Cleantech News: Empire State Building Saves Millions in 1 Year; Arab Spring Good for Renewables; Geothermal Could Provide UK with 1/5 of Energy Needs

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Some cleantech news from around for you cleantech news addicts:

Solar

India’s Renewable Energy Certificate Program Crosses 3 GW: “The accredited generation capacity under the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) scheme has now crossed 3,000 MW.”

SunEdison Launches “Eradication of Darkness” Program in India: SunEdison has launched “a rural electrification program called Eradication of Darkness” that in which the company “will design, install and manage distributed-generation solar power plants, to provide energy to Indian villages that have never before had access to electricity.”

Q.CELLS Finishes 69-MW Solar Project in N America: Q.CELLS North America “has successfully completed the final stage of construction of a 69 megawatt (DC) solar energy project in Ontario, Canada. The project was completed in partnership with Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC, a private investment firm focused on energy infrastructure projects. With the “SSM3” plant now operational, Q.CELLS makes up 15 percent of the Ontario utility-scale solar market.”

Vivint Solar Expands Residential Solar Service into Hawaii: “Power prices in Hawaii have risen 17.8 percent during the last 10 years according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Vivint Solar customers save money on energy through the company’s power purchase agreement (PPA), in which customers agree to purchase the power their solar panels generate at a cost significantly less than a typical power bill. In exchange, Vivint designs, installs and maintains the system with no out-of-pocket costs. This allows customers to enjoy the benefits of renewable solar energy without a large, up-front investment.”

25.5-MW Solar Thermal Project Headed to Cyprus: “Infinia Corp., a developer of power systems that convert solar heat to electricity, said it won a contract to supply equipment to a 114 million-euro ($143 million) project in Cyprus,” Bloomberg reports. “The U.S. company will provide so-called Stirling engines to a 25.5-megawatt plant on the east Mediterranean island, David Townley, vice president in charge of business development, said by telephone from Nicosia on May 25.”

Wind

Global Offshore Wind Market to Reach 89 GW of Installed Capacity by 2025: “Offshore wind finds itself in a ‘make or break’ period up to 2015, by when the industry will either have positioned itself for sustained build-out, or rapidly decline as a non-competitive technology. Interest in the offshore sector continues to grow, with investor commitments, policy support, and technological innovations – the global offshore market is expected to reach 89 GW of installed wind energy capacity by 2025. However, costs remain high and financial backing for capital intensive projects is needed as the next generation of offshore projects heads for unchartered territory.”

328-MW Wind Project Contract Awarded: “Xcel Energy has awarded Outland Energy Services a long-term service contract to provide operations and maintenance services at three Xcel Energy wind farms totaling 328 MW until 2017.”

Energy Efficiency

Empire State Building Saves Millions of Dollars in 1st Year of Energy Efficiency Plan: “One year after an innovative building retrofit project, the Empire State Building is ahead of plan and has exceeded its year one energy-efficiency guarantee by five percent, saving $2.4 million and establishing a commercial real estate model for reducing costs, maximizing return on investment, increasing real estate value, and protecting the environment.”

Albeo Technologies Winning Awards Left & Right: We mentioned one of Albeo’s awards a couple weeks ago, but apparently the company has been collecting quite a few lately: “Albeo Technologies Inc., a leader in solid-state industrial and commercial LED lighting, announced that its H-Series High Bay LED fixture won three prestigious awards at Lightfair International 2012; two 2012 Architectural SSL Magazine Product Innovation Awards (PIA) and one from The Next Generation Luminaires™ (NGL) Solid State Lighting Design Competition. All three spotlight the innovative H-Series High Bay LED light fixture as a significant industry achievement. The H-Series is the only LED fixture of its kind to scale from one to 12 LED light bars, while providing the largest lumen range in the industry of 6,500 to 77,000 within the same platform. This is equivalent in light output to arrays of two fluorescent bulbs to 1500 Watt HID.”

Other

Arab Spring Good for Renewable Energy Industry: “The political uncertainty that has resulted from the Arab Spring would appear to thwart investors from the region, but Areva Solar thinks of that the movement could have positive repercussions for renewable energy. Jayesh Goyal, Areva Solar’s VP of global sales, told Alternative Energy Africa that in one sense, the Arab Spring has actually helped the sector. He said that there has been a heightened ‘recognition to provide policies for the youth’ and if not, governments acknowledge continued social unrest. ‘It’s spurring the governments to provide policies and promote local jobs which encourages the renewable energy industry,’ he added.”

Geothermal Could Meet 1/5 of UK Electricity Demand: “The UK could meet a fifth of its power needs – the equivalent of nine nuclear power stations – by exploiting geothermal power, a new report into the technology has found.”

UN: Switching to a Green Economy Could Create Millions of Jobs: “United Nations Environment Programme says global move to low-carbon economy means millions could be lifted from poverty.”

Image Credit: Andrey Bayda / Shutterstock.com


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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