President Obama announced nearly $2 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees to finance two separate solar energy
projects. The first is a $400 million loan guarantee to Abound Solar
that will allow the company to build manufacturing plants in Colorado
and Indiana. The company makes cadmium-telluride thin-film solar panels
through a proprietary process developed with Colorado State University
and the National Renewable Energy Lab. The process is expected to reduce
costs and improve the efficiency of thin-film solar panels. Upon
completion in 2013, Abound Solar expects to have a production capacity
of 840 MW per year and support 1,500 new jobs.
The other, larger award is a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Spanish company Abengoa Solar Inc. to finance the
construction of a concentrating solar power plant in Arizona. The Solana plant will have a capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) and will include a six-hour thermal
energy storage system that will allow it to produce energy after the sun sets. In May, Abengoa brought a similar, 50-MW plant online in Spain that uses molten salt to store heat for use during nighttime hours.
In a related announcement, the Department of Energy is giving $10.8 million to U.S. company eSolar to fund the development of their own molten salt system to integrate with their modular designs for concentrating solar. eSolar is an Idealab company founded in 2007 and supported by Google. The melted salt stores the heat from concentrated sunlight. That heat can then be used to create steam upon demand to drive a turbine and produce electricity. Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation will be assisting eSolar on the two-and-a-half year project.
In other solar news, Sharp Corporation (6753.T) has signed an agreement with Thailand’s
Natural Energy Development Co., Ltd (NED) to develop a 73-MW solar power plant and supply thin-film solar cell modules for the
system. This is one of the first large-scale solar plants to be developed by the Japanese electronics firm, and it indicates the company is following a downstream business model
first employed by U.S. company First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) to create demand for their solar panels. Over the last year, other major solar manufacturers like SunPower (Nasdaq:
SPWRA) and Q-Cells (QCE.DE) have also moved into project development. Thailand is a growing market for solar power, the government has set a target of meeting 20% of its electricity demand with renewable energy by 2020.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has signed multiple
20-year power purchase agreements with project developer Recurrent
Energy for 60 MW of solar power to be developed in the
southern portion of Sacramento County. These are the first agreements to come out of the utility’s feed-in
tariff program (FIT) introduced in January of this year. Recurrent Energy will build 12 individual 5-MW projects by fall of 2012. The San Francisco-based company says it now has a pipeline of over 1.3 gigawatts of projects in development across North
America and Europe.
The Japanese corporation Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (6503.T) and
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (7011.T)(MHI) are considering joining
their hydroelectric power businesses. The companies have begun talks to launch a new company in October 2011 to handle marketing, servicing, engineering, development and design for
hydroelectric power generation systems.
Hitachi would own a 50% stake, while Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy would
split the remaining 50%. The companies said increasing competition from growing Chinese firms and established European companies led to the decision to combine forces. China, Latin America and India are considered the growth markets for hydroelectric and pumped storage power.
Siemens (NYSE: SI) announced it will pay the equivalent of about EUR 115 million for a 49% stake in A2SEA A/S, a firm that
specializes in the construction of offshore wind farms.
A2SEA based in Denmark, has a work force of about 200.
The Danish energy company DONG Energy will hold the remaining 51% of the company. DONG Energy is one of the premier offshore wind developers in Europe and Siemens has contracts to supply them with turbines for several large-scale projects. Together the companies plan to increase the construction capacity of A2SEA and optimize its vessels for the installation of Siemens turbines. A boom is expected in European offshore wind development over the next decade. Offshore wind capacity is estimated at around 100 gigawatts and currently only 2% of that potential is being utilized.
Cleantech venture investment levels in 2Q10 were on par with the
previous quarter, but up 43% from a year ago, according to new figures. Total investment in North America, Europe, China and India was $2.02
billion across
140 companies, according to the Cleantech Group and Deloitte. The number of deals recorded in 2Q10 was down from a record high of 192
in 1Q10, but still represents a strong quarter by historic standards. Corporations are becoming key participants in many of the largest
venture capital investment rounds. Corporate
involvement was evident in the quarter’s top ten deals as Intel
Capital, GE Capital, Shell, Votorantim
(Brazilian conglomerate), Alstom (French power and
rail infrastructure company) and Cargill Ventures all pitched in–with the latter two making their first publicly disclosed
venture-stage investments in cleantech.
And lastly, General Motors confirmed plans to rollout its electric vehicle
in four U.S. markets by the end of this year. If you live in California, Washington D.C., Austin, Texas or the New York City metropolitan area, you’re likely to spot your first Chevrolet Volt by Christmas. Volts will then arrive at dealerships in
Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, as well as the rest of Texas and
New York in 1Q11.
Additional markets will be
added
as production volume increases during the second model year, with Volt
available in all 50 states 12 to 18 months after the initial launch.
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