Relevant News

Solar heaters to get rebates in Connecticut

February 1st, 2010

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund is offering immediate rebates to homeowners, businesses and organizations that purchase solar-powered hot water heaters when they work with an approved contractor. Under the new federal program, homeowners and businesses gather cost estimates from a list of eligible contractors, who evaluate how much energy is generated from sunlight at the home or business during the winter months.

According to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Web site, rebates could be as much as $4,800 for a large house. The more energy generated by the sun, the bigger the rebate.

Using a solar path finder, a contractor measures the shading in a house and enters the information into a computer program to determine how much energy (in BTUs) the solar thermal hot water heater is likely to get from the sun.

China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy

January 31st, 2010

China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. As China takes the lead on wind turbines, above, and solar panels, President Obama is calling for American industry to step up. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

Posted in China, Industry | No Comments »

Solar-driven Stirling engines get to work

January 23rd, 2010

Business and government officials on Friday cut the ribbon on a solar array in Arizona that uses giant parabolic dishes to generate electricity from the sun.

Solar plant developer Tessera Solar installed 60 solar collectors, called the SunCatcher from Stirling Energy Systems, in Peoria, Ariz. Each dish is rated at 25 kilowatts and the entire facility will have a capacity of 1.5-megawatts of generation.

Utilities installing large-scale solar power generation are typically using arrays of flat photovoltaic panels or concentrating solar power systems, where mirrors or reflective troughs create heat to make electricity.

The Stirling Energy Systems technology also captures heat by using a mirrored parabolic dish that moves to track the sun. But instead of heating a liquid to make steam for a turbine, the heat is directed at a hydrogen gas-filled piston, which drives a Stirling engine to make electricity.

The company claims its technology delivers electricity more efficiently and uses less water than other technologies. Inifinia is another company that has built a solar-powered Stirling engine using a parabolic dish, although it is smaller.

Solar water heaters get a $350-million boost in California

January 22nd, 2010

California regulators approved a $350-million rebate offer today to encourage homes and businesses to install water-heating systems powered by solar energy.

The state Public Utilities Commission established the California Solar Initiative Thermal Program, which will use $250 million to replace natural-gas-powered water heaters, with $25 million set aside for low-income customers. An additional $100.8 million will be used to swap out water heaters powered by electricity.

The incentives will decrease steadily over eight years until Dec. 31, 2017, or until the funds run out. The rebates will begin retroactively in August 2009.

The program could result in systems that displace 585 million therms of natural gas, or the equivalent of placing a solar water heater on 200,000 single-family homes, according to the commission. It could also lead to systems that displace 275.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

Wal-Mart completes a megawatt solar project in Apple Valley

January 19th, 2010

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. keeps moving ahead with its plan to shift its power supply to renewable energy with the completion of its largest solar-power project yet.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart completed three other solar projects in Paramount, Baldwin Park and San Bernardino.

This time, the mega-corporation has wrapped up the installation of more than 5,300 solar panels across nearly 7 acres at its Apple Valley distribution center. The setup will generate 1 megawatt of power, the equivalent of the supply needed by 175 homes.

The company’s solar initiative was first announced in May 2007 and expanded in April 2009 to aim for 10 to 20 solar facilities in California over 18 months. A month later, in May, a San Bernardino Superior Court judge blocked the discount retailer’s plan for a Yucca Valley supercenter, in part because Wal-Mart’s proposal did not include solar-power provisions.

Mass. unveils new solar-rebate programs

December 31st, 2009

Massachusetts energy officials unveiled the heirs apparent to its wildly successful Commonwealth Solar rebate program, using a mix of ratepayer funds and stimulus money to pay for the incentives.

Dubbed Commonwealth Solar II and Commonweath Solar Stimulus, the programs aim to fill the gap in financial incentives left when the first, $68 million Commonwealth Solar program ran out of money in October — more than two years ahead of schedule.

At the time, solar installers told the Boston Business Journal they were concerned the lack of incentives would stop projects from moving forward.

Commonwealth Solar II will provide rebate incentives for small residential and commercial systems, with total allocations up to $4 million per year. This program will be funded through the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, which managed the last Commonwealth Solar program and is funded by a surcharge on electricity bills.

For larger projects, state officials plan to tap $8 million in state energy plan funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide rebates to projects.

Both programs are expected to begin in late January.

Commercial-scale solar developers pocket funding

December 19th, 2009

Two solar project developers this week raised funds to install commercial and utility scale projects from a somewhat unlikely source: venture capital firms.

Although they are addressing different customers, both companies are in the business of renewable energy project development, where they build, own, and then maintain solar installations.That model is typically used for non-residential solar because third-party financing makes investment far more attractive to prospective customers such as businesses and utilities.

Tioga Energy provides power purchase agreements in which the customer doesn’t have to pay the upfront cost of the solar panels. Instead, it purchases the electricity generated by the panels from Tioga, which finances the installation and manages ongoing operation.

Financing renewable energy projects is typically done by banks or companies specialized in project financing, but that source of money has dried up in the economic downturn. Venture capitalists, meanwhile, have typically stayed clear of project finance because they seek bigger financial returns by investing in technology or business model innovations.

But General Catalyst is starting to look at project development companies as part of its mix of investments, said investor Bilal Zuberi in his blog. “Strong execution, plus control over a scarce resource, allows a developer to not just create value from projects on the ground but also from future pipeline of projects,” he said.

Posted in Commercial Solar PV, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) | No Comments »

Sahara Sun ‘to help power Europe’

December 13th, 2009

A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to supply Europe with 15% of its energy needs by 2050.

Companies who signed up to the $400bn (£240bn) venture include Deutsche Bank, Siemens and the energy provider E.On.

The consortium, which will be based in Munich, hopes to start supplying Europe with electricity by 2015.

Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to produce solar-generated electricity with a vast network of power plants and transmission grids across North Africa and the Middle East.

“The time has come to turn this vision into reality,” said the company’s chief executive, Paul van Son.

Massachusetts quickly burns through $68m in solar rebates

December 4th, 2009

A $68 million state fund to provide sizable rebates to homeowners and business owners who install solar panels was expected to last three or four years. But the program – offering homeowners rebates that averaged more than $13,000 – proved so popular that the $68 million was tapped out in October, just 22 months after the program began.

Pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming demand, Massachusetts officials are developing a successor to the original program, dubbed Commonwealth Solar, and hope to have it ready by Jan. 1. Officials are trying to make the new subsidies as generous as the original ones.

A Competitive Boost For Solar Energy

November 27th, 2009

The dream of every green energy acolyte is that there will come a time when it is no stranger for homes to have solar panels than to have air conditioning units.

The chief executive of Standard Renewable Energy, thinks that in the next decade the U.S. could get well down the road to making that a reality.

Houston-based Standard Renewable got 75% of its $35 million in revenue this year from installing solar systems. Just 10 months ago it was buying solar panels for $4 per watt. Today, prices have plunged to $1.90 a watt.

It’s not for lack of demand. What’s brought prices down is a surge in worldwide manufacturing capacity. New plants have opened across China. Factories are even coming to the U.S.

As a result, insists Berger, solar power is starting to look affordable and even competitive with grid power. To the educated observer, this may sound implausible. But Berger says Standard has installed residential solar systems for as little as $4 per watt.

Berger’s bean counters have extrapolated that price for 31 metropolitan areas, factoring in average sunshine and cloud cover, applying the federal government’s 30% investment tax credit, and assuming that a homeowner can finance a system at the going mortgage rate of around 5%. Amortized over 20 years, the effective rate that a homeowner would pay for electricity in the New York metro area is 12.7 cents per kilowatt/hour. In Dallas it’s 11 cents/kwh, and in Las Vegas, just 9.3 cents.

The nationwide average residential electricity price is 12.05 cents, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Add in generous subsidies on municipal and state levels and in some green utopias like Austin, Texas, and Berkeley, Calif., and the cost goes even lower.

“In some locations,” says Berger, “solar could achieve grid parity next year.”