The province of Ontario, Canada at the end of last week announced 184 contracts for large-scale renewable energy projects under its feed-in tariff program. Combined, they will add about 2,500 megawatts (MW) of solar, wind, water, biomass, and biogas power to the generation portfolio of the Ontario Power Authority. This includes Canada’s first offshore wind farm–a 300-MW project to be built in shallow waters of Lake Ontario by the company Windstream Energy. And also 154 MW of solar power to be built by San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy.
Ontario has pledged to phase out all coal-fired power generation by 2014, and the latest round of projects is in addition to 510 medium-sized projects announced earlier this year. Solar and wind companies have been pouring into the province since it created the feed-in tariff last fall. This is due in part to domestic content requirements in the tariff, which state that a certain percentage of the equipment must be built regionally. The total contracts approved so far are expected to create 20,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next few years.
Two of China’s biggest solar companies signed agreements with China Development Bank (CDB) giving them access to a combined 80 billion yuan ($11.72 billion) in loans. Reuters reported that Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP) will have access to 50 billion yuan ($7.33 billion) over five years, while Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) has been approved for 30 billion yuan ($4.40 billion) over the same period. A spokesperson for Suntech said the funds were not tied to any specific projects, but may be used for capacity expansion. And Trina Solar’s CFO said the company hopes to increase its share of the global solar market to 9% in 2010, up from 6.2% in 2009.
South Korea’s LG Group is also talking about billions of dollars in cleantech investments. This week the conglomerate said it will invest 20 trillion won (US$17.9 billion) over the next decade to reduce its emissions by 40% and develop environmentally-friendly products. The group said a large portion of the funds will be dedicated to cleantech R&D, with an aim of producing 10% of revenues from energy-efficient and renewable-energy products. The group’s subsidiaries, which include LG Electronics, LG Display and LG Chem, already make a wide range of products–from washing machines and televisions to solar panels and lithium-ion battery cells.
The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) released it annual statistics, showing that the US geothermal industry grew 26% in 2009, as 188 projects got underway in 15 states, creating geothermal jobs. When completed the new projects are expected to provide up to 7,875 MW of baseload power capacity. Nevada continued to lead all states with over 3,000 MW under development. Utah quadrupled its capacity under development, making it the fastest growing state for geothermal, followed by New Mexico, Idaho and Oregon. Also in 2009, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas all reported their first geothermal projects are underway.
EnerNOC, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENOC) announced that it has been chosen to provide its home state of Massachusetts with an Enterprise Energy Management System (EEMS) to reduce costs at more than 470 state-owned facilities. The budget for the project is $10 million dollars, roughly equivalent to the amount the state expects to save in energy costs over the first year of operation. The contract is for roughly 17 million square feet of state-owned office buildings, universities, prisons and hospitals. And according to a press release, the state may choose to extend a second phase of the contract for an 40 to 50 million square feet.
Thin-film solar company Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTI) announced that its flexible solar modules will be integrated into a new line of solar consumer products to be rolled out this summer by luggage maker Samsonite. The Colorado-based solar company’s stock surged 10% on the news, according to a Reuters report, which also stated the company may be shifting its business model to favor the development of consumer products. Over the last year and a half Ascent has been focused on breaking into the building integrated solar market through supply deals with several European manufacturers of building products.
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