrastructure gap.
"This launch is likely to enable more people in rural India to go mobile," Vodafone Essar Chief Executive Marten Pieters said in a statement.
The VF 247 Solar Powered phone, priced at 1,500 rupees ($32), should be available in stores next month.
It needs eight hours of direct sunlight to be fully charged and can support more than eight days of use on standby and four hours of talk time. It also comes with an electronic charger, an FM radio and a powerful torch light.
Vodafone Essar, a leading wireless provider in India, is a unit of Vodafone Group PLC.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
fidelis Energy Raising Money
Fidelis Energy Inc. (PINKSHEETS: FDEI) today announced that, as part of its commitment to providing financial disclosure to shareholders and the public markets, the company has completed all of the filings and other required paperwork and has been upgraded to "Current Information" status at www.otcmarkets.com.
The company subscribed to the Pink OTC Markets' Disclosure and News Service earlier this year as a venue through which it would report quarterly and annual financial information and on July 7th, posted its Initial Company Information and Disclosure Statement to the OTC Markets site. Fidelis recently posted its Quarterly Report for the period ended June 30, 2010 and intends to add all future quarterly and annual reports with the timeframes required to maintain "Current Information" status. "Current Information" is categorized as "Transparent" under the OTC Market system.
"We are pleased to have achieved 'Current Information' at www.otcmarkets.com and to be categorized as 'Transparent' by the Pink OTC Markets' Disclosure and News Service," said President and Chief Executive Officer James Poole. "This has been a goal of Fidelis from the time that Solar Energy became the focus of the company's operations, and we believe that with this status, the company will be better positioned in the public market and will present a more attractive story to potential investors. Utilizing this venue will also help us to control the cost of reporting, which is another priority as we seek to grow our solar business."
Shareholders and anyone interested in monitoring the progress of the company are encouraged to subscribe to the electronic mailing list at www.fidelisenergyinc.com.
About Fidelis Energy Inc. Fidelis Energy Inc. ("FDEI") is an energy company focused on developing, constructing and operating solar energy projects exclusively or in partnership with other energy companies. Fidelis is also in the development stage of designing solar photovoltaic (PV) cell technology products and plans to manufacture and distribute these products in the future. Fidelis owns a unique patent pending solar cell technology based on photovoltaic cells with integral light-transmitting wave guides in a ceramic sleeve. The advantage of this technology is the efficiency of less exposed surface area being required to generate electricity. The light-transmitting particles act as wave guides and allow the sun-exposed conversion area of the solar cell to be shifted readily from horizontal to vertical to capture more sunlight. The ceramic sleeve eliminates the need for expensive vacuum chambers, thereby allowing less expensive materials to be used in solar cell production.
We are developing, with plans to eventually manufacture and market, innovative solar cells and solar power products for a wide range of applications based on our technology that increases light-trapping while enabling a variety of materials to be used. Our technology employs multiple stacked solar cells in a ceramic sleeve that uses nano-particles and crystal wave guides to carry light from the opening down to the last junction in the solar cell. Competitors' processes that use vacuum chambers (instead of a ceramic sleeve) generally don't allow for material substitution because of contamination issues. We believe our technology will also allow manufacturers to quickly and economically shift to new materials if a shortage of any one type of material occurs. In general, our technology will offer a flexible, cost-effective solution for increased light-trapping and will provide increased efficiency.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future.
Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with the development of an early stage company in the alternative energy industry, its products, and the entry into new markets for such products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance those beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosed in the Company's current and periodic reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Fidelis Energy Inc.
Investor Relations
800-925-2381 Ext#2
info@fidelisenergyinc.com
The company subscribed to the Pink OTC Markets' Disclosure and News Service earlier this year as a venue through which it would report quarterly and annual financial information and on July 7th, posted its Initial Company Information and Disclosure Statement to the OTC Markets site. Fidelis recently posted its Quarterly Report for the period ended June 30, 2010 and intends to add all future quarterly and annual reports with the timeframes required to maintain "Current Information" status. "Current Information" is categorized as "Transparent" under the OTC Market system.
"We are pleased to have achieved 'Current Information' at www.otcmarkets.com and to be categorized as 'Transparent' by the Pink OTC Markets' Disclosure and News Service," said President and Chief Executive Officer James Poole. "This has been a goal of Fidelis from the time that Solar Energy became the focus of the company's operations, and we believe that with this status, the company will be better positioned in the public market and will present a more attractive story to potential investors. Utilizing this venue will also help us to control the cost of reporting, which is another priority as we seek to grow our solar business."
Shareholders and anyone interested in monitoring the progress of the company are encouraged to subscribe to the electronic mailing list at www.fidelisenergyinc.com.
About Fidelis Energy Inc. Fidelis Energy Inc. ("FDEI") is an energy company focused on developing, constructing and operating solar energy projects exclusively or in partnership with other energy companies. Fidelis is also in the development stage of designing solar photovoltaic (PV) cell technology products and plans to manufacture and distribute these products in the future. Fidelis owns a unique patent pending solar cell technology based on photovoltaic cells with integral light-transmitting wave guides in a ceramic sleeve. The advantage of this technology is the efficiency of less exposed surface area being required to generate electricity. The light-transmitting particles act as wave guides and allow the sun-exposed conversion area of the solar cell to be shifted readily from horizontal to vertical to capture more sunlight. The ceramic sleeve eliminates the need for expensive vacuum chambers, thereby allowing less expensive materials to be used in solar cell production.
We are developing, with plans to eventually manufacture and market, innovative solar cells and solar power products for a wide range of applications based on our technology that increases light-trapping while enabling a variety of materials to be used. Our technology employs multiple stacked solar cells in a ceramic sleeve that uses nano-particles and crystal wave guides to carry light from the opening down to the last junction in the solar cell. Competitors' processes that use vacuum chambers (instead of a ceramic sleeve) generally don't allow for material substitution because of contamination issues. We believe our technology will also allow manufacturers to quickly and economically shift to new materials if a shortage of any one type of material occurs. In general, our technology will offer a flexible, cost-effective solution for increased light-trapping and will provide increased efficiency.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future.
Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with the development of an early stage company in the alternative energy industry, its products, and the entry into new markets for such products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance those beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosed in the Company's current and periodic reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Fidelis Energy Inc.
Investor Relations
800-925-2381 Ext#2
info@fidelisenergyinc.com
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Solar Panels Saving College Money
At Rutgers University in New Jersey, 7,600 panels convert sunlight into electricity, saving some $200,000 in energy costs this year in the biggest solar-power experiment at a U.S. college.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., China’s second-largest solar-panel maker, supplied the $10 million project. Yingli is one of several Chinese manufacturers that have slashed costs to reduce global prices for solar modules by about 50 percent in two years. The drive made them more affordable for buyers from Rutgers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the biggest U.S. retailer.
“It’s all about economics,” said Chief Executive Officer Al Bucknam of SunDurance Energy, the South Plainfield, New Jersey, installer that picked Yingli over Western competitors on price and helped sell the deal to Rutgers as a money-saver.
China is slashing prices and moving to dominate solar energy in the way Japanese manufacturers ruled consumer electronics decades ago. The price declines inch the cost of solar energy toward what’s called grid parity, or renewable electricity at the same prices charged for conventional power.
“The ability of the Chinese to manufacture at scale is a very big reason why the cost of these panels has come down,” said Kathleen A. McGinty at venture capital firm Element Partners in Radnor, Pennsylvania. “They’re a big part of the reason why we can even start to talk about grid parity.”
Price Parity
Sun power may become as cheap as the retail price of grid- delivered electricity in certain markets as early as 2013, according to a June 29 report by Pike Research, a Boulder, Colorado, clean-energy consultant.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association, a trade group, forecasts parity by 2010 in some southern parts of Italy, by 2012 in several regions of Spain, and 2015 in Germany.
Solar installations are spreading worldwide as governments from China to the U.K. and Italy offer subsidies, costs fall and cities seek to create jobs. Rutgers got a New Jersey state grant for half its solar plant costs, which included installation and an undisclosed price for the Yingli panels. Wal-Mart last month finished installing solar modules on two California stores that provide as much as 30 percent of their electricity.
China’s manufacturers grabbed 43 percent of the global photovoltaic-panel market in the last six years, pricing products as much as 20 percent cheaper than European offerings, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Chinese firms shipped 3,300 megawatts of panels worth $6.6 billion last year, enough to power about 2.6 million U.S. homes.
Asia’s ‘Vast Factories’
“The vast factories of Asia will drive prices down, just as they did with consumer electronics,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar energy analysis for New Energy Finance, the London- based research firm owned by Bloomberg LP.
The downside for manufacturers is falling panel prices. That, together with Spain and Germany cutting subsidies for clean power, has sent investors away from most solar stocks.
China’s largest panel producers, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Yingli, and Trina Solar Ltd., have all dropped on the New York Stock Exchange this year. Yingli lost 25 percent, Trina 13 percent and Suntech 37 percent in the year through July 21. The MSCI World Index fell just 6.9 percent in the period.
Some foreign competitors from Germany’s Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE to Marlboro, Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar Inc. fared worse. Solarworld has lost 29 percent in value, Q-Cells dropped 50 percent and Evergreen plunged 56 percent.
State-controlled China Development Bank Corp. so far this year has extended $24 billion in loans to Yingli, Trina Solar, Suntech, Solarfun Power Holdings Co. and others, according to data collected by New Energy Finance. That exceeds the $18.2 billion the U.S. government disbursed in fiscal stimulus funds for clean-energy companies through May 2010.
China’s Subsidies
Skeptics argue China’s solar industry is thriving on subsidies that obscure the true costs of solar, according to Kenneth Dewoskin, senior director at Deloitte China. Suntech and Trina didn’t respond to requests for interviews.
Min Li, a Hong Kong-based energy analyst at Yuanta Securities, said Chinese solar stocks are now attractively priced. He rates Yingli and Suntech as a “buy.” Overall, analysts favor Chinese over Western manufacturers.
Fourteen of 27 analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying Yingli, compared with one “sell” rating. For Trina, all 22 analysts following the stock recommend buying it, while Suntech has 11 buy ratings and 8 sell recommendations.
In contrast, three analysts covering Q-cells rate the company a buy compared with 22 a sell. Evergreen has three buy ratings and 7 sell ratings. Solarworld is almost even, with 14 buys and 12 sells.
‘Just a Start’
China’s dominance in solar panels started in cities that subsidize clean energy. Baoding, a city of 1 million a two- hour’s drive south of Beijing, has used subsidies to attract about 200 renewable-energy companies including Yingli, whose panels power 80 percent of the local street lights.
“That’s just a start,” said Lian Shujun, vice director of the city’s renewable initiative.
China Development Bank lent a combined 116 billion yuan ($17 billion) this year to Yingli, Suntech and Trina while the central government’s Golden Sun program subsidizes as much as 70 percent of the cost of 294 solar projects. Beijing plans to install $1 billion of solar panels around the capital to heat water and light offices in 2012.
“China is beginning to think about what options are out there in terms of its new energy policy,” said Lu Yeung, a Hong Kong-based China energy analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “It’s not just fossil fuels, but how to make a green economy that is also a growth driver.”
‘Inevitable Choice’
The government is just getting started pushing solar, said Jason Liu, who quit his job at McKinsey & Co. to become a vice president at Yingli last year.
“Developing renewable energy is an inevitable choice,” he said.
China overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest energy user last year, according to the International Energy Agency. The country is looking to firms like Yingli for renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil imports and coal.
China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, burns the commodity to generate about 80 percent of its power. The IEA projects China’s oil imports will almost quadruple by 2030 from 2006 levels.
China spent $34.6 billion on clean-fuel projects in 2009, almost double the $18.6 billion investment by the U.S., New Energy Finance estimated. China installed 160 megawatts of solar capacity last year, a four-fold increase from a year earlier, and may almost double it again this year to 311 megawatts, according to the research firm.
An Opportunity
Some European and U.S. companies view China’s solar growth as an opportunity. Germany’s Q-Cells last year agreed to a manufacturing joint venture with China’s LDK Solar Co.
Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc., the world’s biggest solar company by market value, has agreed with the government of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, to build a 2-gigawatt plant.
Such opportunities are fading as China acquires the expertise to do large-scale solar projects itself, Frank Haugwitz, a Beijing-based renewable energy consultant, said in a telephone interview.
“It’s only a matter of time, one or two years,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net Ying
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., China’s second-largest solar-panel maker, supplied the $10 million project. Yingli is one of several Chinese manufacturers that have slashed costs to reduce global prices for solar modules by about 50 percent in two years. The drive made them more affordable for buyers from Rutgers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the biggest U.S. retailer.
“It’s all about economics,” said Chief Executive Officer Al Bucknam of SunDurance Energy, the South Plainfield, New Jersey, installer that picked Yingli over Western competitors on price and helped sell the deal to Rutgers as a money-saver.
China is slashing prices and moving to dominate solar energy in the way Japanese manufacturers ruled consumer electronics decades ago. The price declines inch the cost of solar energy toward what’s called grid parity, or renewable electricity at the same prices charged for conventional power.
“The ability of the Chinese to manufacture at scale is a very big reason why the cost of these panels has come down,” said Kathleen A. McGinty at venture capital firm Element Partners in Radnor, Pennsylvania. “They’re a big part of the reason why we can even start to talk about grid parity.”
Price Parity
Sun power may become as cheap as the retail price of grid- delivered electricity in certain markets as early as 2013, according to a June 29 report by Pike Research, a Boulder, Colorado, clean-energy consultant.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association, a trade group, forecasts parity by 2010 in some southern parts of Italy, by 2012 in several regions of Spain, and 2015 in Germany.
Solar installations are spreading worldwide as governments from China to the U.K. and Italy offer subsidies, costs fall and cities seek to create jobs. Rutgers got a New Jersey state grant for half its solar plant costs, which included installation and an undisclosed price for the Yingli panels. Wal-Mart last month finished installing solar modules on two California stores that provide as much as 30 percent of their electricity.
China’s manufacturers grabbed 43 percent of the global photovoltaic-panel market in the last six years, pricing products as much as 20 percent cheaper than European offerings, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Chinese firms shipped 3,300 megawatts of panels worth $6.6 billion last year, enough to power about 2.6 million U.S. homes.
Asia’s ‘Vast Factories’
“The vast factories of Asia will drive prices down, just as they did with consumer electronics,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar energy analysis for New Energy Finance, the London- based research firm owned by Bloomberg LP.
The downside for manufacturers is falling panel prices. That, together with Spain and Germany cutting subsidies for clean power, has sent investors away from most solar stocks.
China’s largest panel producers, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Yingli, and Trina Solar Ltd., have all dropped on the New York Stock Exchange this year. Yingli lost 25 percent, Trina 13 percent and Suntech 37 percent in the year through July 21. The MSCI World Index fell just 6.9 percent in the period.
Some foreign competitors from Germany’s Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE to Marlboro, Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar Inc. fared worse. Solarworld has lost 29 percent in value, Q-Cells dropped 50 percent and Evergreen plunged 56 percent.
State-controlled China Development Bank Corp. so far this year has extended $24 billion in loans to Yingli, Trina Solar, Suntech, Solarfun Power Holdings Co. and others, according to data collected by New Energy Finance. That exceeds the $18.2 billion the U.S. government disbursed in fiscal stimulus funds for clean-energy companies through May 2010.
China’s Subsidies
Skeptics argue China’s solar industry is thriving on subsidies that obscure the true costs of solar, according to Kenneth Dewoskin, senior director at Deloitte China. Suntech and Trina didn’t respond to requests for interviews.
Min Li, a Hong Kong-based energy analyst at Yuanta Securities, said Chinese solar stocks are now attractively priced. He rates Yingli and Suntech as a “buy.” Overall, analysts favor Chinese over Western manufacturers.
Fourteen of 27 analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying Yingli, compared with one “sell” rating. For Trina, all 22 analysts following the stock recommend buying it, while Suntech has 11 buy ratings and 8 sell recommendations.
In contrast, three analysts covering Q-cells rate the company a buy compared with 22 a sell. Evergreen has three buy ratings and 7 sell ratings. Solarworld is almost even, with 14 buys and 12 sells.
‘Just a Start’
China’s dominance in solar panels started in cities that subsidize clean energy. Baoding, a city of 1 million a two- hour’s drive south of Beijing, has used subsidies to attract about 200 renewable-energy companies including Yingli, whose panels power 80 percent of the local street lights.
“That’s just a start,” said Lian Shujun, vice director of the city’s renewable initiative.
China Development Bank lent a combined 116 billion yuan ($17 billion) this year to Yingli, Suntech and Trina while the central government’s Golden Sun program subsidizes as much as 70 percent of the cost of 294 solar projects. Beijing plans to install $1 billion of solar panels around the capital to heat water and light offices in 2012.
“China is beginning to think about what options are out there in terms of its new energy policy,” said Lu Yeung, a Hong Kong-based China energy analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “It’s not just fossil fuels, but how to make a green economy that is also a growth driver.”
‘Inevitable Choice’
The government is just getting started pushing solar, said Jason Liu, who quit his job at McKinsey & Co. to become a vice president at Yingli last year.
“Developing renewable energy is an inevitable choice,” he said.
China overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest energy user last year, according to the International Energy Agency. The country is looking to firms like Yingli for renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil imports and coal.
China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, burns the commodity to generate about 80 percent of its power. The IEA projects China’s oil imports will almost quadruple by 2030 from 2006 levels.
China spent $34.6 billion on clean-fuel projects in 2009, almost double the $18.6 billion investment by the U.S., New Energy Finance estimated. China installed 160 megawatts of solar capacity last year, a four-fold increase from a year earlier, and may almost double it again this year to 311 megawatts, according to the research firm.
An Opportunity
Some European and U.S. companies view China’s solar growth as an opportunity. Germany’s Q-Cells last year agreed to a manufacturing joint venture with China’s LDK Solar Co.
Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc., the world’s biggest solar company by market value, has agreed with the government of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, to build a 2-gigawatt plant.
Such opportunities are fading as China acquires the expertise to do large-scale solar projects itself, Frank Haugwitz, a Beijing-based renewable energy consultant, said in a telephone interview.
“It’s only a matter of time, one or two years,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net Ying
Tips on Evaluating Solar Panels for You
Erin Noble, co-director of Missouri Renew, a project of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment
314-727-0600
www.renewmo.org
enoble@moenviron.org
The use of solar electricity more than tripled between 2000 and 2008 in the United States. California has 50,000 houses that operate on solar power. Summer reminds us that Missouri has a strong solar resource and the economics of solar in the state are now better than ever.
Combining the voter-enacted Proposition C solar rebate with the current 30 percent federal tax credit and the lowering prices of solar panels means installing panels costs half as much as it did three years ago. Benefits include less dependence on imported fossil fuel, lower carbon emissions and more "green" jobs. Solar also produces the most electricity on summer days, when utility power demand is highest.
For homeowners considering solar, the first step is to make energy-efficiency upgrades, including improved insulation, lighting or windows. Such upgrades could cut energy usage in half and significantly reduce the amount of solar power needed to meet a home's requirements.
A site assessment must be done to make sure solar panels won't be blocked by shade-producing trees and buildings. Homeowners need to decide if they want to be completely off grid — that is, independent from the electric utility — or "grid-interconnected." In Missouri, grid-interconnected systems are most common because they are much less costly. They also allow owners full retail credit for unused electricity returned to the utility grid.
Information on federal, state and local utility incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy is at www.dsireusa.org. The Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, at www.MOSEIA.org, has information about solar system installers.
Olympic Automotive
13432 Mukilteo Speedway
Lynnwood, WA 98087-1665
(425) 742-1355
C&M Automotive and Transmissions of Simi Valley
4292 Valley Fair Street
Simi Valley, CA 93063
(805) 522-1759
Westcourte Luxury Apartments
7107 Ming Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93309
(661) 834-7026
Manymutts Pet Care
1270 S Alfred
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 889-0697
314-727-0600
www.renewmo.org
enoble@moenviron.org
The use of solar electricity more than tripled between 2000 and 2008 in the United States. California has 50,000 houses that operate on solar power. Summer reminds us that Missouri has a strong solar resource and the economics of solar in the state are now better than ever.
Combining the voter-enacted Proposition C solar rebate with the current 30 percent federal tax credit and the lowering prices of solar panels means installing panels costs half as much as it did three years ago. Benefits include less dependence on imported fossil fuel, lower carbon emissions and more "green" jobs. Solar also produces the most electricity on summer days, when utility power demand is highest.
For homeowners considering solar, the first step is to make energy-efficiency upgrades, including improved insulation, lighting or windows. Such upgrades could cut energy usage in half and significantly reduce the amount of solar power needed to meet a home's requirements.
A site assessment must be done to make sure solar panels won't be blocked by shade-producing trees and buildings. Homeowners need to decide if they want to be completely off grid — that is, independent from the electric utility — or "grid-interconnected." In Missouri, grid-interconnected systems are most common because they are much less costly. They also allow owners full retail credit for unused electricity returned to the utility grid.
Information on federal, state and local utility incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy is at www.dsireusa.org. The Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, at www.MOSEIA.org, has information about solar system installers.
Olympic Automotive
13432 Mukilteo Speedway
Lynnwood, WA 98087-1665
(425) 742-1355
C&M Automotive and Transmissions of Simi Valley
4292 Valley Fair Street
Simi Valley, CA 93063
(805) 522-1759
Westcourte Luxury Apartments
7107 Ming Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93309
(661) 834-7026
Manymutts Pet Care
1270 S Alfred
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 889-0697
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Solar Growth in U.S. is Impressive
Those who are thinking about installing a solar power system aren't alone.
The growth of solar installations in the U.S. has been nothing short of meteoric. According to data from the American Solar Energy Society, the number of residential solar power installations in the country grew by 40 percent last year. That is even more impressive in light of the tepid economic conditions that prevailed in 2009, when millions of jobs were lost and gross domestic product contracted by 2.4 percent.
In fact, the editor of the society's magazine, Solar Today, revealed to HousingWatch.com this month that solar has been growing at a breakneck pace for some time. In the U.S., Seth Masia said, "solar power installations have averaged about 35 percent to 40 percent annual growth over the past five years."
To be sure, America has some catching up to do. Other developed nations have been installing clean energy for years, and the U.S. is still far behind nations like Germany and Italy in terms of total capacity. But solar could get a big boost in America if the drivers of its popularity in Europe - subsidies called feed-in tariffs - emerge here.
Some places already have FITs on a limited basis. Gainesville, Florida was the first U.S. municipality to make them available - and its program was fully subscribed in short order. Other FITs have been rolled out in the U.S.; Oregon is currently testing a pilot FIT program, for example.
What's smart about FITs is that they shift the burden of subsidizing renewable energy projects from the government to electric ratepayers. FIT programs guarantee payment to those who generate clean power; rather than the rebates that are common in the U.S., they subsidize solar installations over 15 or 20 years.
It's not clear whether they'll be introduced on a broader scale. Utility policy is set on a state-by-state basis, so individual states will have to decide if they want to force utilities to pay more for clean energy. Some states, in lieu of FITs, are opting to impose renewable-power mandates on utilities; California, Colorado and New Jersey have the toughest renewable standards in the nation.
Whatever form solar subsidies take, though, solar energy should continue to be popular as long as incentives are provided to homeowners.
The growth of solar installations in the U.S. has been nothing short of meteoric. According to data from the American Solar Energy Society, the number of residential solar power installations in the country grew by 40 percent last year. That is even more impressive in light of the tepid economic conditions that prevailed in 2009, when millions of jobs were lost and gross domestic product contracted by 2.4 percent.
In fact, the editor of the society's magazine, Solar Today, revealed to HousingWatch.com this month that solar has been growing at a breakneck pace for some time. In the U.S., Seth Masia said, "solar power installations have averaged about 35 percent to 40 percent annual growth over the past five years."
To be sure, America has some catching up to do. Other developed nations have been installing clean energy for years, and the U.S. is still far behind nations like Germany and Italy in terms of total capacity. But solar could get a big boost in America if the drivers of its popularity in Europe - subsidies called feed-in tariffs - emerge here.
Some places already have FITs on a limited basis. Gainesville, Florida was the first U.S. municipality to make them available - and its program was fully subscribed in short order. Other FITs have been rolled out in the U.S.; Oregon is currently testing a pilot FIT program, for example.
What's smart about FITs is that they shift the burden of subsidizing renewable energy projects from the government to electric ratepayers. FIT programs guarantee payment to those who generate clean power; rather than the rebates that are common in the U.S., they subsidize solar installations over 15 or 20 years.
It's not clear whether they'll be introduced on a broader scale. Utility policy is set on a state-by-state basis, so individual states will have to decide if they want to force utilities to pay more for clean energy. Some states, in lieu of FITs, are opting to impose renewable-power mandates on utilities; California, Colorado and New Jersey have the toughest renewable standards in the nation.
Whatever form solar subsidies take, though, solar energy should continue to be popular as long as incentives are provided to homeowners.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Caltech Gets Money for Solar Technology Development
Hector Gonzalez, Staff Writer
PASADENA - Caltech will get $122 million over the next five years to develop cutting-edge technologies for converting sunlight into fuel, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday.
The funding will establish an Energy Innovation Hub at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena - one of three such hubs the federal government is creating to spur scientific breakthroughs in alternative energy, said Jenni Lee, spokeswoman for the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.
Working with scientists from the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers at Caltech's new Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) will try to simulate how the sun turns chemicals into energy and figure out how to make the process commercially viable, Caltech and DOE officials said in a news release.
Sen. Diane Feinstein, in a statement, said if researchers succeed in creating "artificial photosynthesis," it would "revolutionize the energy sector." "It would help scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide, help eliminate our dependence on oil, and generate an innovative industry in the heart of California. This is very exciting," she wrote.
Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau said researchers there are up to the challenge.
"Caltech's history of solving the most difficult, multi-disciplinary, scientific problems ... make us uniquely suited to help make fuels from the sun an efficient and economical part of our nation's energy strategy," he said in astatement
Funding for the new Energy Innovation Hubs will come from congressional appropriations. The innovation hub at Caltech, to be led by chemistry professor Nathan S. Lewis, will receive up to $22 million this fiscal year, and an estimated $25 million per year for the next four years, DOE officials said.
The Caltech hub is one of three that will receive funding this fiscal year. In May, DOE officials announced the selection of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the site of an Energy Innovation Hub that will work on breakthroughs in nuclear power.
The selection of a third hub, which will focus on creating more energy efficient buildings, has not yet been made, Lee said.
PASADENA - Caltech will get $122 million over the next five years to develop cutting-edge technologies for converting sunlight into fuel, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday.
The funding will establish an Energy Innovation Hub at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena - one of three such hubs the federal government is creating to spur scientific breakthroughs in alternative energy, said Jenni Lee, spokeswoman for the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.
Working with scientists from the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers at Caltech's new Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) will try to simulate how the sun turns chemicals into energy and figure out how to make the process commercially viable, Caltech and DOE officials said in a news release.
Sen. Diane Feinstein, in a statement, said if researchers succeed in creating "artificial photosynthesis," it would "revolutionize the energy sector." "It would help scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide, help eliminate our dependence on oil, and generate an innovative industry in the heart of California. This is very exciting," she wrote.
Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau said researchers there are up to the challenge.
"Caltech's history of solving the most difficult, multi-disciplinary, scientific problems ... make us uniquely suited to help make fuels from the sun an efficient and economical part of our nation's energy strategy," he said in astatement
Funding for the new Energy Innovation Hubs will come from congressional appropriations. The innovation hub at Caltech, to be led by chemistry professor Nathan S. Lewis, will receive up to $22 million this fiscal year, and an estimated $25 million per year for the next four years, DOE officials said.
The Caltech hub is one of three that will receive funding this fiscal year. In May, DOE officials announced the selection of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the site of an Energy Innovation Hub that will work on breakthroughs in nuclear power.
The selection of a third hub, which will focus on creating more energy efficient buildings, has not yet been made, Lee said.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tennessee Solar Contractor Awarded
Posted: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:04 pm
The State Building Commission last week approved Chattanooga-based Signal Energy as the design/build contractor for the West Tennessee Solar Farm to be located along Interstate 40 in Haywood County.
The proposed five-megawatt, 30-acre power generation facility is part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s Volunteer State Solar Initiative, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and will be one of the largest solar installations in the Southeast.
The Department of Economic and Community Development has contracted with the University of Tennessee to oversee planning, operation and management of the West Tennessee Solar Farm.
The Farm will consist of over 20,000 high efficiency silicon-based photovoltaic modules in a 5 MW configuration, expected to produce more than 7,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
Installation of the solar modules is expected to begin in October 2010 with completion the following spring.
UT selected Signal Energy following a competitive request-for-proposal process. Signal Energy is a full service design/build contractor providing engineering, procurement and construction services for renewable energy projects across North America. As a subsidiary of EMJ corporation, Signal Energy is the renewable energy arm of one of the nation’s largest general contractors.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will also build an education and welcome center at the Solar Farm which will serve as an educational facility for the public and students to learn about renewable energy.
The Solar Farm will utilize commercially available power generation technology, but may also test new technology under real world conditions.
The Volunteer State Solar Initiative is a comprehensive solar energy and economic development program focusing on job creation, education, renewable power production and technology commercialization and is being established using $62.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding received by ECD.
The Initiative consists of two components, the West Tennessee Solar Farm and the Tennessee Solar Institute at UT.
WCP 7.20.10
The State Building Commission last week approved Chattanooga-based Signal Energy as the design/build contractor for the West Tennessee Solar Farm to be located along Interstate 40 in Haywood County.
The proposed five-megawatt, 30-acre power generation facility is part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s Volunteer State Solar Initiative, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and will be one of the largest solar installations in the Southeast.
The Department of Economic and Community Development has contracted with the University of Tennessee to oversee planning, operation and management of the West Tennessee Solar Farm.
The Farm will consist of over 20,000 high efficiency silicon-based photovoltaic modules in a 5 MW configuration, expected to produce more than 7,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
Installation of the solar modules is expected to begin in October 2010 with completion the following spring.
UT selected Signal Energy following a competitive request-for-proposal process. Signal Energy is a full service design/build contractor providing engineering, procurement and construction services for renewable energy projects across North America. As a subsidiary of EMJ corporation, Signal Energy is the renewable energy arm of one of the nation’s largest general contractors.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will also build an education and welcome center at the Solar Farm which will serve as an educational facility for the public and students to learn about renewable energy.
The Solar Farm will utilize commercially available power generation technology, but may also test new technology under real world conditions.
The Volunteer State Solar Initiative is a comprehensive solar energy and economic development program focusing on job creation, education, renewable power production and technology commercialization and is being established using $62.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding received by ECD.
The Initiative consists of two components, the West Tennessee Solar Farm and the Tennessee Solar Institute at UT.
WCP 7.20.10
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Solar Energy for Prison
BALTIMORE, Jul 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Constellation Energy (CEG 33.65, +0.74, +2.25%) today announced that its energy projects and services division is completing the development and construction of two comprehensive energy projects at federal correctional institutions in Fairton, N.J., and Petersburg, Va. Both projects combine energy and water conservation measures and also incorporate renewable technologies to reduce utility costs and improve sustainability of the facilities. Structured as energy savings performance contracts, the combined annual cost savings of more than $2.2 million created by the guaranteed reductions in energy and water usage will be used to finance the infrastructure upgrades of both projects.
"All of our federal customers are seeking new ways to reduce energy usage and costs and green their operations without incurring significant capital improvement costs," said Michael D. Smith, senior vice president of green initiatives for Constellation NewEnergy. "Constellation Energy can apply the resources and expertise of a leading, national energy services company to develop comprehensive energy programs that address and exceed all federal mandates for conservation and deployment of renewables. Best of all, through the federal energy savings performance contract model, these improvements pay for themselves over the term of the contract."
For FCI Fairton, N.J., Constellation Energy combined a solar photovoltaic power system with facility-wide electrical upgrades, efficient lighting, smart energy controls, water conservation measures, and improvements to the boiler and chiller plants. Constellation Energy estimates that the combined projects will result in FCI Fairton reducing energy use by 27 percent and water use by 42 percent, creating more than $800,000 in estimated annual energy cost saving. The new FCI Fairton solar installation generates 400 kilowatts of electricity. Generating the same amount of power from fossil fuel sources would result in the annual release of 500 tons of carbon dioxide, 3,800 pounds of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
At FCC Petersburg, Va., Constellation Energy installed an on-site biomass heating system--the first such system at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility--as well as a rooftop solar photovoltaic system, and a geothermal heat pump system. FCC Petersburg expects to save 70 million gallons of water annually through new efficiency infrastructure and reduce energy usage by 34 billion Btu, resulting in $1.4 million in annual cost savings. The renewable systems deployed at FCC Petersburg are estimated to avoid the release of more than 5,800 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 3,400 tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the project. FCC Petersburg will also be using a fleet of electric vehicles at the facility to further reduce emissions.
Constellation Energy has developed an expertise in implementing energy conservation measures for correctional facilities. In addition to federal correctional sites, Constellation Energy has worked with state and county prison systems. As a result of this experience, Constellation Energy factors in the unique requirements of working in continuous security environments during project planning and construction.
FCI Fairton is a medium security facility for male inmates. It also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum security male inmates. FCI Fairton is located in rural south central New Jersey, 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia, Pa., and 40 miles west of Atlantic City, N.J. The FCC Petersburg Correctional Complex consists of both low security and medium security facilities housing male inmates. FCC Petersburg is located 25 miles southeast of Richmond, Va. Both FCC Petersburg and FCI Fairton are part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.
About Constellation Energy
Constellation Energy (www.constellation.com) is a leading supplier of energy products and services to wholesale and retail electric and natural gas customers. It owns a diversified fleet of generating units located in the United States and Canada, totaling approximately 8,900 megawatts of generating capacity, and is among the leaders pursuing the development of new nuclear plants in the United States. The company delivers electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in Central Maryland. A FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Baltimore, Constellation Energy had revenues of $15.6 billion in 2009.
SOURCE: Constellation Energy
"All of our federal customers are seeking new ways to reduce energy usage and costs and green their operations without incurring significant capital improvement costs," said Michael D. Smith, senior vice president of green initiatives for Constellation NewEnergy. "Constellation Energy can apply the resources and expertise of a leading, national energy services company to develop comprehensive energy programs that address and exceed all federal mandates for conservation and deployment of renewables. Best of all, through the federal energy savings performance contract model, these improvements pay for themselves over the term of the contract."
For FCI Fairton, N.J., Constellation Energy combined a solar photovoltaic power system with facility-wide electrical upgrades, efficient lighting, smart energy controls, water conservation measures, and improvements to the boiler and chiller plants. Constellation Energy estimates that the combined projects will result in FCI Fairton reducing energy use by 27 percent and water use by 42 percent, creating more than $800,000 in estimated annual energy cost saving. The new FCI Fairton solar installation generates 400 kilowatts of electricity. Generating the same amount of power from fossil fuel sources would result in the annual release of 500 tons of carbon dioxide, 3,800 pounds of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
At FCC Petersburg, Va., Constellation Energy installed an on-site biomass heating system--the first such system at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility--as well as a rooftop solar photovoltaic system, and a geothermal heat pump system. FCC Petersburg expects to save 70 million gallons of water annually through new efficiency infrastructure and reduce energy usage by 34 billion Btu, resulting in $1.4 million in annual cost savings. The renewable systems deployed at FCC Petersburg are estimated to avoid the release of more than 5,800 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 3,400 tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the project. FCC Petersburg will also be using a fleet of electric vehicles at the facility to further reduce emissions.
Constellation Energy has developed an expertise in implementing energy conservation measures for correctional facilities. In addition to federal correctional sites, Constellation Energy has worked with state and county prison systems. As a result of this experience, Constellation Energy factors in the unique requirements of working in continuous security environments during project planning and construction.
FCI Fairton is a medium security facility for male inmates. It also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum security male inmates. FCI Fairton is located in rural south central New Jersey, 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia, Pa., and 40 miles west of Atlantic City, N.J. The FCC Petersburg Correctional Complex consists of both low security and medium security facilities housing male inmates. FCC Petersburg is located 25 miles southeast of Richmond, Va. Both FCC Petersburg and FCI Fairton are part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.
About Constellation Energy
Constellation Energy (www.constellation.com) is a leading supplier of energy products and services to wholesale and retail electric and natural gas customers. It owns a diversified fleet of generating units located in the United States and Canada, totaling approximately 8,900 megawatts of generating capacity, and is among the leaders pursuing the development of new nuclear plants in the United States. The company delivers electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in Central Maryland. A FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Baltimore, Constellation Energy had revenues of $15.6 billion in 2009.
SOURCE: Constellation Energy
Monday, July 19, 2010
Solar Power in the Garden
CARBONDALE- In the mountain town of Carbondale, located just outside of Glenwood Springs, Clean Energy Collective Founder and President Paul Spencer is helping to start a unique type of community garden he says has never before been tried in the United States."We're in the process of building the first clean energy solar facility in the nation," Spencer said.
At this, garden you won't find tomatoes, lettuce or even very many flowers because the only thing being planted are solar panels, some 350 to be exact. They will be bought by some 20 home owners looking to tap into the energy they make.
"It allows the masses to invest in clean energy," Spencer said.
The reason so many can get involved is that it doesn't matter where you live, or how your house, apartment, or condo is set up, even in a shaded area, Spencer says you can benefit from this solar garden.
"If you have a shaded home and it's not well oriented for solar, you now have a solution," Spencer said.
This solution sends solar energy made at the solar garden back to the utility company in the area. The power company then gives energy credits back to solar garden customers, depending on how much solar they have bought.
"You have a large solar array producing power on behalf of its owners and those owners are fractionally credited on their utility bill," Spencer said.
Recent legislation has helped push this idea to the forefront in Colorado, and Spencer says they have plans to include the Front Range with even bigger solar gardens planned down the road.
Often people shy away from solar because it can cost a lot, and it is hard to see a return on the investment, but Spencer says the solar garden concept makes getting into solar a lot easier and less expensive.
Spencer says it costs around $25,000 to install solar in most homes, but for half the price you can buy solar property in a solar garden and get enough energy to all but get rid of your utility bill.
"A typical house uses between 28 to 29 kilowatts a day. In our system, that would require a full 4 watt system so in our area [of] Carbondale. That cost is around 12 thousand dollars to completely power your house for the next 50 years," said Spencer.
Plus, Spencer says, homeowners who buy into a solar garden don't need to worry about where to put all the equipment because it is all off sight, and they don't need to worry about keeping it all maintained.
"We construct the array, we manage it, we maintain it long term. If it's dirty, it gets clean. If something is broken, it gets fixed," Spencer said.
It means very soon Spencer feels hundreds of thousands of homes could take part in the solar garden idea, meaning the sky is the limit for solar power.
"The sky is the solution as well so it's nice to see full circles," Spencer said.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
At this, garden you won't find tomatoes, lettuce or even very many flowers because the only thing being planted are solar panels, some 350 to be exact. They will be bought by some 20 home owners looking to tap into the energy they make.
"It allows the masses to invest in clean energy," Spencer said.
The reason so many can get involved is that it doesn't matter where you live, or how your house, apartment, or condo is set up, even in a shaded area, Spencer says you can benefit from this solar garden.
"If you have a shaded home and it's not well oriented for solar, you now have a solution," Spencer said.
This solution sends solar energy made at the solar garden back to the utility company in the area. The power company then gives energy credits back to solar garden customers, depending on how much solar they have bought.
"You have a large solar array producing power on behalf of its owners and those owners are fractionally credited on their utility bill," Spencer said.
Recent legislation has helped push this idea to the forefront in Colorado, and Spencer says they have plans to include the Front Range with even bigger solar gardens planned down the road.
Often people shy away from solar because it can cost a lot, and it is hard to see a return on the investment, but Spencer says the solar garden concept makes getting into solar a lot easier and less expensive.
Spencer says it costs around $25,000 to install solar in most homes, but for half the price you can buy solar property in a solar garden and get enough energy to all but get rid of your utility bill.
"A typical house uses between 28 to 29 kilowatts a day. In our system, that would require a full 4 watt system so in our area [of] Carbondale. That cost is around 12 thousand dollars to completely power your house for the next 50 years," said Spencer.
Plus, Spencer says, homeowners who buy into a solar garden don't need to worry about where to put all the equipment because it is all off sight, and they don't need to worry about keeping it all maintained.
"We construct the array, we manage it, we maintain it long term. If it's dirty, it gets clean. If something is broken, it gets fixed," Spencer said.
It means very soon Spencer feels hundreds of thousands of homes could take part in the solar garden idea, meaning the sky is the limit for solar power.
"The sky is the solution as well so it's nice to see full circles," Spencer said.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Solar Stocks Affected by BP Oil Spill
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- SunPower Corp. and Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the biggest solar-panel supplier in the U.S. and the world’s largest wind turbine maker, are losing more than Big Oil from BP Plc’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their shares have fallen as much as 22 percent since the leak began April 20, compared with a 12 percent decline in the 52-member Bloomberg World Oil & Gas Index that includes BP.
A bill in U.S. Congress to expand alternative energy in the biggest oil-consuming nation was set aside by legislators until they can review offshore-drilling safety. Investors in turn sold wind and solar stocks as support waned for the bill and as Europe considered cuts to clean-energy subsidies, said John Hardy, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric out there on the possibility that the spill could help renewable energy,” Hardy said in an interview. “I see it delaying clean-energy legislation until the Senate’s ready to deal with offshore drilling.”
Before the spill, the legislation’s authors included an expansion to offshore oil exploration to win the Republican votes needed to pass a law that caps the greenhouse gases. Such limits would have helped shares of emissions-free wind and solar energy compete with generators that burn coal and natural gas.
The compromise, underpinned by increased offshore drilling, collapsed after the spill. Democrats who wanted emissions legislation have since threatened to pull their support if the bill continued to call for more oil drilling.
Disaster’s ‘Irony’
“It’s ironic that this disaster is jeopardizing energy legislation when it’s clear that we need it more than ever,” said Kevin Landis, who manages $260 million at Firsthand Funds including SunPower and competitor Suntech Power Holdings Co. “It’s definitely a drag on the renewable sector.”
Denmark’s Vestas has lost 16 percent since the rig explosion that triggered the spill, knocking 11.08 billion Danish krone ($1.92 billion) from its market value. SunPower has dropped 22 percent, almost twice the loss of the oil index, whose members were hit by drilling bans in other nations after the BP spill and predictions of higher insurance premiums by explorers including Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Vestas and SunPower underperformed the 88-member WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index. It lost 12 percent in the period, helped by gains in companies more focused on non-U.S. markets or energy-saving products like light-emitting diodes.
Canada Oil Sands
The losses contrast even more with gains of Canada’s largest oil-sands producers, which tap deposits of crude mixed with earth in a method that can scar landscapes and add to global warming pollution. Canadian energy stocks are trading at their highest premiums to global oil stocks in five years.
Investors may be concerned with declining government incentives from Germany to the U.S. as nations seek to save money, said Roger Ballentine, president of Green Strategies Inc., a consulting company Washington.
“We’re heading into a long-term period of fiscal austerity,” Ballentine, a climate adviser to the Clinton Administration, said at a conference in New York on June 29.
The reaction by U.S. Congress to promote environmental rules has been less than in 1969, when a public backlash against oil drilling ensued from the much smaller spill off Santa Barbara. The movement led lawmakers to devise the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, the foundation of hundreds of regulations on the energy industry today.
Santa Barbara Spill
The Gulf oil spill probably won’t create the same societal shifts that occurred after the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, said Joshua Schimel, chairman of the environmental studies program at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which was created as a result of the 1969 spill.
“The Santa Barbara spill happened at time when people were already waking up to pollution and to the damage we were doing to the environment and to its habitability,” Schimel said.
Also, the oil fouled a beach of a politically connected, affluent and highly educated community that did not have strong economic ties to the oil industry, Schimel said. “In Santa Barbara, oil was not really part of our economy. In the Gulf, there are lots and lots of communities that depend on it.”
Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to the spill, holding the company responsible for the “freak accident,” according to a Bloomberg national poll conducted July 9-12. BP said yesterday it stopped the flow from the leaking well for the first time and may know within two days whether it is safe to leave a new sealing-cap system installed over it in place.
State Incentives
San Jose, California-based SunPower, which has more panels installed in the U.S. than other manufacturers, is building solar plants from California to Florida in states that provide incentives. The company needs a renewable energy and climate protection bill to boost orders for its high-efficiency panels, Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner said at a conference in New York on June 9.
Solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers said they will continue to press for a national standard that would build upon efforts in 30 states that require utilities to get an increasing share of power from renewable energy. They just aren’t depending on that happening this year.
“We aren’t counting on that oil leak to increase demand for solar,” said Peter Xie, president of Solarfun Power Holdings Co., a Chinese maker of solar power cells and modules. He made the comments during an interview in New York on June 14. “We need to get costs down so that we can compete without subsidies.”
Vestas Plan
Vestas was counting on a U.S. mandate for utilities to buy renewable energy and a price set on carbon emissions that would help the industry compete with coal and natural gas. They were central to its plans to spend $1 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing to gain a bigger share the American market.
To gain support from Republicans, lawmakers said they next may strip a climate-protection provision to pass an energy bill that would require utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.
The compromise would fail to address the environmental costs of oil drilling and coal mining that a carbon cap would, leaving fossil fuels with an ongoing advantage, according to Lewis Hay, Chief Executive Officer NextEra Energy Inc., the largest U.S. producer of wind and solar energy.
“I really would like for us to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation,” Hay said in a June 23 interview. “We’re all investing less dollars until we get greater clarity and that’s not good for the economy and it’s not good for jobs.”
--With assistance from Simon Lomax in Washington D.C.; Editors: Todd White, Randall Hackley
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net; Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.
Their shares have fallen as much as 22 percent since the leak began April 20, compared with a 12 percent decline in the 52-member Bloomberg World Oil & Gas Index that includes BP.
A bill in U.S. Congress to expand alternative energy in the biggest oil-consuming nation was set aside by legislators until they can review offshore-drilling safety. Investors in turn sold wind and solar stocks as support waned for the bill and as Europe considered cuts to clean-energy subsidies, said John Hardy, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric out there on the possibility that the spill could help renewable energy,” Hardy said in an interview. “I see it delaying clean-energy legislation until the Senate’s ready to deal with offshore drilling.”
Before the spill, the legislation’s authors included an expansion to offshore oil exploration to win the Republican votes needed to pass a law that caps the greenhouse gases. Such limits would have helped shares of emissions-free wind and solar energy compete with generators that burn coal and natural gas.
The compromise, underpinned by increased offshore drilling, collapsed after the spill. Democrats who wanted emissions legislation have since threatened to pull their support if the bill continued to call for more oil drilling.
Disaster’s ‘Irony’
“It’s ironic that this disaster is jeopardizing energy legislation when it’s clear that we need it more than ever,” said Kevin Landis, who manages $260 million at Firsthand Funds including SunPower and competitor Suntech Power Holdings Co. “It’s definitely a drag on the renewable sector.”
Denmark’s Vestas has lost 16 percent since the rig explosion that triggered the spill, knocking 11.08 billion Danish krone ($1.92 billion) from its market value. SunPower has dropped 22 percent, almost twice the loss of the oil index, whose members were hit by drilling bans in other nations after the BP spill and predictions of higher insurance premiums by explorers including Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Vestas and SunPower underperformed the 88-member WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index. It lost 12 percent in the period, helped by gains in companies more focused on non-U.S. markets or energy-saving products like light-emitting diodes.
Canada Oil Sands
The losses contrast even more with gains of Canada’s largest oil-sands producers, which tap deposits of crude mixed with earth in a method that can scar landscapes and add to global warming pollution. Canadian energy stocks are trading at their highest premiums to global oil stocks in five years.
Investors may be concerned with declining government incentives from Germany to the U.S. as nations seek to save money, said Roger Ballentine, president of Green Strategies Inc., a consulting company Washington.
“We’re heading into a long-term period of fiscal austerity,” Ballentine, a climate adviser to the Clinton Administration, said at a conference in New York on June 29.
The reaction by U.S. Congress to promote environmental rules has been less than in 1969, when a public backlash against oil drilling ensued from the much smaller spill off Santa Barbara. The movement led lawmakers to devise the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, the foundation of hundreds of regulations on the energy industry today.
Santa Barbara Spill
The Gulf oil spill probably won’t create the same societal shifts that occurred after the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, said Joshua Schimel, chairman of the environmental studies program at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which was created as a result of the 1969 spill.
“The Santa Barbara spill happened at time when people were already waking up to pollution and to the damage we were doing to the environment and to its habitability,” Schimel said.
Also, the oil fouled a beach of a politically connected, affluent and highly educated community that did not have strong economic ties to the oil industry, Schimel said. “In Santa Barbara, oil was not really part of our economy. In the Gulf, there are lots and lots of communities that depend on it.”
Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to the spill, holding the company responsible for the “freak accident,” according to a Bloomberg national poll conducted July 9-12. BP said yesterday it stopped the flow from the leaking well for the first time and may know within two days whether it is safe to leave a new sealing-cap system installed over it in place.
State Incentives
San Jose, California-based SunPower, which has more panels installed in the U.S. than other manufacturers, is building solar plants from California to Florida in states that provide incentives. The company needs a renewable energy and climate protection bill to boost orders for its high-efficiency panels, Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner said at a conference in New York on June 9.
Solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers said they will continue to press for a national standard that would build upon efforts in 30 states that require utilities to get an increasing share of power from renewable energy. They just aren’t depending on that happening this year.
“We aren’t counting on that oil leak to increase demand for solar,” said Peter Xie, president of Solarfun Power Holdings Co., a Chinese maker of solar power cells and modules. He made the comments during an interview in New York on June 14. “We need to get costs down so that we can compete without subsidies.”
Vestas Plan
Vestas was counting on a U.S. mandate for utilities to buy renewable energy and a price set on carbon emissions that would help the industry compete with coal and natural gas. They were central to its plans to spend $1 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing to gain a bigger share the American market.
To gain support from Republicans, lawmakers said they next may strip a climate-protection provision to pass an energy bill that would require utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.
The compromise would fail to address the environmental costs of oil drilling and coal mining that a carbon cap would, leaving fossil fuels with an ongoing advantage, according to Lewis Hay, Chief Executive Officer NextEra Energy Inc., the largest U.S. producer of wind and solar energy.
“I really would like for us to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation,” Hay said in a June 23 interview. “We’re all investing less dollars until we get greater clarity and that’s not good for the economy and it’s not good for jobs.”
--With assistance from Simon Lomax in Washington D.C.; Editors: Todd White, Randall Hackley
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net; Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
JR Promoting Solar
Larry Hagman, who is best known for his role in the 1970's tv drama 'Dallas' as the evil oil tycoon J.R. Ewing and the lovable Major Nelson in the hit 'I Dream Of Jeannie' has taken on a new role for one of the best and biggest causes in America these days.
These days Larry Hagman is asking people to join him by getting on board and embracing solar technology. Hagman's new ad campaign 'Shine, Baby Shine' promotes the solar panel manufacturer 'Solar World'.
Larry Hagman , who is 78-years old now stated "In the past, it was always about the oils. The oil was flowing and so was the money." Sadly today the oil is still flowing only it is clogging up the Gulf Coast and money flowing has become a distant memory to most affected by today's struggling economy.
The new ad features Larry Hagman looking at a portrait of himself as J. R. Ewing, then walking out the door of his home in Ojai California that he shares with his wife Maj, and looking up at his red roof containing a solar panel.
Larry Hagman is known to be a lifelong advocate of renewable energy and proudly owns one of the largest US residential solar panel systems, which he purchased in 2003. Hagman has revealed that the cost was extreme at the price of $750,000 seven years ago ,but his annual power bill has gone from $37,000 to $13! That is quite a savings on the stars large investment.
Valerie P of Cincinnati commented "Everyone should do more to save energy, this country ,including myself has always taken for granted our energy supply and now we are all paying dearly for it!"
Larry Hagman's most recent tv appearance was in 2006 , when he had a recurring role in the series Nip/Tuck as Burt Landau.
Share your thoughts on Larry Hagman and the use of solar energy panel's here with others. Remember to subscribe to this page for all the latest pop culture news and information.
These days Larry Hagman is asking people to join him by getting on board and embracing solar technology. Hagman's new ad campaign 'Shine, Baby Shine' promotes the solar panel manufacturer 'Solar World'.
Larry Hagman , who is 78-years old now stated "In the past, it was always about the oils. The oil was flowing and so was the money." Sadly today the oil is still flowing only it is clogging up the Gulf Coast and money flowing has become a distant memory to most affected by today's struggling economy.
The new ad features Larry Hagman looking at a portrait of himself as J. R. Ewing, then walking out the door of his home in Ojai California that he shares with his wife Maj, and looking up at his red roof containing a solar panel.
Larry Hagman is known to be a lifelong advocate of renewable energy and proudly owns one of the largest US residential solar panel systems, which he purchased in 2003. Hagman has revealed that the cost was extreme at the price of $750,000 seven years ago ,but his annual power bill has gone from $37,000 to $13! That is quite a savings on the stars large investment.
Valerie P of Cincinnati commented "Everyone should do more to save energy, this country ,including myself has always taken for granted our energy supply and now we are all paying dearly for it!"
Larry Hagman's most recent tv appearance was in 2006 , when he had a recurring role in the series Nip/Tuck as Burt Landau.
Share your thoughts on Larry Hagman and the use of solar energy panel's here with others. Remember to subscribe to this page for all the latest pop culture news and information.
Friday, July 16, 2010
LifeVillage Solar Energy Panels
San Diego-based Envision Solar, a manufacturer best known for its solar carports, announced two new products Wednesday that expand on the company's idea to utilize solar energy in unusual places.
The LifeVillage is a series of prefab structures framed with light-gauge steel that employ solar panel roofs and can be deployed quickly to disaster areas to provide temporary shelter and electricity, as well as purified water.
Think of LifeVillage as a low-budget version of a Huf Haus. Only instead of being built by German engineers in a pristine factory, the LifeVillage structures can be built on site by unskilled workers with the prefabricated materials arriving in two standard shipping containers.
One kit includes energy storage batteries, photovoltaic modules and corresponding roofing, a water pumping and purification system, inverters, and lighting. The light gauge steel frame enables the structures to meet international building codes, according to Envision.
A single LifeVillage structure offers 3,500 square feet of self-sufficient living or working space. They're also designed to be flexible and modular so that they can be used alone as a shelter, or in multiples for larger needs such as health clinics in areas with no available utilities. Each module can generate up to 50 kilowatts of power to be used for a combination of things like refrigeration, water purification, communications, or as a large-scale charging source for cell phones.
While the prefab solar building idea would obviously not work for every climate, Envision points out that it could be an ideal source of shelter and energy in areas like Haiti, India, and parts of Africa.
The other product announced Wednesday expands on Envision's existing solar carport structures.
The Envision SolarTree, a solar covered carport, has been coupled with a new tracking system called EnvisionTrak. It tracks sun movement to maximize the amount of solar energy that can be captured by solar panels on Envision carports beyond the peak hours of noon to 3 p.m.
Envision will begin offering Axion Power batteries with its carport systems to store solar-generated electricity for later use after the sun goes down.
"Axion's PbC batteries extend the capabilities of the Solar Tree by enabling it to charge a battery during the day and continue to generate power at night. The combination of these two innovations will drastically impact the capabilities of the SolarTree," Envision CEO Bob Noble said in a statement.
Carports, once largely abandoned in favor of open-air parking lots, have been making a comeback in recent years as solar companies look for underutilized places to put photovoltaic modules, and manufacturers of plug-in electric vehicles look for ways to offer convenient charging stations.
In addition to Envision Solar, SunDurance also does solar-covered carports, and recently announced a project at New Jersey's Mennen Arena. In March, it was announced that Sanyo would provide some of its facilities with solar carports for charging electric bicycles. And in April 2009, the city of Chicago installed tree-shaped solar carports that act as plug-in stations that can recharge two cars at a time. Even Google now has solar carports for its employees.
The LifeVillage is a series of prefab structures framed with light-gauge steel that employ solar panel roofs and can be deployed quickly to disaster areas to provide temporary shelter and electricity, as well as purified water.
Think of LifeVillage as a low-budget version of a Huf Haus. Only instead of being built by German engineers in a pristine factory, the LifeVillage structures can be built on site by unskilled workers with the prefabricated materials arriving in two standard shipping containers.
One kit includes energy storage batteries, photovoltaic modules and corresponding roofing, a water pumping and purification system, inverters, and lighting. The light gauge steel frame enables the structures to meet international building codes, according to Envision.
A single LifeVillage structure offers 3,500 square feet of self-sufficient living or working space. They're also designed to be flexible and modular so that they can be used alone as a shelter, or in multiples for larger needs such as health clinics in areas with no available utilities. Each module can generate up to 50 kilowatts of power to be used for a combination of things like refrigeration, water purification, communications, or as a large-scale charging source for cell phones.
While the prefab solar building idea would obviously not work for every climate, Envision points out that it could be an ideal source of shelter and energy in areas like Haiti, India, and parts of Africa.
The other product announced Wednesday expands on Envision's existing solar carport structures.
The Envision SolarTree, a solar covered carport, has been coupled with a new tracking system called EnvisionTrak. It tracks sun movement to maximize the amount of solar energy that can be captured by solar panels on Envision carports beyond the peak hours of noon to 3 p.m.
Envision will begin offering Axion Power batteries with its carport systems to store solar-generated electricity for later use after the sun goes down.
"Axion's PbC batteries extend the capabilities of the Solar Tree by enabling it to charge a battery during the day and continue to generate power at night. The combination of these two innovations will drastically impact the capabilities of the SolarTree," Envision CEO Bob Noble said in a statement.
Carports, once largely abandoned in favor of open-air parking lots, have been making a comeback in recent years as solar companies look for underutilized places to put photovoltaic modules, and manufacturers of plug-in electric vehicles look for ways to offer convenient charging stations.
In addition to Envision Solar, SunDurance also does solar-covered carports, and recently announced a project at New Jersey's Mennen Arena. In March, it was announced that Sanyo would provide some of its facilities with solar carports for charging electric bicycles. And in April 2009, the city of Chicago installed tree-shaped solar carports that act as plug-in stations that can recharge two cars at a time. Even Google now has solar carports for its employees.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
California Wants Solar Program Back
Kurt Alexander -- Santa Cruz Sentinel
California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit Wednesday against Fannie May and Freddie Mac, claiming the mortgage giants have thwarted a home-energy improvement program that would have arrived in Santa Cruz County this fall.
The suit argues that opposition to the program by the mortgage companies - and a decision last week to not participate in it - has forced counties like Santa Cruz to suspend plans to finance home-efficiency upgrages, like solar panels and window insulation.
That position, said Brown at a press conference in San Diego, undermines California's efforts to boost energy savings and create green jobs.
Brown's suit was filed in a federal court in Oakland.
The program at issue, formally called Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE, is a novel financing method that allows homeowners to pay for home improvements through a special property-tax assessment facilitated by the county.
Fannie May and Freddie Mac are cold to the idea because they fear homeowners who default on their mortgage would be obligated to pay the new tax assessment before making good on their home loan. The companies, with the blessing of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, say they'll no longer issue mortgages on properties that have PACE financing.
The two companies together own or guarantee about half the nation's mortgages.
Fannie May and Freddie Mac declined to comment Wednesday. But Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said California's energy program could put homeowners on shaky financial ground and increase the liability for the mortgage companies. He vowed to fight Brown's suit.
"Mortgage holders should not be forced to absorb new credit risks after they have already purchased or guaranteed a mortgage," DeMarco told The Associated Press.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is also named in Brown's suit, which seeks to have the feds lift their directive to shun properties with PACE financing.
Santa Cruz County is one of 14 counties in CaliforniaFIRST, which would have been among country's largest renewable financing programs, coordinated by Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Ecology Action.
Though the position of Fannie May and Freddie Mac is likely to delay CaliforniaFIRST's planned launch this fall, coordinators say they're committed to making sure the program moves forward.
"There are still other financing mechanisms," said Margart Bruce, vice-president of Ecology Action's climate group. "It's analogous to if your car breaks down, there are other ways to get to work."
Bruce said while the preferred financing option remains the tax assessment, and she hopes Brown's lawsuit or possible Congressional action will force Fannie May and Freddie Mac to honor it, financing could also be offered through more traditional loans.
Other loans, though, don't have the ease and security that come with a property tax assessment, a debt that is passed on to the next homeowner should the property sell.
Supporters of the tax assessment, like Brown and Bruce, say the model comes with little risk to Fannie May or Freddie Mac.
CaliforniaFIRST got $16.5 million of federal stimulus funds earlier this year to get off the ground.
The program had planned for financing of up to $35,000 for homeowners and $75,000 for businesses, with interest rates around 7 or 8 percent over a 20-year term.
"We're going to start pulling out all the stops (to make sure this succeeds)," said Bruce.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit Wednesday against Fannie May and Freddie Mac, claiming the mortgage giants have thwarted a home-energy improvement program that would have arrived in Santa Cruz County this fall.
The suit argues that opposition to the program by the mortgage companies - and a decision last week to not participate in it - has forced counties like Santa Cruz to suspend plans to finance home-efficiency upgrages, like solar panels and window insulation.
That position, said Brown at a press conference in San Diego, undermines California's efforts to boost energy savings and create green jobs.
Brown's suit was filed in a federal court in Oakland.
The program at issue, formally called Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE, is a novel financing method that allows homeowners to pay for home improvements through a special property-tax assessment facilitated by the county.
Fannie May and Freddie Mac are cold to the idea because they fear homeowners who default on their mortgage would be obligated to pay the new tax assessment before making good on their home loan. The companies, with the blessing of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, say they'll no longer issue mortgages on properties that have PACE financing.
The two companies together own or guarantee about half the nation's mortgages.
Fannie May and Freddie Mac declined to comment Wednesday. But Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said California's energy program could put homeowners on shaky financial ground and increase the liability for the mortgage companies. He vowed to fight Brown's suit.
"Mortgage holders should not be forced to absorb new credit risks after they have already purchased or guaranteed a mortgage," DeMarco told The Associated Press.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is also named in Brown's suit, which seeks to have the feds lift their directive to shun properties with PACE financing.
Santa Cruz County is one of 14 counties in CaliforniaFIRST, which would have been among country's largest renewable financing programs, coordinated by Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Ecology Action.
Though the position of Fannie May and Freddie Mac is likely to delay CaliforniaFIRST's planned launch this fall, coordinators say they're committed to making sure the program moves forward.
"There are still other financing mechanisms," said Margart Bruce, vice-president of Ecology Action's climate group. "It's analogous to if your car breaks down, there are other ways to get to work."
Bruce said while the preferred financing option remains the tax assessment, and she hopes Brown's lawsuit or possible Congressional action will force Fannie May and Freddie Mac to honor it, financing could also be offered through more traditional loans.
Other loans, though, don't have the ease and security that come with a property tax assessment, a debt that is passed on to the next homeowner should the property sell.
Supporters of the tax assessment, like Brown and Bruce, say the model comes with little risk to Fannie May or Freddie Mac.
CaliforniaFIRST got $16.5 million of federal stimulus funds earlier this year to get off the ground.
The program had planned for financing of up to $35,000 for homeowners and $75,000 for businesses, with interest rates around 7 or 8 percent over a 20-year term.
"We're going to start pulling out all the stops (to make sure this succeeds)," said Bruce.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Kenyan Women Solar Light Up their Village
by Denis Gathanju, Contributor
Published: July 13, 2010
Kenya -- Let there be light. And thanks to the efforts of rural women in one of the most remote corners of the Kenyan republic, lights turn on as night falls at the end of a sunny day.
Tucked away in the remote villages of Olando and Got Kaliech in rural Kenya, residents in this poor outpost in south-western Kenya today have light after darkness falls. The light is thanks to Phoebe Jondiko, Joyce Matunga and Phoebe Akinyi, the three solar “women engineers” who have literally switched on the lights in the two villages with a view to lighting up more villages in the remote Gwassi Division in Suba District.
Blessed with year-round sunshine, Kenya is quickly waking up to the realization that it can successfully tap into one of the vast natural resources on the planet – the sun. Solar energy has for a long time remained largely untapped in Kenya due to a combination of factors with the single biggest obstacle being the hugely expensive solar kits.
But with the Kenyan government desperately looking for new avenues through which it can turn Kenya’s energy greener, this year it lowered the importation taxes levied on solar energy kits so as to encourage corporations and individuals to use solar to power domestic and industrial operations.
Solar Energy Empowers Rural Women
Victor Ndiege is the project manager of Green Forest Social Investment Trust (GFSIT), a Kisumu-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that is geared towards empowering women in rural areas through the provision of renewable power, easing domestic chores, especially when night falls and helping village women come up with income generating activities.
According to research conducted by GFSIT, village women spend between Kenya Shillings (Kes) 850 and 1,200 [approximately US $10 to $15] every month on lighting alone. The women, notes Ndiege, use various sources such as paraffin and firewood to light up their homes after dark and to cook food.
“This has negative effects on the environment as they have to cut down trees for firewood, while paraffin poses health risks to the women and their families on inhalation of the harmful fumes from paraffin lamps,” said Ndiege. “In that case, we identified solar energy as the most affordable alternative energy source that we could use in the villages. We partnered with the Barefoot College in India, which trains semi-illiterate rural women to fabricate, install and maintain solar lighting systems in the villages.”
Ndiege said that the women acquired vital solar engineering skills that they are currently applying in the remote villages of Olando and Got Kaliech. Under the Village Solar Committees (VSCs) program, village folks will contribute between Kes 500 and 800 [approximately US $7 to 10] in monthly subscriptions from each household to keep the program running.
“The village women have also started income generating activities that include a posho mill that is powered by solar energy to generate some income for the women groups and a small workshop where local youth can gain skills and eke out a living while supporting the village solar program as well,” explained Ndiege.
According to Ndiege, the GFSIT is importing a new batch of solar kits from India to be installed in other villages within Gwassi Division. This is largely to take advantage of the reduced importation taxes levied on solar kits by the Kenyan government as well as a means through which more rural villages can now switch on to solar energy.
Lighting Africa
Phoebe Jondiko, one of the women involved with the program, said that the solar project is a welcome relief for the rural folks in her village because its remote location and hilly terrain make it difficult to access energy from the national grid system under the Kenyan government-led initiative dubbed rural electrification program (REP).
Currently, only 20 percent of Kenyan households are connected to the national grid. Patrick Nyoike, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, said it is virtually impossible to connect every Kenyan household to the national grid system by 2030 due to the huge capital investments needed. This is in spite the fact that the Rural Electrification Authority (REA), the government agency mandated to connect rural areas to the national grid, has so far pumped more than $552 million over the last four decades into the program.
Said Nyoike: “National power grid connections require huge capital investments with the scattered nature of rural settlements that require off grid stations making this unattainable in the near future.”
According to Zachary Ayieko, the CEO of REA, solar energy offers a huge power potential for the nation since solar energy in Kenya could potentially generate up to three times the current daily national grid requirements. Because of this the REA has entered into a partnership with the International Finance Corporation to spearhead a new initiative called “Lighting Africa.”
Ayieko said that this ambitious project is currently running on a pilot basis in Kenya and Ghana, with a view to lighting up more than 2.5 million households in the next two years and an estimated 250 million households across Africa.
Though the initial costs of a solar kit are higher as compared to kerosene lamps, the overall cost of the solar kits is lower because there are no operational costs attached to them.
“Prices range between $10 and $93 for the solar kits depending on their capacity as compared to the monthly average of $10 spent by each household on kerosene,” said Arthur Itote, the project manager at the Lighting Africa Private Enterprise Partnership for Africa (LAPEPA).
In order to make the solar kits readily available and affordable to the rural poor, LAPEPA is working on starting a microfinance business model that will allow poor village folks make small payments over time until they have fully paid off the kits.
Joyce Matunga says that the solar energy kits can also be used to power irrigation pumps. This, she said, would be a big step forward as the farm produce would then generate income for poor households and the ripple effects across the villages will be poverty alleviation as a long-term benefit.
The Barefoot College is located in Tilona, India and is the brainchild of Indian-based social-entrepreneur Bunker Roy. This is the first time the college is partnering with a Kenyan-based community organization. The college has so far trained more than 100 semi-illiterate rural women and electrified more than 5,500 households in about 72 remote villages in 15 third-world countries.
And while Kenya is racing to adopt green energy technologies to power its booming economy into a middle-income economy in less than 20 years’ time, solar energy will play a pivotal role in Kenya’s green energy policy. This has been exemplified not only in the solar energy lighting program in rural Kenya, but in the new data center coming up in Nairobi.
With Kenya being the regional ICT hub, the Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a Nairobi-based internet service provider, has plans to build the first ever solar powered data center in Nairobi. The data center will be the only one of its kind in Africa. Building cost estimates are around Kes 600 million [US$ 7.5 million].
According to CEO Kai Wulff, KDN is also planning to use solar energy to power most of its digital villages spread in remote parts of the country under the Green Solar Power initiative. Wulff said that the initiative will be a two-pronged project that will take technology closer to the village folks through the provision of fast and cheap internet connections, while at the same time, providing cheap power to power the rural ICT centers.
Denis Gathanju is a freelance journalist based in Africa.
Published: July 13, 2010
Kenya -- Let there be light. And thanks to the efforts of rural women in one of the most remote corners of the Kenyan republic, lights turn on as night falls at the end of a sunny day.
Tucked away in the remote villages of Olando and Got Kaliech in rural Kenya, residents in this poor outpost in south-western Kenya today have light after darkness falls. The light is thanks to Phoebe Jondiko, Joyce Matunga and Phoebe Akinyi, the three solar “women engineers” who have literally switched on the lights in the two villages with a view to lighting up more villages in the remote Gwassi Division in Suba District.
Blessed with year-round sunshine, Kenya is quickly waking up to the realization that it can successfully tap into one of the vast natural resources on the planet – the sun. Solar energy has for a long time remained largely untapped in Kenya due to a combination of factors with the single biggest obstacle being the hugely expensive solar kits.
But with the Kenyan government desperately looking for new avenues through which it can turn Kenya’s energy greener, this year it lowered the importation taxes levied on solar energy kits so as to encourage corporations and individuals to use solar to power domestic and industrial operations.
Solar Energy Empowers Rural Women
Victor Ndiege is the project manager of Green Forest Social Investment Trust (GFSIT), a Kisumu-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that is geared towards empowering women in rural areas through the provision of renewable power, easing domestic chores, especially when night falls and helping village women come up with income generating activities.
According to research conducted by GFSIT, village women spend between Kenya Shillings (Kes) 850 and 1,200 [approximately US $10 to $15] every month on lighting alone. The women, notes Ndiege, use various sources such as paraffin and firewood to light up their homes after dark and to cook food.
“This has negative effects on the environment as they have to cut down trees for firewood, while paraffin poses health risks to the women and their families on inhalation of the harmful fumes from paraffin lamps,” said Ndiege. “In that case, we identified solar energy as the most affordable alternative energy source that we could use in the villages. We partnered with the Barefoot College in India, which trains semi-illiterate rural women to fabricate, install and maintain solar lighting systems in the villages.”
Ndiege said that the women acquired vital solar engineering skills that they are currently applying in the remote villages of Olando and Got Kaliech. Under the Village Solar Committees (VSCs) program, village folks will contribute between Kes 500 and 800 [approximately US $7 to 10] in monthly subscriptions from each household to keep the program running.
“The village women have also started income generating activities that include a posho mill that is powered by solar energy to generate some income for the women groups and a small workshop where local youth can gain skills and eke out a living while supporting the village solar program as well,” explained Ndiege.
According to Ndiege, the GFSIT is importing a new batch of solar kits from India to be installed in other villages within Gwassi Division. This is largely to take advantage of the reduced importation taxes levied on solar kits by the Kenyan government as well as a means through which more rural villages can now switch on to solar energy.
Lighting Africa
Phoebe Jondiko, one of the women involved with the program, said that the solar project is a welcome relief for the rural folks in her village because its remote location and hilly terrain make it difficult to access energy from the national grid system under the Kenyan government-led initiative dubbed rural electrification program (REP).
Currently, only 20 percent of Kenyan households are connected to the national grid. Patrick Nyoike, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, said it is virtually impossible to connect every Kenyan household to the national grid system by 2030 due to the huge capital investments needed. This is in spite the fact that the Rural Electrification Authority (REA), the government agency mandated to connect rural areas to the national grid, has so far pumped more than $552 million over the last four decades into the program.
Said Nyoike: “National power grid connections require huge capital investments with the scattered nature of rural settlements that require off grid stations making this unattainable in the near future.”
According to Zachary Ayieko, the CEO of REA, solar energy offers a huge power potential for the nation since solar energy in Kenya could potentially generate up to three times the current daily national grid requirements. Because of this the REA has entered into a partnership with the International Finance Corporation to spearhead a new initiative called “Lighting Africa.”
Ayieko said that this ambitious project is currently running on a pilot basis in Kenya and Ghana, with a view to lighting up more than 2.5 million households in the next two years and an estimated 250 million households across Africa.
Though the initial costs of a solar kit are higher as compared to kerosene lamps, the overall cost of the solar kits is lower because there are no operational costs attached to them.
“Prices range between $10 and $93 for the solar kits depending on their capacity as compared to the monthly average of $10 spent by each household on kerosene,” said Arthur Itote, the project manager at the Lighting Africa Private Enterprise Partnership for Africa (LAPEPA).
In order to make the solar kits readily available and affordable to the rural poor, LAPEPA is working on starting a microfinance business model that will allow poor village folks make small payments over time until they have fully paid off the kits.
Joyce Matunga says that the solar energy kits can also be used to power irrigation pumps. This, she said, would be a big step forward as the farm produce would then generate income for poor households and the ripple effects across the villages will be poverty alleviation as a long-term benefit.
The Barefoot College is located in Tilona, India and is the brainchild of Indian-based social-entrepreneur Bunker Roy. This is the first time the college is partnering with a Kenyan-based community organization. The college has so far trained more than 100 semi-illiterate rural women and electrified more than 5,500 households in about 72 remote villages in 15 third-world countries.
And while Kenya is racing to adopt green energy technologies to power its booming economy into a middle-income economy in less than 20 years’ time, solar energy will play a pivotal role in Kenya’s green energy policy. This has been exemplified not only in the solar energy lighting program in rural Kenya, but in the new data center coming up in Nairobi.
With Kenya being the regional ICT hub, the Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a Nairobi-based internet service provider, has plans to build the first ever solar powered data center in Nairobi. The data center will be the only one of its kind in Africa. Building cost estimates are around Kes 600 million [US$ 7.5 million].
According to CEO Kai Wulff, KDN is also planning to use solar energy to power most of its digital villages spread in remote parts of the country under the Green Solar Power initiative. Wulff said that the initiative will be a two-pronged project that will take technology closer to the village folks through the provision of fast and cheap internet connections, while at the same time, providing cheap power to power the rural ICT centers.
Denis Gathanju is a freelance journalist based in Africa.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Italy Reasses Solar Rates
By Marc Roca
July 12 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) -- The Italian government introduced legislation that would cut feed-in tariffs paid for power from solar photovoltaic plants beginning in 2011.
The proposal, which must be approved by parliament, maintained the terms in a draft bill circulated June 1 calling for the tariff to decline by 6 percent every four months next year and another 6 percent in the two years thereafter, the Ministry of Economic Development said in a statement.
The decision leaves the rates Italian utilities pay for solar power among the most attractive in Europe and may trigger a rush by developers to build solar plants in Italy just as in Spain and Germany in recent years, said Francesco D’Avack, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.
“The Italian market risks entering a dangerous boom and bust cycle,” D’Avack said. “All this could lead to unsustainably fast growth and a belated reaction by the government to keep costs in check. There are a couple of fat years ahead for developers.”
The new law would also establish a 3-gigawatt cap in solar capacity by the end of 2013 in addition to 200 megawatts for PV projects integrated into buildings and 150 megawatts in concentrated PV projects, which use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on solar panels.
The ministry reached an agreement on the final shape of the law at a conference last week including representatives from the state, regions and local authorities following several postponements of the meeting since the beginning of this year.
Permission Process
“The main obstacle to even faster growth, namely a byzantine and regional permitting process, has been removed through simplified, national planning guidelines,” D’Avack said.
Officials at the ministry were not available to comment.
The new solar energy bill, or Conto Energia, will come into effect on Jan. 1 and substitute the 2007 version, which led to about 1.13 gigawatts in PV capacity being installed by the end of 2009, according to figures from grid regulator GSE. The government aims for solar capacity to reach 8 gigawatts by 2020.
“The Conto Energia and the new guidelines for renewable projects, long-awaited by sector’s players, provide a decisive push to the government’s renewable energy strategy,” Stefano Saglia, under-secretary for energy at the ministry, said in a statement. “These measures boost innovation in a key sector for growth and competitiveness of the country and allow the harmonization and simplification of national and regional procedures.”
Along with regions and local authorities, the ministry also approved new administrative guidelines for projects in all renewable energy sectors based on a single model for all the country. The new guidelines will be sent within 90 days of the text’s publication to regional and local authorities, which are the entities that approve projects in the country.
--Editors: Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter for this story: Marc Roca in London at mroca6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angus McCrone at amccrone1@bloomberg.net
July 12 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) -- The Italian government introduced legislation that would cut feed-in tariffs paid for power from solar photovoltaic plants beginning in 2011.
The proposal, which must be approved by parliament, maintained the terms in a draft bill circulated June 1 calling for the tariff to decline by 6 percent every four months next year and another 6 percent in the two years thereafter, the Ministry of Economic Development said in a statement.
The decision leaves the rates Italian utilities pay for solar power among the most attractive in Europe and may trigger a rush by developers to build solar plants in Italy just as in Spain and Germany in recent years, said Francesco D’Avack, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.
“The Italian market risks entering a dangerous boom and bust cycle,” D’Avack said. “All this could lead to unsustainably fast growth and a belated reaction by the government to keep costs in check. There are a couple of fat years ahead for developers.”
The new law would also establish a 3-gigawatt cap in solar capacity by the end of 2013 in addition to 200 megawatts for PV projects integrated into buildings and 150 megawatts in concentrated PV projects, which use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on solar panels.
The ministry reached an agreement on the final shape of the law at a conference last week including representatives from the state, regions and local authorities following several postponements of the meeting since the beginning of this year.
Permission Process
“The main obstacle to even faster growth, namely a byzantine and regional permitting process, has been removed through simplified, national planning guidelines,” D’Avack said.
Officials at the ministry were not available to comment.
The new solar energy bill, or Conto Energia, will come into effect on Jan. 1 and substitute the 2007 version, which led to about 1.13 gigawatts in PV capacity being installed by the end of 2009, according to figures from grid regulator GSE. The government aims for solar capacity to reach 8 gigawatts by 2020.
“The Conto Energia and the new guidelines for renewable projects, long-awaited by sector’s players, provide a decisive push to the government’s renewable energy strategy,” Stefano Saglia, under-secretary for energy at the ministry, said in a statement. “These measures boost innovation in a key sector for growth and competitiveness of the country and allow the harmonization and simplification of national and regional procedures.”
Along with regions and local authorities, the ministry also approved new administrative guidelines for projects in all renewable energy sectors based on a single model for all the country. The new guidelines will be sent within 90 days of the text’s publication to regional and local authorities, which are the entities that approve projects in the country.
--Editors: Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter for this story: Marc Roca in London at mroca6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angus McCrone at amccrone1@bloomberg.net
Monday, July 12, 2010
California Edison Enters 20 year Solar Power Agreement
GetSolar Staff
The utility Southern California Edison got approval from state regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission to buy almost 500 megawatts of solar power from Solar Millennium's solar-thermal facilities in a 20-year contract.
The solar thermal facilities, in Blythe, California, are expected to be online and operational by 2014. Each one will generate 242 megawatts of power.
Solar thermal technology is a modern re-imagining of an old and simple concept. Just as conventional coal, gas, and oil-fired plants rely on heat to create steam which spins turbines, solar thermal power facilities use thousands of mirrors to heat liquids and create steam.
By doing so, they bypass some of the technical limitations of solar photovoltaic panels, which have only reached approximately 20 percent efficiency under the best circumstances. Solar thermal solutions, on the other hand, have reached conversion efficiencies of over 30 percent.
The state of California has passed a law requiring that all of its utilities buy or generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by the end of 2010, although some have been struggling to meet that goal.
The utility Southern California Edison got approval from state regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission to buy almost 500 megawatts of solar power from Solar Millennium's solar-thermal facilities in a 20-year contract.
The solar thermal facilities, in Blythe, California, are expected to be online and operational by 2014. Each one will generate 242 megawatts of power.
Solar thermal technology is a modern re-imagining of an old and simple concept. Just as conventional coal, gas, and oil-fired plants rely on heat to create steam which spins turbines, solar thermal power facilities use thousands of mirrors to heat liquids and create steam.
By doing so, they bypass some of the technical limitations of solar photovoltaic panels, which have only reached approximately 20 percent efficiency under the best circumstances. Solar thermal solutions, on the other hand, have reached conversion efficiencies of over 30 percent.
The state of California has passed a law requiring that all of its utilities buy or generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by the end of 2010, although some have been struggling to meet that goal.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
US Department of Energy Doing Solar Project in Nevada
by Andrew Herndon - Jul 8, 2010
The U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior have picked a former nuclear site in Nevada to be transformed into a zone for testing “cutting-edge” solar energy technologies.
The research will take place on 25 square miles of land owned by the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, an area larger than the size of Manhattan, the Energy Department said today in a statement.
The area lies in the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, where the U.S. military used to detonate atomic weapons. The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will oversee the project, according to the statement.
The DOE said it selected the Nevada site after evaluating 26 possible locations in terms of solar conditions, suitable terrain and other infrastructure needed for solar development.
Projects developed on public land “can significantly reduce the costs and environmental impacts of utility-scale solar power facilities and demonstrate the commercial viability of these facilities,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today at a press conference announcing the plan.
“The Nevada Test Site can and should be a proving ground for new ideas and for attracting new clean energy industries that will help our state and country compete globally,” Harry Reid, Nevada’s senior senator and the Senate majority leader, said at the press conference.
Environmental Reviews
The DOE said it will collaborate with the Interior Department to fund required environmental reviews and complete infrastructure planning. The agencies also will work with the U.S. Air Force to identify and address potential problems with locating the demonstration zone in the chosen location, which is near other military installations.
Detailed design is scheduled to begin in September, including determinations concerning number, size and technology for individual demonstration projects. All necessary environmental reviews are expected to be completed by June 2011, and construction is slated to start as soon as September 2011, according to an interagency memorandum of understanding released today.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Andrew Herndon in Washington at aherndon2@bloomberg.net.
The U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior have picked a former nuclear site in Nevada to be transformed into a zone for testing “cutting-edge” solar energy technologies.
The research will take place on 25 square miles of land owned by the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, an area larger than the size of Manhattan, the Energy Department said today in a statement.
The area lies in the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, where the U.S. military used to detonate atomic weapons. The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will oversee the project, according to the statement.
The DOE said it selected the Nevada site after evaluating 26 possible locations in terms of solar conditions, suitable terrain and other infrastructure needed for solar development.
Projects developed on public land “can significantly reduce the costs and environmental impacts of utility-scale solar power facilities and demonstrate the commercial viability of these facilities,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today at a press conference announcing the plan.
“The Nevada Test Site can and should be a proving ground for new ideas and for attracting new clean energy industries that will help our state and country compete globally,” Harry Reid, Nevada’s senior senator and the Senate majority leader, said at the press conference.
Environmental Reviews
The DOE said it will collaborate with the Interior Department to fund required environmental reviews and complete infrastructure planning. The agencies also will work with the U.S. Air Force to identify and address potential problems with locating the demonstration zone in the chosen location, which is near other military installations.
Detailed design is scheduled to begin in September, including determinations concerning number, size and technology for individual demonstration projects. All necessary environmental reviews are expected to be completed by June 2011, and construction is slated to start as soon as September 2011, according to an interagency memorandum of understanding released today.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Andrew Herndon in Washington at aherndon2@bloomberg.net.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Solar Plane Flies 26 Hours
By BNO News
PAYERNE, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) – The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, a Swiss solar-powered plane, completed the first non-stop flight on solar energy after flying 26 hours and 9 minutes. It was the longest flight at the highest altitude in aviation history, Solar Impulse announced on Thursday.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA has a huge wingspan in equal proportions of an Airbus A340 with 63.4 meters. It includes approximately 12,000 photovoltaic cells, most of them ion the wing and around 880 on the horizontal stabilizer.The plane took off on Wednesday morning from the Payerne airbase with André Borscherg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project, at the controls. The HB-SIA flew at an altitude of 8,500 meters until 11:00 p.m., when the sun rays stop being enough to supply the solar cells.
During the night, the airplane continued flying using the energy stored in the solar cells. It landed at 7:00 a.m., on Thursday. At its highest, the Solar Impulse surpassed the 8,500 meters intended and reached 8,700 meters of altitude.
"This is a highly symbolic moment: flying by night using solely solar power is a stunning manifestation of the potential that clean technologies offer today to reduce the dependency of our society on fossil fuels!," Bertrand Piccard, initiator and President of Solar Impulse.
The project was financed by Solvay S.A., Omega and Deutsche Bank. It cost 100 million Swiss francs.
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
PAYERNE, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) – The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, a Swiss solar-powered plane, completed the first non-stop flight on solar energy after flying 26 hours and 9 minutes. It was the longest flight at the highest altitude in aviation history, Solar Impulse announced on Thursday.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA has a huge wingspan in equal proportions of an Airbus A340 with 63.4 meters. It includes approximately 12,000 photovoltaic cells, most of them ion the wing and around 880 on the horizontal stabilizer.The plane took off on Wednesday morning from the Payerne airbase with André Borscherg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project, at the controls. The HB-SIA flew at an altitude of 8,500 meters until 11:00 p.m., when the sun rays stop being enough to supply the solar cells.
During the night, the airplane continued flying using the energy stored in the solar cells. It landed at 7:00 a.m., on Thursday. At its highest, the Solar Impulse surpassed the 8,500 meters intended and reached 8,700 meters of altitude.
"This is a highly symbolic moment: flying by night using solely solar power is a stunning manifestation of the potential that clean technologies offer today to reduce the dependency of our society on fossil fuels!," Bertrand Piccard, initiator and President of Solar Impulse.
The project was financed by Solvay S.A., Omega and Deutsche Bank. It cost 100 million Swiss francs.
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Mexico Considered a Solar Energy Opportunity
Experts rank the quality of Mexico's photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal resources among the world's best. In terms of photovoltaic resources, the country has significant advantages:
Average Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) is approximately 5 kWh/m2/day, the energy equivalent of 50 times Mexico's annual national electricity generation
70% of the territory has GHI values greater than 4.5kWh/m2
Just 0.06% of the Mexican national territory would be sufficient to generate the overall electricity consumption of Mexico in 2005 according the GTZ report "Nichos de mercado para sistemas fotovoltáicos en conexión a la red eléctrica de México" (June 2009).
Global Horizontal Solar Radiation
Mexico's average solar resources for PV (5 kWh/m2/day) are more than 60% higher than the best solar in Germany (5.4 GW of installed PV). Spain and Germany are the global PV leaders, with a total of 8.7 GW, 67% of the world's PV installed capacity, according to the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Program 2008 Annual Report.
Comparative Solar Resources, PV Performance, Energy Pay-Back and Energy Return (GHI kWh/m2)
Sources: GTZ (2009) "Nichos de Mercado Para Sistemas Fotovoltáicos en Conexión a la Red Eléctrica en México," June 2009; International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (2006), "Compared assessment of selected environmental indicators of photovoltaic electricity in OECD cities," April 2006.Higher than Germany and Spain
According to the study Solar Energy Sector (2009) for the Mexican Secretaría de Energía (SENER, the Energy Department), PV installed in many cities across Northern and Central Mexico has an "energy payback time" (EPBT) of less than two years. This represents the time required for these PV systems to produce the amount of energy needed to manufacture all the PV components.
The EPBT is based on a figure of 2,525 kWh, the electrical energy required to manufacture 1 kW of a complete PV system. This kWh figure includes PV panels, wiring and electronic-connection devices. The EPBT varies according to the PV location's solar resources. This 2,525 kWh figure was used by the International Energy Agency in a 2006 report titled "Compared assessment of selected environmental indicators of photovoltaic electricity in OECD cities."
The "energy return factor" (ERF) for PV installed in most of Mexico produces 17 times the electricity required to manufacture the PV system, 1.5 times higher than the ERF for Germany, equal to most of Spain. The ERF refers to the amount of electricity produced over a 30-year period, minus the electricity required to manufacture the complete system. The ERF is the number of times the embodied energy from the PV manufacturing is produced over the life of the system. The average ERF for PV systems in Mexico is 1.7 years compared to 2.6 years for Munich.
Mexico's Insolation
Two facts emerge from the Solar Energy Sector study:
Northern Mexico's Direct Normal Insolation is equivalent to the best in the U.S. Southwest and in the North African deserts
Assuming a net system efficiency of 15%, a square of 25 km in Chihuahua or in the Sonora desert would be sufficient to supply all of Mexico's electricity (based on information provided by Energy Department and GTZ (2009) at the "Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in México" study).
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/sunny-mexico-an-energy-opportunity/
Average Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) is approximately 5 kWh/m2/day, the energy equivalent of 50 times Mexico's annual national electricity generation
70% of the territory has GHI values greater than 4.5kWh/m2
Just 0.06% of the Mexican national territory would be sufficient to generate the overall electricity consumption of Mexico in 2005 according the GTZ report "Nichos de mercado para sistemas fotovoltáicos en conexión a la red eléctrica de México" (June 2009).
Global Horizontal Solar Radiation
Mexico's average solar resources for PV (5 kWh/m2/day) are more than 60% higher than the best solar in Germany (5.4 GW of installed PV). Spain and Germany are the global PV leaders, with a total of 8.7 GW, 67% of the world's PV installed capacity, according to the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Program 2008 Annual Report.
Comparative Solar Resources, PV Performance, Energy Pay-Back and Energy Return (GHI kWh/m2)
Sources: GTZ (2009) "Nichos de Mercado Para Sistemas Fotovoltáicos en Conexión a la Red Eléctrica en México," June 2009; International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (2006), "Compared assessment of selected environmental indicators of photovoltaic electricity in OECD cities," April 2006.Higher than Germany and Spain
According to the study Solar Energy Sector (2009) for the Mexican Secretaría de Energía (SENER, the Energy Department), PV installed in many cities across Northern and Central Mexico has an "energy payback time" (EPBT) of less than two years. This represents the time required for these PV systems to produce the amount of energy needed to manufacture all the PV components.
The EPBT is based on a figure of 2,525 kWh, the electrical energy required to manufacture 1 kW of a complete PV system. This kWh figure includes PV panels, wiring and electronic-connection devices. The EPBT varies according to the PV location's solar resources. This 2,525 kWh figure was used by the International Energy Agency in a 2006 report titled "Compared assessment of selected environmental indicators of photovoltaic electricity in OECD cities."
The "energy return factor" (ERF) for PV installed in most of Mexico produces 17 times the electricity required to manufacture the PV system, 1.5 times higher than the ERF for Germany, equal to most of Spain. The ERF refers to the amount of electricity produced over a 30-year period, minus the electricity required to manufacture the complete system. The ERF is the number of times the embodied energy from the PV manufacturing is produced over the life of the system. The average ERF for PV systems in Mexico is 1.7 years compared to 2.6 years for Munich.
Mexico's Insolation
Two facts emerge from the Solar Energy Sector study:
Northern Mexico's Direct Normal Insolation is equivalent to the best in the U.S. Southwest and in the North African deserts
Assuming a net system efficiency of 15%, a square of 25 km in Chihuahua or in the Sonora desert would be sufficient to supply all of Mexico's electricity (based on information provided by Energy Department and GTZ (2009) at the "Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in México" study).
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/sunny-mexico-an-energy-opportunity/
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sun Power May Beat Wind Power
JOE BOLKCOM • GUEST OPINION • JULY 6, 2010
Just days before the United States took to the pitch in a heated World Cup match against Slovenia, my colleagues and I enjoyed a friendly exchange on the small central European nation's soil, in the eighth annual Green Bike Tour.There we found that we could learn from Europe about much more than how to kick a checkered ball -- we could take note of its investments in efficient and renewable energy. And just as the solid performance of Americans turned the heads of soccer aficionados around the globe, the news of Iowa's progress in cleaner energy proved able to impress our Slovenian hosts.
Joined by veteran green bikers, David Osterberg, Ed Woolsey -- and John Moreland and our gracious Slovenian host, Professor Mladen Franko of the University of Nova Gorica -- we had a busy schedule with a series of meetings with government officials, energy experts, renewable energy producers, non-governmental organization leaders, students and university faculty. All in all, we learned a lot about Slovenia's energy efforts and of our own.
Iowa has quickly caught up with our continental neighbors since the 2002 European Green Bike Tour. At that time, Germany, Denmark and Holland were world leaders in renewable energy production and we lagged far behind. Those countries were generating about 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources and Iowa, a mere 4 percent.
Today we stand neck and neck with Europe -- Iowa now generates 20 percent of its power through wind.
But this doesn't mean that our state shouldn't aim for further improvement. Here is where we can learn from Slovenia.
After its European Union acceptance in 2004, Slovenia developed an action plan for renewable energy and reduction of its carbon emissions. Today it aims to achieve 25 percent renewable energy by 2025 while expanding other efforts in energy efficiency.
While Iowans focus largely upon wind for energy, Slovenians look to the sun. Right now, the country generates about 20 megawatts of solar electricity and has a goal of establishing 300 megawatts of solar power by 2020. As we pedaled through urban and rural parts of the country, we saw proof of this in the form of solar collectors (for electricity and hot water) on homes, businesses and public buildings.
(2 of 2)
Slovenia pays for these investments through the use of a feed-in tariff, incentive payments to help consumers and businesses purchase renewable energy systems. And as demand for solar technology has increased, business booms at BISOL, a local manufacturer of photo voltaic systems -- now one of the fastest growing companies in the country.
Iowa can adopt a similar strategy.
We can create consumer and business demand with financial incentives for a new neighborhood based on renewable energy systems. In turn, this will bring new skilled job opportunities to install and maintain systems and then manufacture the technology right here in Iowa.
This is what we have done with our investments in large wind farms. Federal production tax credits have provided the financial incentives, bringing new jobs to install and service the large machines. We also have attracted five wind industry component manufactures to supply this demand and a few thousand well-paying manufacturing jobs. So far, Iowa's foray into the wind market has been a wide success.
With the right kind of state policy and financial incentives, there is no reason we can't create more well-paying jobs and address our need for more renewable solar energy.
And of course we cannot overlook the other major purpose of looking to green energy: protecting the environment and addressing a changing climate.
Just as a changing weather patterns bring more summer flooding to Iowa, Slovenians have witnessed both major flooding events and have had to endure 100-plus mile per hour winds -- phenomena they have never before seen. On top of that, the bark beetle, another newcomer, is ravaging the valuable forests that cover 60 percent of their land.
I had a lot of time to think about our energy future while I rode more than 300 kilometers through Slovenia's spectacular farm-dotted countryside. I came to one major conclusion: we need to keep improving our investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
As black crude continues to spew into the Gulf, we know that maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.
Next Page
1 | 2
Joe Bolkcom is a member of the Iowa Senate and the outreach and community education director for the University of Iowa's Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.
Just days before the United States took to the pitch in a heated World Cup match against Slovenia, my colleagues and I enjoyed a friendly exchange on the small central European nation's soil, in the eighth annual Green Bike Tour.There we found that we could learn from Europe about much more than how to kick a checkered ball -- we could take note of its investments in efficient and renewable energy. And just as the solid performance of Americans turned the heads of soccer aficionados around the globe, the news of Iowa's progress in cleaner energy proved able to impress our Slovenian hosts.
Joined by veteran green bikers, David Osterberg, Ed Woolsey -- and John Moreland and our gracious Slovenian host, Professor Mladen Franko of the University of Nova Gorica -- we had a busy schedule with a series of meetings with government officials, energy experts, renewable energy producers, non-governmental organization leaders, students and university faculty. All in all, we learned a lot about Slovenia's energy efforts and of our own.
Iowa has quickly caught up with our continental neighbors since the 2002 European Green Bike Tour. At that time, Germany, Denmark and Holland were world leaders in renewable energy production and we lagged far behind. Those countries were generating about 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources and Iowa, a mere 4 percent.
Today we stand neck and neck with Europe -- Iowa now generates 20 percent of its power through wind.
But this doesn't mean that our state shouldn't aim for further improvement. Here is where we can learn from Slovenia.
After its European Union acceptance in 2004, Slovenia developed an action plan for renewable energy and reduction of its carbon emissions. Today it aims to achieve 25 percent renewable energy by 2025 while expanding other efforts in energy efficiency.
While Iowans focus largely upon wind for energy, Slovenians look to the sun. Right now, the country generates about 20 megawatts of solar electricity and has a goal of establishing 300 megawatts of solar power by 2020. As we pedaled through urban and rural parts of the country, we saw proof of this in the form of solar collectors (for electricity and hot water) on homes, businesses and public buildings.
(2 of 2)
Slovenia pays for these investments through the use of a feed-in tariff, incentive payments to help consumers and businesses purchase renewable energy systems. And as demand for solar technology has increased, business booms at BISOL, a local manufacturer of photo voltaic systems -- now one of the fastest growing companies in the country.
Iowa can adopt a similar strategy.
We can create consumer and business demand with financial incentives for a new neighborhood based on renewable energy systems. In turn, this will bring new skilled job opportunities to install and maintain systems and then manufacture the technology right here in Iowa.
This is what we have done with our investments in large wind farms. Federal production tax credits have provided the financial incentives, bringing new jobs to install and service the large machines. We also have attracted five wind industry component manufactures to supply this demand and a few thousand well-paying manufacturing jobs. So far, Iowa's foray into the wind market has been a wide success.
With the right kind of state policy and financial incentives, there is no reason we can't create more well-paying jobs and address our need for more renewable solar energy.
And of course we cannot overlook the other major purpose of looking to green energy: protecting the environment and addressing a changing climate.
Just as a changing weather patterns bring more summer flooding to Iowa, Slovenians have witnessed both major flooding events and have had to endure 100-plus mile per hour winds -- phenomena they have never before seen. On top of that, the bark beetle, another newcomer, is ravaging the valuable forests that cover 60 percent of their land.
I had a lot of time to think about our energy future while I rode more than 300 kilometers through Slovenia's spectacular farm-dotted countryside. I came to one major conclusion: we need to keep improving our investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
As black crude continues to spew into the Gulf, we know that maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.
Next Page
1 | 2
Joe Bolkcom is a member of the Iowa Senate and the outreach and community education director for the University of Iowa's Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Some Say No to Solar Money Grants
Two government-chartered mortgage finance companies are unlikely to accept loans on homes that are part of a special program that lets homeowners repay the cost of energy improvements through a surcharge on their property tax bills, according to Energy Department officials.The Obama administration has allocated $150 million in stimulus money to support the financing technique, called Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, and 22 states have authorized such programs. In a separate stimulus effort, President Obama on Saturday announced nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees for solar energy production.
Through the PACE program, loans to install solar panels and make other energy improvements would be repaid through 20-year special assessments on property tax bills and secured through a lien.
On May 5, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy and resell most home mortgages, notified lenders that such liens could not take priority over a mortgage but did not offer guidance on how to handle such loans. The uncertainty has frozen many PACE programs and led some energy companies to furlough workers.
On Friday, Cathy Zoi, an assistant secretary at the Energy Department, called officials in Boulder County, Colo., to inform them that the administration had been unable to persuade the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to accept mortgages with PACE liens.
The liens, like other property tax assessments, would be paid first if a homeowner defaults.
“She said in light of the circumstances we should look at other ways of financing energy efficiency with the stimulus money,” said Ben Pearlman, a commissioner in Boulder County.
“We’re very concerned,” Mr. Pearlman said. “It’s a powerful program and a powerful idea. We need to find an easy way for people to make those investments.”
Those homeowners who already carry energy liens on their property may find it difficult to refinance their mortgages. In Sonoma County, Calif., some lenders have declined to issue new loans for homes with such liens unless the assessment is paid off.
Ms. Zoi also called Cisco DeVries, president of Renewable Funding, a company in Oakland, Calif., that devises and administers PACE programs for local governments. “She indicated that the agencies had decided not to accept the liens and the administration needed to begin contingency planning on what to do with stimulus funding allocated for PACE,” Mr. DeVries said.
Dan Leistikow, the Energy Department’s director for public affairs, confirmed the calls. “We expect to get more written guidance from the regulators this week,” he said on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it would address the issue soon.
The Energy Department’s action, which was first reported by Grist, an online magazine, comes as Congressional leaders and state officials have been pressing the mortgage agencies to allow PACE programs to proceed.
On Friday, Representatives Henry A. Waxman and Barney Frank sent a letter to top administration officials urging them to act quickly on the issue.
“The response among the cities is something close to outrage,” Mr. DeVries said. “There may need to be a legislative solution, maybe litigation.”
While one energy effort appeared to fizzle over the weekend, the president announced nearly $2 billion in Energy Department loan guarantees for two solar power companies.
Mr. Obama made the announcement on Saturday in his weekly address, a day after an unemployment report showed weak job growth in June and stoked concerns that the nation’s recovery was weakening. He said the companies’ projects would create more than 5,000 jobs, part of a wider push on clean energy.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power — steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs,” he said.
Abengoa Solar, a unit of a Spanish company, will receive a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to build a solar plant in Arizona. And Abound Solar of Loveland, Colo., was awarded a $400 million guarantee to expand a solar-panel factory in Longmont, Colo., and to open a factory in Tipton, Ind.
Through the PACE program, loans to install solar panels and make other energy improvements would be repaid through 20-year special assessments on property tax bills and secured through a lien.
On May 5, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy and resell most home mortgages, notified lenders that such liens could not take priority over a mortgage but did not offer guidance on how to handle such loans. The uncertainty has frozen many PACE programs and led some energy companies to furlough workers.
On Friday, Cathy Zoi, an assistant secretary at the Energy Department, called officials in Boulder County, Colo., to inform them that the administration had been unable to persuade the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to accept mortgages with PACE liens.
The liens, like other property tax assessments, would be paid first if a homeowner defaults.
“She said in light of the circumstances we should look at other ways of financing energy efficiency with the stimulus money,” said Ben Pearlman, a commissioner in Boulder County.
“We’re very concerned,” Mr. Pearlman said. “It’s a powerful program and a powerful idea. We need to find an easy way for people to make those investments.”
Those homeowners who already carry energy liens on their property may find it difficult to refinance their mortgages. In Sonoma County, Calif., some lenders have declined to issue new loans for homes with such liens unless the assessment is paid off.
Ms. Zoi also called Cisco DeVries, president of Renewable Funding, a company in Oakland, Calif., that devises and administers PACE programs for local governments. “She indicated that the agencies had decided not to accept the liens and the administration needed to begin contingency planning on what to do with stimulus funding allocated for PACE,” Mr. DeVries said.
Dan Leistikow, the Energy Department’s director for public affairs, confirmed the calls. “We expect to get more written guidance from the regulators this week,” he said on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it would address the issue soon.
The Energy Department’s action, which was first reported by Grist, an online magazine, comes as Congressional leaders and state officials have been pressing the mortgage agencies to allow PACE programs to proceed.
On Friday, Representatives Henry A. Waxman and Barney Frank sent a letter to top administration officials urging them to act quickly on the issue.
“The response among the cities is something close to outrage,” Mr. DeVries said. “There may need to be a legislative solution, maybe litigation.”
While one energy effort appeared to fizzle over the weekend, the president announced nearly $2 billion in Energy Department loan guarantees for two solar power companies.
Mr. Obama made the announcement on Saturday in his weekly address, a day after an unemployment report showed weak job growth in June and stoked concerns that the nation’s recovery was weakening. He said the companies’ projects would create more than 5,000 jobs, part of a wider push on clean energy.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power — steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs,” he said.
Abengoa Solar, a unit of a Spanish company, will receive a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to build a solar plant in Arizona. And Abound Solar of Loveland, Colo., was awarded a $400 million guarantee to expand a solar-panel factory in Longmont, Colo., and to open a factory in Tipton, Ind.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Alabama Men Promoting Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
The Associated Press
ARCADIA, Okla.—Two Alabama men hope their trip down old U.S. Highway 66 encourages people not just to be nostalgic, but to consider what they see as the future of vehicle fuels.
Mark McConville and Keith Barfield of Birmingham are making the 2,450-mile journey from Santa Monica, Calif., to Chicago in a candy-apple red 1966 GTO that's been converted to run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.
The men started what they dubbed as the "Drive to Inspire" on June 27, passed through Oklahoma on Thursday and Friday and plan to finish their trip on July 4.
Their ultimate goal is to win converts to the cause of using CNG as a vehicle fuel in the U.S., where it has yet to significantly catch on as an alternative to gasoline.
ARCADIA, Okla.—Two Alabama men hope their trip down old U.S. Highway 66 encourages people not just to be nostalgic, but to consider what they see as the future of vehicle fuels.
Mark McConville and Keith Barfield of Birmingham are making the 2,450-mile journey from Santa Monica, Calif., to Chicago in a candy-apple red 1966 GTO that's been converted to run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.
The men started what they dubbed as the "Drive to Inspire" on June 27, passed through Oklahoma on Thursday and Friday and plan to finish their trip on July 4.
Their ultimate goal is to win converts to the cause of using CNG as a vehicle fuel in the U.S., where it has yet to significantly catch on as an alternative to gasoline.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Money More Money $2 Billion from USA for Solar
AN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday outlined plans to ramp up the number of clean-energy jobs in the U.S., with his administration's goal fueled in part by roughly $2 billion in new conditional commitments to two solar companies.
Abengoa SA (ES:ABG 16.52, +0.32, +1.94%) was offered a $1.45 billion loan guarantee by the U.S. Department of Energy to build a 250-megawatt solar plant in Arizona, and Abound Solar Manufacturing was offered a $400 million loan guarantee toward two plants where thin-solar panels will be manufactured.
The guarantees through the Recovery Act and other measures are expected by the awardees to create more than 5,000 jobs, according to a statement from the White House.Obama during his weekly address said the investments will help the country establish leadership in "cutting-edge" solar technology, and create jobs to aid economic recovery efforts.
A transition to a clean-energy economy and doubling use of renewable-energy sources including wind and solar power "have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America," said Obama in the address.
Obama, in announcing the new energy-related commitments, also took aim at Republicans, saying they are holding up the extension of unemployment insurance for workers without jobs, "a move that only ends up holding back our recovery. It doesn't make sense."
Meanwhile, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the GOP's weekly address Saturday said national debt is "one of the most dangerous threats" facing the country as it celebrates another Independence Day.
"At a time when Americans are clipping coupons and pinching pennies, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress continue to spend money that they, we, do not have," said Chambliss, adding that the national debt recently topped $13 trillion.
Energy projects outlined
Abengoa Solar Inc., a subsidiary of Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA, has agreed to build a solar generation plan near Gila Bend, Ariz. The Solona project will create 1,600 jobs in Arizona and about 85 permanent jobs once the plant is operational, according to Abengoa Solar.
The company said, according to the White House statement, that 70% of the components and products used in the construction will be made in the U.S., and the plant will generate enough to power for more than 70,000 homes at full capacity.
Abound Solar Manufacturing plans to use the loan proceeds to expand its Longmont, Colo. plant. A portion of the proceeds will be used to open a new plant in an empty Chrysler supplier factory in Tipton, Ind.
Abound Solar estimates construction of the plants will 2,000 jobs, with 1,500 permanent manufacturing and technical jobs.
Abengoa SA (ES:ABG 16.52, +0.32, +1.94%) was offered a $1.45 billion loan guarantee by the U.S. Department of Energy to build a 250-megawatt solar plant in Arizona, and Abound Solar Manufacturing was offered a $400 million loan guarantee toward two plants where thin-solar panels will be manufactured.
The guarantees through the Recovery Act and other measures are expected by the awardees to create more than 5,000 jobs, according to a statement from the White House.Obama during his weekly address said the investments will help the country establish leadership in "cutting-edge" solar technology, and create jobs to aid economic recovery efforts.
A transition to a clean-energy economy and doubling use of renewable-energy sources including wind and solar power "have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America," said Obama in the address.
Obama, in announcing the new energy-related commitments, also took aim at Republicans, saying they are holding up the extension of unemployment insurance for workers without jobs, "a move that only ends up holding back our recovery. It doesn't make sense."
Meanwhile, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the GOP's weekly address Saturday said national debt is "one of the most dangerous threats" facing the country as it celebrates another Independence Day.
"At a time when Americans are clipping coupons and pinching pennies, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress continue to spend money that they, we, do not have," said Chambliss, adding that the national debt recently topped $13 trillion.
Energy projects outlined
Abengoa Solar Inc., a subsidiary of Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA, has agreed to build a solar generation plan near Gila Bend, Ariz. The Solona project will create 1,600 jobs in Arizona and about 85 permanent jobs once the plant is operational, according to Abengoa Solar.
The company said, according to the White House statement, that 70% of the components and products used in the construction will be made in the U.S., and the plant will generate enough to power for more than 70,000 homes at full capacity.
Abound Solar Manufacturing plans to use the loan proceeds to expand its Longmont, Colo. plant. A portion of the proceeds will be used to open a new plant in an empty Chrysler supplier factory in Tipton, Ind.
Abound Solar estimates construction of the plants will 2,000 jobs, with 1,500 permanent manufacturing and technical jobs.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Venzuela Shaking it Up
Trader Jofmar Heredia was thrown out of work when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shut the unregulated currency market in May and seized about 40 brokerages, accusing them of setting artificial rates, capital flight and money laundering.
Heredia, 31, said she’s worried she may never find a job at a bank again because of Chavez’s crackdown.
“I’m unemployed and leaving my resume in banks but no one is calling,” said Heredia, who worked at Proinversion Sociedad de Corretaje CA in Caracas. “A lot of my friends in brokerages taken over by the government have been let go.”
The brokerage business is in danger of becoming obsolete in this socialist nation, said Noris Aguirre, a director at the clearing firm Caja Venezolana de Valores. Since November, Venezuela’s securities regulator has taken control of about 35 percent of the 112 trading firms and closed four after they were blamed for the 27 percent drop in the bolivar through May 18. That may leave up to 2,500 without jobs even as Chavez says his biggest economic priority is preserving employment.
Chavez, a 55-year-old former paratrooper who’s been in power for 11 years, says the country doesn’t need such companies and accuses them of exploiting loopholes to become rich. The government banned investment instruments known as mutuos in February -- which are akin to repurchase agreements, or repos -- and prohibited brokers from trading in a new currency market established last month. Securities firms use repos to borrow money to finance positions in bonds and other securities.
Chavez Takes Control
In a speech on May 23 to supporters, Chavez said his country should eliminate brokerages.
“We’re going to respond strongly against these thieves that are trying to wash their hands now,” Chavez said. “There’s no economic reason for the weakening of the bolivar. It’s a huge fraud against the republic.”
The government took control of the country’s largest brokerage, Econoinvest Casa de Bolsa, after raiding it on May 24, arresting four directors and ordering it to cease operations for a week pending an investigation. Of the 420 workers at the company, 126 have resigned, according to the nation’s regulator. The directors are being held at the national intelligence service in Caracas awaiting final charges against them for illegally trading foreign currency and association with delinquency.
Authorities are investigating “irregularities” at Econoinvest and are trying to guarantee the investments of its 44,000 clients, the Finance Ministry said today in a statement.
No Opportunities
Rene Buroz, the lawyer for the directors, declined to comment, as did an Econoinvest public relations official, who asked not to be identified in accordance with company policy.
The government took control of Finalca Casa de Bolsa today for failing to prove the origin of funds and putting its clients’ investments at risk after a raid on June 2, according to a resolution published in the Official Gazette.
Nelson Venero, a 32 year-old accountant, lost his job at the end of May after working for five years in the brokerage industry. After securing a job at AVC Valores Sociedad de Corretaje and a pay raise with a dollar bonus in October, he said he was fired after the government seized the company in May.
“This limits operations so much for brokerages that I don’t see any opportunities for them,” Aguirre of Caja Venezolana de Valores, which helps manage bonds and equities owned by brokerage houses, said in an interview. “They’re allowed to buy and sell company shares, but all of the companies that traded on the stock market have now been nationalized.”
Nationalizations
Chavez nationalized Cia Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, the phone company known as Cantv, in 2007 to boost the state’s hold on the economy. The government has also taken over assets from Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Ternium SA and Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB, which listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange.
The brokerage industry boomed between 2005 and 2010, growing 42 percent to more than 100 institutions, according to the securities regulator. Traders were hired to perform bond swaps as a means of obtaining dollars for companies that failed to receive government authorization to buy at the official exchange rate.
The bond trading set an implicit unregulated rate. That rate plunged to 8.2 per dollar on May 11, seven days before Chavez shut down that market.
‘Destined’
The central bank re-opened the market on June 9, setting the maximum rate and limiting the amount of dollars for purchase. The average rate is now about 5.3 bolivars per dollar. In addition, there are two official exchange rates of 2.6 bolivars per dollar and 4.3 per dollar for imports.
“This was destined to happen,” said Roberto Gonzalez, 39, a former partner at a Caracas-based brokerage who left the firm last year. He declined to identify the company.
Tomas Sanchez, president of the securities regulator known as CNV, said the number of brokerages will likely be cut to less than 20 and that most of the unemployed traders may be able to live off savings since they earned commissions in dollars.
“We know some workers will be affected by this situation but they enjoyed exorbitant benefits and have savings,” Sanchez said in an interview in Caracas on June 9. “Maybe the secretaries and couriers can be incorporated into the public banking system.”
‘Blackmail’
Heredia said that she wasn’t paid in dollars and received a commission of about 10 percent of the value of bolivar transactions.
Raul Maestres, a consultant at Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, said their offices in Caracas have been inundated with resumes.
“It’s not the best moment to find work,” Maestres said.
Venezuela’s unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in May, from 7.7 percent a year earlier, as the economy slid into the first recession in seven years. Gross domestic product shrank 3.3 percent last year and will likely contract 2.5 percent this year, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
Brokers are “not going to blackmail us with the idea that this is going to hurt employment,” Ricardo Sanguino, the president of the congressional finance committee, said in an interview. “Many of them acted outside the law and created more problems than benefits.”
Venero, the unemployed accountant, said that he feels powerless to find work and that he may take a broker course in Panama, where Venezuelan banks have opened branches.
“I don’t think I’ll find work in the capital markets because they’ve been very hard hit,” he said in a phone interview. “A lot of friends are out of work.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Corina Rodriguez Pons in Caracas at crpons@bloomberg.net; Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
Heredia, 31, said she’s worried she may never find a job at a bank again because of Chavez’s crackdown.
“I’m unemployed and leaving my resume in banks but no one is calling,” said Heredia, who worked at Proinversion Sociedad de Corretaje CA in Caracas. “A lot of my friends in brokerages taken over by the government have been let go.”
The brokerage business is in danger of becoming obsolete in this socialist nation, said Noris Aguirre, a director at the clearing firm Caja Venezolana de Valores. Since November, Venezuela’s securities regulator has taken control of about 35 percent of the 112 trading firms and closed four after they were blamed for the 27 percent drop in the bolivar through May 18. That may leave up to 2,500 without jobs even as Chavez says his biggest economic priority is preserving employment.
Chavez, a 55-year-old former paratrooper who’s been in power for 11 years, says the country doesn’t need such companies and accuses them of exploiting loopholes to become rich. The government banned investment instruments known as mutuos in February -- which are akin to repurchase agreements, or repos -- and prohibited brokers from trading in a new currency market established last month. Securities firms use repos to borrow money to finance positions in bonds and other securities.
Chavez Takes Control
In a speech on May 23 to supporters, Chavez said his country should eliminate brokerages.
“We’re going to respond strongly against these thieves that are trying to wash their hands now,” Chavez said. “There’s no economic reason for the weakening of the bolivar. It’s a huge fraud against the republic.”
The government took control of the country’s largest brokerage, Econoinvest Casa de Bolsa, after raiding it on May 24, arresting four directors and ordering it to cease operations for a week pending an investigation. Of the 420 workers at the company, 126 have resigned, according to the nation’s regulator. The directors are being held at the national intelligence service in Caracas awaiting final charges against them for illegally trading foreign currency and association with delinquency.
Authorities are investigating “irregularities” at Econoinvest and are trying to guarantee the investments of its 44,000 clients, the Finance Ministry said today in a statement.
No Opportunities
Rene Buroz, the lawyer for the directors, declined to comment, as did an Econoinvest public relations official, who asked not to be identified in accordance with company policy.
The government took control of Finalca Casa de Bolsa today for failing to prove the origin of funds and putting its clients’ investments at risk after a raid on June 2, according to a resolution published in the Official Gazette.
Nelson Venero, a 32 year-old accountant, lost his job at the end of May after working for five years in the brokerage industry. After securing a job at AVC Valores Sociedad de Corretaje and a pay raise with a dollar bonus in October, he said he was fired after the government seized the company in May.
“This limits operations so much for brokerages that I don’t see any opportunities for them,” Aguirre of Caja Venezolana de Valores, which helps manage bonds and equities owned by brokerage houses, said in an interview. “They’re allowed to buy and sell company shares, but all of the companies that traded on the stock market have now been nationalized.”
Nationalizations
Chavez nationalized Cia Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, the phone company known as Cantv, in 2007 to boost the state’s hold on the economy. The government has also taken over assets from Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Ternium SA and Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB, which listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange.
The brokerage industry boomed between 2005 and 2010, growing 42 percent to more than 100 institutions, according to the securities regulator. Traders were hired to perform bond swaps as a means of obtaining dollars for companies that failed to receive government authorization to buy at the official exchange rate.
The bond trading set an implicit unregulated rate. That rate plunged to 8.2 per dollar on May 11, seven days before Chavez shut down that market.
‘Destined’
The central bank re-opened the market on June 9, setting the maximum rate and limiting the amount of dollars for purchase. The average rate is now about 5.3 bolivars per dollar. In addition, there are two official exchange rates of 2.6 bolivars per dollar and 4.3 per dollar for imports.
“This was destined to happen,” said Roberto Gonzalez, 39, a former partner at a Caracas-based brokerage who left the firm last year. He declined to identify the company.
Tomas Sanchez, president of the securities regulator known as CNV, said the number of brokerages will likely be cut to less than 20 and that most of the unemployed traders may be able to live off savings since they earned commissions in dollars.
“We know some workers will be affected by this situation but they enjoyed exorbitant benefits and have savings,” Sanchez said in an interview in Caracas on June 9. “Maybe the secretaries and couriers can be incorporated into the public banking system.”
‘Blackmail’
Heredia said that she wasn’t paid in dollars and received a commission of about 10 percent of the value of bolivar transactions.
Raul Maestres, a consultant at Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, said their offices in Caracas have been inundated with resumes.
“It’s not the best moment to find work,” Maestres said.
Venezuela’s unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in May, from 7.7 percent a year earlier, as the economy slid into the first recession in seven years. Gross domestic product shrank 3.3 percent last year and will likely contract 2.5 percent this year, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
Brokers are “not going to blackmail us with the idea that this is going to hurt employment,” Ricardo Sanguino, the president of the congressional finance committee, said in an interview. “Many of them acted outside the law and created more problems than benefits.”
Venero, the unemployed accountant, said that he feels powerless to find work and that he may take a broker course in Panama, where Venezuelan banks have opened branches.
“I don’t think I’ll find work in the capital markets because they’ve been very hard hit,” he said in a phone interview. “A lot of friends are out of work.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Corina Rodriguez Pons in Caracas at crpons@bloomberg.net; Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Irish Electricians Lose High Court Case
The High Court has dismissed a challenge by electrical contractors to the legally-binding system of setting pay and conditions for employees in the sector.
The electrical contractors had argued that the system of Registered Employment Agreements was flawed because not all employers were properly represented in negotiations at the Labour Court to set nationally binding terms and conditions for workers.
If the challenge had succeeded, terms and conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers in other sectors governed by Registered Employment Agreements could have been set aside, leaving them with only minimum employment and minimum wage guarantees.Mr Justice John Hedigan delivered the conclusion to his ruling, which has not yet been fully written up.
He found that the electrical contractors had delayed excessively in taking judicial review proceedings against the Labour Court decision on the Registered Employment Agreements.
He said it was not possible to accept that the contractors had not been aware of the Registered Employment Agreements for the sector, until relatively recently.
He ruled that the Labour Court was within its jurisdiction to decide to proceed with the Registered Employment Agreements.
He rejected claims that the Labour Court had made five key errors of law.
Mr Justice Hedigan declined to consider the constitutional element of the contractors challenge to the Registered Employment Agreements.
He said it should have been brought by plenary proceedings and not by judicial review.
The electrical contractors had argued that the system of Registered Employment Agreements was flawed because not all employers were properly represented in negotiations at the Labour Court to set nationally binding terms and conditions for workers.
If the challenge had succeeded, terms and conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers in other sectors governed by Registered Employment Agreements could have been set aside, leaving them with only minimum employment and minimum wage guarantees.Mr Justice John Hedigan delivered the conclusion to his ruling, which has not yet been fully written up.
He found that the electrical contractors had delayed excessively in taking judicial review proceedings against the Labour Court decision on the Registered Employment Agreements.
He said it was not possible to accept that the contractors had not been aware of the Registered Employment Agreements for the sector, until relatively recently.
He ruled that the Labour Court was within its jurisdiction to decide to proceed with the Registered Employment Agreements.
He rejected claims that the Labour Court had made five key errors of law.
Mr Justice Hedigan declined to consider the constitutional element of the contractors challenge to the Registered Employment Agreements.
He said it should have been brought by plenary proceedings and not by judicial review.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)