Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:September 14, 2005

News and Events

• San Diego Signs Up for 300 Megawatts of Solar Thermal Power
• Oregon and New York State Offer Solar Energy Incentives
• New York Provides $15.5 Million for Clean Energy Projects
• Honda Debuts Improved Civic Hybrid as its Hybrid Sales Hit 100,000
• BMW, GM, and DaimlerChrysler Combine Efforts to Develop Hybrid Cars

Site News

• EERE Launches Financial Opportunities Web Site

News and Events

San Diego Signs Up for 300 Megawatts of Solar Thermal Power

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) announced last week that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Stirling Energy Systems for 300 megawatts of solar power, to be generated by Stirling solar dishes in a three-square-mile array in California’s Imperial Valley. The installation, to be called “SES Solar 2,” will require new transmission lines to carry the power to SDG&E customers. SDG&E also has options for another 600 megawatts of solar thermal power that could be built in two future phases of the solar power project. See the SDG&E press release.

Stirling solar dish technology converts solar thermal energy to electricity by using a dish-shaped array of mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on the receiver end of a Stirling engine. The internal side of the receiver then heats hydrogen gas, causing it to expand. The expanding gas creates pressure that drives a piston, which turns a small electricity generator. To learn more about the technology, see the SunLab Web site.

The announcement is the second in as many months for Stirling Energy Systems, which could quickly become the leading source of solar power in the United States. In early August, Southern California Edison signed a similar agreement with the company for 500 megawatts of solar power, with an option to expand the project to 850 megawatts. See the article from the August 17th edition of this newsletter.

Oregon and New York State Offer Solar Energy Incentives

Both Oregon and New York State recently put new legislation in place to offer tax credits and sales tax exemptions for solar energy systems.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a bill into law on September 2nd that will provide expanded tax credits for solar energy systems. The state already had a tax credit in place for alternative energy systems; that credit was based on the energy produced during the system’s first year of operation and capped at $1,500. The new solar electric system tax credit is much larger, at $3 per watt of installed output capacity, up to a maximum of $6,000. The credit is limited to half of the installed cost of the solar electric system and expires in 2016. The bill will take effect on November 4th, and will provide a strong incentive when matched with funds from the Energy Trust of Oregon. The Energy Trust announced in July that its solar incentives had already yielded more than one megawatt of solar power in the state over the past three years. See the text of Senate Bill 31 (the changes are marked with brackets and plus signs), its status (scroll down to SB 31), and the Energy Trust press release (PDF 30 KB).

In New York State, solar energy systems became exempt from state sales taxes on September 1st. New York Governor George Pataki signed a bill in August that exempts both the sale and installation of the equipment from state sales and compensating use taxes, and allows municipalities to waive their city sales taxes as well. The governor also signed a separate bill that extends the state’s personal income tax credit for solar energy systems to include systems used for water heating and space heating or cooling. The credit applies to 25 percent of the cost of buying and installing solar energy equipment, and now has a cap of $5,000, up from $3,750. See the governor’s press release.

For information about incentives available in other states, see the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) Web site.

New York Provides $15.5 Million for Clean Energy Projects

New York Governor George Pataki announced in late August the award of $15.5 million to support 32 distributed generation and combined heat and power (DG-CHP) projects throughout the state. The 32 projects should generate a total of 29 megawatts, about half of which will come from landfill methane systems or anaerobic digesters. The projects are being funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and, including private funding, represent a total investment of more than $90 million. Since its inception in 2001, NYSERDA’s DG-CHP program has resulted in 34 completed projects that produce 13 megawatts of power. By the end of this year, NYSERDA expects its DG-CHP projects to be providing 40 megawatts of power for New York’s electrical grid. See the governor’s press release.

Honda Debuts Improved Civic Hybrid as its Hybrid Sales Hit 100,000

Honda continues to improve on its hybrid vehicles, as the latest Civic Hybrid achieves an EPA estimated fuel economy of 50 miles per gallon in both city and highway driving, an increase of 6 percent in city driving and 4 percent in highway driving over the 2005 C
ivic Hybrid. The new vehicle achieves one of the toughest emission standards as an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle, or AT-PZEV, while also achieving a first for Honda: when cruising at low speeds, the engine can shut down all four of its cylinders and run on electric power only. The car debuted at the 2005 Sierra Club Summit in San Francisco, California. See the Honda press release.

The Civic Hybrid debut came just after Honda hit a milestone: the company has sold 100,000 hybrid vehicles in North America. The company was the first to sell hybrid vehicles in the United States when it introduced the Honda Insight in December 1999. See the Honda press release.

Of course, those sales numbers still leave Honda far behind Toyota, which had sold 100,000 Prius vehicles by the end of September 2004. Since then, the company has sold about 90,000 more. Californians alone have bought more than 60,000 Prius sedans, and now have an added incentive to buy the vehicle: Hybrids that achieve 45 miles per gallon or more are now allowed in California’s carpool lanes. See the Toyota press releases from September 30th, 2004, January 4th, 2005, and August 11th, 2005, as well as the California Air Resources Board’s list of vehicles that can drive in the carpool lanes.

BMW, GM, and DaimlerChrysler Combine Efforts to Develop Hybrid Cars

The BMW Group is joining General Motors Corporation (GM) and DaimlerChrysler AG in a cooperative agreement to develop hybrid drive systems. The three global automakers will jointly develop a “two-mode” hybrid drive system for cars based on a system developed for GM hybrid buses. The center of activity will be in Troy, Michigan, where a new “GM, DaimlerChrysler, and BMW Hybrid Development Center” will develop the technology. GM and DaimlerChrysler announced their agreement in December 2004 but just signed binding agreements in late August; BMW signed a memorandum of understanding last week and intends to enter into a definitive agreement later this year. See the GM press release, and for more information on the “two-mode” hybrid drive system, see the article from the December 15th, 2004, edition of this newsletter.

Site News

EERE Launches its Financial Opportunities Web Site

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has launched a new Web site that lists opportunities for financial assistance. The site lists current and past solicitations from EERE and provides specific funding information for business, industry, and universities, as well as consumers, federal energy managers, inventors, states, and tribes. In fiscal year 2004 alone, EERE awarded approximately $506 million in financial assistance. See the EERE Financial Opportunities Web site.

Here’s one solicitation to watch out for: on September 21st, DOE will release the solicitation for its Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. The solicitation will cover such topics as renewable energy sources, biofuels, solid-state lighting, energy-efficient membranes, lightweight materials for vehicles, electric energy storage for vehicles, and advanced motors, power electronics, sensors, and controls. See the “technical topic titles” on the DOE Office of Science Web site.

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