Even without a strong, legally binding agreement in Copenhagen, investors have faith in clean tech and say that a couple of other things are more important than the international agreement for 2010 clean tech investment.
Struggling to get things sorted out and in place for the Commonwealth Games which start on October 3, 2010, the Delhi government is contemplating closure of industrial units in order to improve air quality of the city which has improved only slightly after introduction of CNG-powered public transport few years ago.
Taking cue from China’s quite successful endeavor to provide satisfactory air quality the Mayor of New Delhi, Mr. Kanwar Sain has suggested the government that the worst polluters of the city be identified and be asked to stop operations a month prior to the Games.
Although the introduction of CNG powered vehicles and expansion of Metro rail in New Delhi has resulted in noticeable improvement in the air quality, emissions output from industrial units continues to be a major problem. Few years back, the government forced small industrial units out of residential areas which resulted in slight improvement in the air quality however, there are still large industrial clusters present in the city which do not always stick to the emission rules put down by the Central Pollution Control Board. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is an innovation borne of the need to make solar modules that are more able to capture more sunlight in regions like New York (or Germany) that have relatively low level insolation. Normally that means that it takes more panels to make the same power, which means it simply costs more to make the same electricity in upstate New York than in the Southern California desert.
Prism Solar Technologies in Highland, NY has innovated a breakthrough holographic thin-film (Holographic Planar Concentrator™) that makes possible a very parsimonious use of crystalline PV cells to counteract that problem for Northern regions.
This brings the cost down to $1 a watt. Read the rest of this entry »
Major power companies in Florida and New Mexico announced this week that they would start buying large amounts of energy from certain solar power producers soon.
In New Mexico, Southwestern Public Service Company (SPSC), a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, said that it would buy 50 MW of solar power from SunEdison. From the solar panels being installed on five 10-MW sites, the electricity generated will be able to power 10,000 homes.
In Florida, at practically the same time, Tampa Electric Company received approval from the Florida Public Service Commission to purchase solar power from Energy 5.0’s planned 25-MW plant in Polk County.
These solar power plants will be two of the biggest in the nation when completed. They are expected to offset carbon emissions by millions of tons.
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One of the solar industry’s corporate giants, First Solar, announced recently that it expects sales for fiscal year 2010 to reach between $2.7 billion and $2.9 billion. This is about $300 to $500 million more than Wall Street expectations.
Despite the current economic situation, and a major recent let-down in L.A., this company is growing steadily and reflects the increasing strength of solar technology in the market today.
Wave energy seems to be Scotland’s lottery number. Scotland-based energy developer Pelamis just signed a joint venture agreement with the European energy giant Vattenfall for a large, almost $100 million energy project off Scotland’s Shetland Islands. This follows the recent launch of Oyster, reportedly the largest working hydro-electric wave energy device in the world, by the Scottish government and partners.
This new project by Pelamis and Vattenfall is being named Aegir, named after a Norse mythological sea god. It is Scotland’s largest wave power scheme.
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A London-based green investment firm, Earth Capital Partners (ECP), aiming to create a €750 million ($1 billion) renewable energy fund, announced this last week that it had reached its first round fund-raising target. By November 2010, it hopes to reach its total goal of €750 million.
The company is happy with this progress and believes there is demonstrated investor interest in this topic now. Even without an international, legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean energy, investors are moving forward on this.
With the amount of capital ECP is raising, what types of energy this investment firm is specifically interested in is important. They seem to be aiming at specific sectors of the market.
The City of Dezhou in China has successfully bid to host the 4th of a biannual series of world solar conferences, and will do so in the largest building ever to be almost entirely powered by solar in the world. It has over 800,000 square feet of space inside.
Nearly all of the energy use inside the giant building is solar powered. Green building techniques such as advanced roof and wall insulation reduced the energy requirements of the building by 30% (below comparable buildings) and the solar arrays on the roof provide 82% of the remaining energy.
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A new comprehensive study of the PV market in each US state and the US as a whole comes to some interesting and hopeful conclusions. One finding is that the US might surpass Germany as the leading PV market in the world within the next few years.
The report finds that, over the next four years, the US PV market will see growth in demand increase more than any other nation. The research company, Greentech Media (GTM) Research, expects an annual growth of about 48% (on average) in the base case scenario, totalling 1,515 MW in 2012.
In an “upside” economic scenario, the US will reach 2,022 MW in 2012 and pass up Spain and possibly Germany to become the leading PV market in the world.
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Mojave Solar is taking local residents on a bus tour Wednesday to see the site of the proposed 250 MW solar thermal plant to be built near Barstow in the California Mojave desert. Mojave Solar is the US subsidiary of Spanish giant Abengoa Solar that won the bid to build the very innovative Desertec Plan to power Europe from the Sahara Desert.
The US division is based in nearby Victorville, where US COO Scott Frier raised his family, including one member who just recently returned back home from Iraq. Frier worked on the previous Solar Energy Generating Systems next to the proposed site, that have been operating successfully since the 80’s; originally built by Luz, now operated by NextEnergy. Read the rest of this entry »
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