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Nevada's Solar One Goes Online

The Nevada Solar One project, the world’s third largest solar thermal plant, is now supplying power to the Nevada grid. The $250 million project was built by Spain-based Acciona Solar Power over 16 months. The 64-MW solar thermal power plant covers 400 acres in the Eldorado Valley and uses large-scale, parabolic trough technology to enable heat transfer from the sun’s rays to ultimately generate up to 134 million kW hours of electricity per year, enough to power 15,000 households annually. The electricity is being sold to Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). The PPAs will ensure fixed costs for the electricity, making solar power an economically feasible energy alternative over time. “Solar thermal technology is one of the most exciting renewable energy sources emerging today that is scalable and commercially viable,” said Pete Duprey, CEO, Acciona Energy North America. About Acciona Acciona Solar Power is a majority-owned subsidiary of Acciona Energy, a unit of Acciona (Madrid: ANA.MC). Acciona Energy is one of the largest wind developers in the world with a portfolio of more than 4,500 megawatts installed in 169 wind farms in 10 countries. In solar energy, the company’s Nevada Solar […]

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Canada Exports Wind to U.S.

Canadian wind developer, Ventus Energy Inc. announced that West Cape Wind Energy Inc. is the first independent power producer to export wind power from Canada to the U.S. A portion of the wind energy generated from the newly installed wind turbines located on Prince Edward Island (PEI) was wheeled through PEI and New Brunswick May 7, 2007 and sold to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) via the international interconnection node located at Keswick, New Brunswick. The price paid for the energy was the hourly spot price at the Keswick node. The renewable energy certificates (RECs) that were generated from this renewable power transmission, were sold separately to independent buyers located in the NEPOOL. Ventus is the controlling shareholder of West Cape and operator of the West Cape facility. “The first export of wind power from a wind farm in Canada into the United States marks a significant milestone for the Canadian wind industry,” said John Douglas, President and CEO of West Cape and its parent company, Ventus Energy Inc. In December 2006, Ventus completed the Ventus Energy West Cape Windpower LP initial public offering raising gross proceeds of $25 million. Net proceeds from the offering were used to invest […]

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ENER Powers Largest U.S. Solar Plant on a Farm

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENER) has completed one of the largest privately owned solar systems in the U.S. at Paramount Farms, Inc., the world’s largest vertically integrated supplier of pistachios and almonds. The 1.1 MW ground-mounted installation, which spans 8 acres, consists of UNI-SOLAR amorphous thin-film PV panels. SolarCraft completed the installation. James Metzger, Interim President and COO, said, “While the industry recognizes Uni-Solar as a premier provider of solar modules for integrated rooftop system modules, the new Paramount Farms ground-mounted array design showcases the advantages of Uni-Solar products to address the market for ground-mounted installations. We are very proud to have been chosen by SolarCraft.” “SolarCraft chose the Uni-Solar product for this project based on the high production performance in very hot, dusty and low-light environments, as well as the capability for SolarCraft to design a virtually indestructible and theft-proof ground-mounted solar energy plant,” said Chris Bunas, Vice President of SolarCraft. “This is a perfect product in the Calif. valley agricultural industry and many other areas that we are currently looking at.” The system will pay for itself in about 6 years. Website: http://www.uni-solar.com     

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U.S. Natural Products Sales up 9.7%

U.S. natural products sales grew 9.7% in 2006, reaching $56.76 billion in total sales, according to The Natural Foods Merchandiser 2007 Market Overview. “U.S. consumers continue to demonstrate a growing appetite for natural and organic products, as manufacturers and retailers expand into new and nontraditional areas and deepen their offerings. In fact, total sales for the natural and organic industry increased 56 percent between 2002 and 2006,” said Spencer. Natural personal care sales grew by 18.4 percent to $2.78 billion and natural pet product sales increased 15.1 percent to $367 million. Other organic categories showing strong growth were coffee and tea at 23.3 percent and nutrition bars at 22 percent. Food sales in natural product stores were up 11.7 percent, with the hottest sales categories being fresh meat and seafood, as well as beer and wine. Produce remains the largest category with sales of $3.3 billion, up 11.5 percent over 2005. The retail channel accounted for 81.2 percent, or $46.06 billion, of total sales. For the second consecutive year, natural products retailers drove double-digit growth–this year at a 10.7 percent rate. Natural products retailers accounted for close to 50 percent of total market revenues with sales of $28.27 billion. The […]

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