Solyndra was the very first of the renewable energy companies funded through the (newly renewable energy-friendly) Department of Energy under Secretary Chu, who guaranteed a $535 million loan so Solyndra could build a factory to make its innovative cylindrical CIGS thin film solar modules. That factory is now due online this fall in the Bay Area’s Fremont, ahead of the original schedule.

Now Southern California Edison (SCE) has awarded Solyndra (through its subsidiary, Photon Solar) a bundle of 20-year power purchase agreements to build about 16 MW of rooftop PV systems distributed atop 15 commercial or industrial buildings in Southern California.

Solyndra’s subsidiary, Photon Solar will build the Solyndra systems, the largest being a 3 MW array on a commercial or industrial building in Buena Park. Seven of its 15 sites will be a megawatt or more. The start-up just completed their largest array to date, a 704 KW system on the LCS Industries building in New Jersey.

The company expects to triple its manufacturing output once the first 250MW of capacity ramps up. It has almost a billion in VC funding for its innovative easy-install tubular CIGS thin film modules.

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The Center for Climate Strategies has issued a report laying out in detail the cost/benefit analysis underpinning 23 policy options and their expected net cost per ton of greenhouse gases removed.

Like the three climate bills that would have reduced the deficit by about $20 billion by 2020, these 23 carbon reduction policies would also save Americans money – $5 billion a year – while reducing carbon emissions.

Because this group has already helped create full climate action plans for 16 states through consensus building and input from technical experts and stakeholders, it has hands-on experience – unlike most think tanks. So its researchers are able to go back and assess the real life costs and success or failure of policies that they had recommended.

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A study by one of the leading ratings firm in India shows that the cost of doubling the renewable energy generation capacity over the next five years would be negligible.

The Indian government has announced a the National Action Plan on Climate Change according to which the contribution of renewable energy resources to power generation would be increased to 10 percent by 2015 and 15 percent by 2020, as opposed to the current four percent. The main thrust would be on solar and wind energy infrastructure. The state electricity boards are also mandated to increase purchase of power from renewable energy sources by one percent every year.

Infrastructure development for tapping renewable energy sources for power generation is important as India looks to reduce its carbon emission output to offset international pressure for mandatory emission reduction targets and to reduce its dependence on foreign supplies of energy resources.

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Fossil fuel subsidies are huge. It is something many of us now know, but which even more people don’t. Thus, it is something we come back to from time to time on here.

A new report out by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that governments worldwide spend a ton more on fossil fuels than on renewable energy.

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Russia, heavily focused on oil and gas, has just unveiled plans to build its biggest wind farm. The country also intends to build its first solar power plant soon. Are the heat waves and fires getting to the country and President Medvedev?

Perhaps, but Medvedev has been talking about diversifying Russia’s energy base and economy for a little while now.

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July 30,2010 –

First Solar dipped its profitability outlook slightly, something investors seem not to like — but it made a bigger step in reducing cost/W (now at $0.76), and its near-term shift from systems to modules could pay off in 2011.

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The U.S. EPA has just announced that is is allocating an additional $16 million in funding for projects to reclaim brownfields, which are former industrial sites with varying degrees of contamination.  The funds are targeted to brownfields projects that create new green jobs in nearby communities.

So far, the EPA’s brownfields/green jobs program has provided more than $96 million in revolving loans and grants to dozens of projects, which in turn has leveraged more than $2.5 billion in reclamation and redevelopment investments.  The EPA estimates that the program has created almost 6500 new jobs relating to site remediation, construction, and redevelopment.

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What a difference a year makes.  In the spring of 2009, Governor Rick Perry famously suggested that Texas could secede from the United States, and he rejected federal money meant to recharge the state’s unemployment fund.  Fast forward to this summer, and the state’s capital city Austin is busy installing high efficiency fluorescent light bulbs at its Palmer Event Center as part of a $7.5 million municipal energy efficiency project funded by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The federally funded Palmer project alone is expected to save Austin taxpayers $21,501 annually in energy costs.  That’s just one of seven municipal facilities that will be retrofitted with new energy efficient light bulbs funded by the federal Recovery Act within the next few weeks, with as many as 16 other buildings slated for other efficiency upgrades.

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There are a lot of ways you can throw the blame after the horrible death of a comprehensive climate change and clean energy bill, and the seeming death of a national Renewable Energy Standard (RES).

You can blame:

• the Republican party and a broken Senate
• the media
• immoral billionaires
• Obama
• environmentalists
• a handful of Democratic senators (see below)
• the public
• greed and cowardice
• and probably more

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In a daring display of green chutzpah, a hair care products company called Zotos International, Inc. has seemingly come out of nowhere to grab the title of biggest wind energy generator of any U.S. manufacturer.  The company has just won approval install a $7 million, 3.3 megawatt wind power project for its facility in Geneva, New York.  The American Wind Energy Association has said that the project is the largest of its kind in the U.S.

The project went through with significant help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which chipped in about 30% of the cost of the project.  Also helping to win approval from Geneva officials was the company’s commitment to donate the equivalent of 5% of the wind power back to the city.  It’s all part of Zotos’s plan to achieve 100% renewable energy at the facility by 2011.

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