Solexant Corp., a developer of ultrathin-film solar cells, has selected
the city of Gresham, Oregon for the location of its first
commercial-scale manufacturing facility. The company uses a roll-to-roll process to produce cadmium-telluride solar cells, and the new facility is expected to have a annual capacity of 100 megawatts (MW). Solexant expects to receive a $25 million loan from the state as well as nearly $19 million in tax credits. That will be added to the $41 million the company raised in Series C financing last month. The company says the facility will be ready for startup sometime in 2011.
In other thin-film solar news, Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) will discontinue sales of its SunFab manufacturing line, as part of a restructuring of its Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) unit. The SunFab line produces amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells, but customers of the line have found it difficult to compete with companies that developed their own production technologies. Applied said it will turn it attention to crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar and advanced energy technologies including light emitting diodes (LED).
The restructuring plan aims to make the Energy and Environmental segment profitable during the 2011 fiscal year.
A California wind power developer announced the close of a $1.2 billion financing for four wind farms with a total 570 MW in capacity. Terra-Gen Power is building the Alta Projects in Kern County California, using 3-MW wind turbines made by Vestas (VWS.CO). Terra-Gen ultimately plans to build out the Alta Wind Energy Center to 3,000 MW, which would be the largest wind farm in the U.S. About 1,500 MW of that total is already promised to the utility Southern California Edison (NYSE: EIX).
Siemens (NYSE: SI) has signed a partnership agreement with two Russian companies to form a joint venture for wind power development in that country. Siemens will hold the majority stake in the venture with Rostechnologii and RusHydro (RG2A.DE). The venture will establish wind turbine production and sales in Russia with a goal of installing 250 to 500 MW of wind capacity per year within the next five years. According to Siemens, the Russian government aims to have 5000 MW of wind power capacity by 2020.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Group and Scottish and Southern Energy plc (SSE.L)
announced a strategic agreement to co-operate on low carbon energy
developments. The companies said they
hope to establish joint development projects, ventures, investments and
supply arrangements. They will explore a range of technologies including offshore wind farms,
advanced technology for smart electricity grids and low carbon
vehicles, carbon capture and storage and high-efficiency power
generation.
Colin Hood, Chief Operating Officer of Scottish and Southern said the agreement represents one of the most significant industrial partnerships to be established in Scotland since the heyday of North Sea Oil.
Everybody’s favorite whipping dog BP (NYSE: BP) said it will acquire Verenium Corporation‘s (Nasdaq: VRNM) cellulosic biofuels business for $98.3 million. Verenium sells enzymes to industrial customers for use in the production of biofuels and other products. Verenium will retain rights to certain non-cellulosic biofuel technologies and also will have access to select technologies acquired by BP. BP will take over facilities in Jennings, LA and San Diego, CA and will become the sole investor in Vercipia Biofuels and Galaxy Biofuels–both of which were 50-50 joint ventures between Verenium and BP.
Smart grid company Trilliant Inc. announced the closing of a $106 million financing round. Notable investors in the round included GE (NYSE: GE) and Switzerlands ABB. Trilliant claims to offer the
industry’s only fully integrated end-to-end Smart Grid solution, connecting utility
distribution, metering, and consumer energy management devices. Competitors in the field often focus on one or two of these areas and form strategic agreements to combine their technologies in order to offer an end-to-end solution. Trilliant’s biggest customer is Ontario’s Hydro One, which has deployed Trilliant’s systems to more than 1 million customers.
GE also invested in SynapSense Corporation, a company focused on improving the energy efficiency of data centers. The company raised $5 million to continue the development and marketing of its technology, which continually optimizes cooling capacity to align with changing server loads within a data center. More important than the $5 million dollars is the fact that SynapSense will enter into a commercial partnership with GE to offer its technology as part of GE’s software and control platform for data centers. According to the US Department of Energy, data centers are among the
largest single sources of power demand in the United States, consuming
about 3% of the nation’s energy supply.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced an investment of $122 million
over five years to establish an Energy Innovation Hub focused on generating fuels directly from sunlight.
The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) will be led by the
California Institute of Technology in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The hub will bring together multidisciplinary researchers with a goal of developing and commercializing a solar-energy-to-chemical-fuel conversion system.
The Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub is one of three Hubs that
will receive funding this year. In May, DOE announced that a
team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory will establish a Hub on
modeling and simulation for nuclear reactors. Selection for the
remaining Hub will be announced before the end of the year.
Loading...