THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for May, 2011

Weekly roundup of other great stories we didn’t cover.

1. Similar to Y Combinator but for cleantech, Greenstart is a new “incubator and investment project that is looking to give seed funding and mentorship to the most promising young cleantech startups as they try to perfect their business plans and gain customers,” as GigaOM writes.
2. Google Inc and Citigroup Inc announced that they would each invest $55 million into Terra-Gen Power’s 102-megawatt wind power project, Alta IV, in California.
3. Upgrading the U.S. electrical grid (making it “smart”) would reportedly cost $476 billion but save $2 trillion in the next 20 years, according to new research by smart grid program manager Matt Wakefield at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
4. “Unprotected and crowded spent nuclear fuel pools pose an unacceptable threat to the public,” according to the author of a new report on the matter, “Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S.: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage.”
5. As we previewed early in the week, Japan’s Prime Minister made some big renewable energy announcements at the G8 meeting in France this week, including a plan for Japan to get at least at least 20% of its electricity supply from renewable resources by 2020. “Japan will also aim to cut solar power generation costs to one-third of the current by 2020 and one-sixth by 2030,” Reuters reports. And the country aims to have 10 million solar roofs by 2030.
6. In the midst of the WindPower 2011 conference in Anaheim, California this week, Siemens announced “plans for implementation of new wind service warehousing operations in Woodward, Oklahoma.” It will be 64,000 square feet and altogether “will be Siemens’ largest wind power service distribution center to date in the U.S”
7. The DOE’s energy blog had an interesting story this week on a research project being conducted y researchers at Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center and H-STAR Institute aimed at achieving a “breakthrough” regarding  our understanding of “the human behavioral side of energy use” (with the essential goal being finding ways to cut our energy use without reducing our quality of life).
8. Toshiba announced this week that it is going to “push to expand sales in renewable energy rather than nuclear,” Business Green reports. This follows announcements that three of the Fukushima nuclear reactors have now suffered meltdown.
9. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) announced on Monday that it “is taking the first step toward issuing a lease that would authorize the testing of equipment designed to use ocean currents offshore Florida to generate electricity on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).” Sounds like a fun idea.
10. It was actually 10 days ago, but just recently got the news that the Wind Technology Testing Center, the first large wind turbine blade facility in the U.S., was recently unveiled by the Department of Energy (DOE). “The Wind Technology Testing Center will help strengthen the role U.S. manufacturers and U.S. workers are playing in the expanding renewable energy industry,” said Secretary Chu. “As the global wind power market expands, this facility will help ensure that the United States has the testing infrastructure needed to lead the world in wind energy technology.”
11. The AP reported yesterday that a nuclear power plant in “tornado alley” isn’t fully twister-proof. The reactor is actually the closest nuclear reactor to Joplin, Missouri (where one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history hit on Monday).
12. Vaisala announced the release of a new wind measurement system (to help wind energy investors and users) at the WindPower 2011 conference this week. “It allows customers to accurately understand and manage the impact that weather has on their operations and business, and as a result make better decisions,” the company claims.
13. A new report from the Global e-Sustainability Initiative shows that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to cleantech integration. Meanwhile, Darrell Issa, the Republican Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, states that “so-called clean energy” is “not good” for America. Stephen Lacey of Climate Progress discusses the two news items.
14. The “world’s largest wind farm” (Shepherds Flat in Oregon) got its first wind turbines from GE recently, it was announced at WindPower 2011 on Monday.
15. The $5-billion offshore wind transmission project Google is backing, the Atlantic Wind Connection project, got past a major hurdle this week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted an acceptable return on equity.

More stories?

Comments? Questions?

Drop them in the comments below.

Photo via Miriam Cardoso de Souza – ‘ VISÃO PHOTO & CINE CL

Wrapping up the WindPower 2011 conference in Anaheim, California this week, AWEA Board of Directors Chairman Ned Hall, president of AES North America, moderated a panel of featured leaders in the wind industry. The panel included:

• Vic Abate, vice president for renewables for GE Energy;
• Sonny Garg, president of Exelon Power;
• Pedro Pizarro, president of the Edison Mission Group;
• Steve Trenholm, CEO of E.On Climate & Renewables North America;
• and Jan Blittersdorf, president and CEO of NRG Systems.

Hall prepared 3 key topics, wind industry priorities for the coming year, to focus the conversation around:

1. the need to extend the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), not wait until 2012 when it expires
2. “addressing growing siting issues that are holding up project development”
3. “getting new transmission built”

The panelists were quite optimistic about the industry’s ability to address all three, but the focus of the discussion was around #1. As we’ve written a number of times here on CleanTechnica, federal policies and incentives in support of wind and solar have been excessively short-term in the U.S., especially compared to the long-term, stable policies and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

In order to put the wind industry on equal footing, the panelists and speakers throughout the conference emphasized the need to educate and pressure Congress about the importance of a long-term PTC and other long-term policies in support of wind.

As the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) writes, this is needed “so that stable policies can be implemented that will provide businesses time to plan and grow the project development and industry manufacturing base on American soil.”

How You Can Take Action to Support Wind Power in the United States

AWEA has created a way for people like you to get more involved in advancing Congressional support for wind. “AWEA Senior Vice President for Public Policy Rob Gramlich encouraged attendees to sign up at www.powerofwind.com to receive legislative action alerts along with an array of resources.”

I highly recommend checking out Power of Wind. It’s got an important “I pledge…” campaign going on right now. It’s created a great document on “How to Talk to a Wind Skeptic.” And it’s got other useful information and resources (and, currently, a sweepstakes to win an iPad). Check it out, get involved, help promote wind energy today.

Related Stories:

1. World Wind Power
2. Projected Wind Power Growth (Worldwide)
3. Cost of Wind Power — Kicks Coal’s Butt, Better than Natural Gas (& Could Power Your EV for $0.70/gallon)
4. Wind Power is Making Electricity Cheaper (Exxon: Wind to be Cheapest Source of Electricity)
5. Offshore Wind Energy Cheaper than Nuclear Energy, EU Climate Chief Says
6. Wind Energy Cost-Competitive with Coal in Some Regions
7. Wind Power Beats Nuclear Power in Texas

Image Credit: screenshot of AWEA’s “How to Talk to a Wind Skeptic” document

The halcyon days of corn ethanol will soon be but a fleeting memory in the world of biofuels, as new possibilities open up in more sustainable sources, from algae and waste cooking oil to orange peels and poplar trees. A team at Arizona State University is even focusing on the ability of bacteria to secrete energy-rich fats for biofuel. Though the research looks promising, cost has been a key sticking point. However, the team has developed a kind of “molecular scissor” that can separate the bacteria from its excess fat in one simple, inexpensive step. Move over, Jenny Craig!

Biofuel from Bacteria

The ASU team has been experimenting with cyanobacteria, a type of microbe that creates energy from the sun through photosynthesis, like a plant. If the name rings a bell, you may have read about phthalocyanines. These common dyes are used to make blue jeans blue, and they are also being developed for solar power. Cyanobacteria has the potential to produce biofuel feedstock more efficiently than conventional biofuel crops, but extracting the fat involves numerous complicated, expensive steps.

Cheaper Biofuel from Bacteria

The researchers developed a solution that relies on the natural ability of fat-degrading enzymes to function like “molecular scissors.” Called lipases, these enzymes can trim fatty acids from the bacteria’s photosynthetic membrane, without requiring additional steps. So far, the team has examined lipases drawn from other bacteria, fungi, and animal sources. The next step is to scale up the results in large photobioreactors. The reactors are still in the design phase so don’t hold your breath, but the ASU team is confident that the research will ultimately be scaled up to commercialization.

Pesky Meddling Federal Funds

Arizona’s economy suffered a blow last year when the state’s new immigration bill became law, but according to ASU’s press release, the state hopes to revive local industries partly through strategic investments in new green tech. Arizona doesn’t have an ideal climate for growing conventional biofuel crops, but it does have plenty of warm sunshine for growing cyanobacteria on a commercial, job-creating scale – if the ASU team’s research pans out. Weirdly, of late it’s become fashionable for state representatives in Congress to turn down federal funds for all kinds of projects, but in this case nobody seems to have objected. The research is being funded in part by a $5 million grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program.

Image: Scissors by blmurch on flickr.com

Related articles

• U.S. Department of Energy Announces New Biofuel to Replace Gasoline (cleantechnica.com)
• Simple New Device Churns out Cheap Biofuel (cleantechnica.com)
• Biofuel Crops Could Help Fight Climate Change…But It’s Not What You Think (cleantechnica.com)

On its first day of trading, algae oil and fuel company Solazyme, saw its shares trade up around 15 percent from its IPO price of $18 per share. At one point Solazyme’s shares hit $22 per share, but leveled back down to close at $20.71.

Overall it’s a good performance for a stock for a company manufacturing efficient algae strains to turn into biochemicals, cosmetics and ultimately fuel. Solazyme had estimated a price range of $15 to $17 per share just last week, but started trading at $20 this morning, an 11 percent premium over its $18 IPO price. Both next-gen biofuel makers Amyris and Gevo also fared well on the public markets when they debuted last year.

Solazyme’s IPO is an important step for the future of algae-based products and perhaps fuel, and shows investors that there is money to be made in these renewable products. However, Solazyme doesn’t plan on commercializing its algae fuel product for another couple of years down the road, and instead the company has been focusing on selling non-fuel products like cosmetics and biochemicals.

We’ll see if the share price can stay up long enough for the original investors to get some money after the 180-lock-up period.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
• The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators
• California’s New Energy Data Privacy Rules: Some Answers, Many Questions

South Africa gets a fair share of sun, from what I’ve heard. Also, with good wind resources to boot and technology that is clearly ready to scale, a new report released by Greenpeace South Africa shows how exactly the country can go 100% renewable. The Energy [R]evolution report “is a detailed and practical blueprint for cutting carbon emissions, replacing fossil fuels and nuclear power with renewable energy, and growing the economy,” Greenpeace announced this week. “It is one of the most comprehensive plans to resolve the country’s need for energy security and a sustainable energy future, ever.”

By switching over to renewables and investing in energy efficiency, South Africa would also create 150,000 new jobs in the coming 20 years. As I’ve repeated on here many, many, many times, renewable energy is not waiting for another breakthrough or two to be ready for large-scale deployment, and certainly not in a place like South Africa. It is ready to be deployed on a massive scale now. Energy [R]evolution shows, in detail, how.

Experts at the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Dutch Institute Ecofys, the Institute for Sustainable Futures (Sydney), and the European Renewable Energy Council also worked on the report with Greenpeace.

Here’s more from the world-leading green organization on what an Energy [R[evolution is:

The plan put forth “offers South Africa independence from a fluctuating and volatile global market, cuts national debt, creates jobs, safeguards scarce natural resources like water, and will protect the environment for future generations.” What more can you ask for.

Again, check out much more over on Greenpeace.

Related Stories on CleanTechnica:

1. Unprecedented UN Report: Renewable Energy Costs to Drop, Use to Grow Substantially by 2030, but…
2. Full Cost of Coal $500 Billion/Year in U.S., Harvard Study Finds
3. “Cleanest” and “Dirtiest” Internet Data Centers (Yahoo & Google Rock! Apple & Facebook.. not so much)
4. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany Announce Big Renewable Energy Targets

Photo via coda