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Senator Obama: Oil Industry Should Invest in Renewable Fuels

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has introduced legislation which would require oil companies – that earned more than a billion dollars in the first quarter of 2006 – to invest at least one percent of that into installing E85 or other alternative fuel pumps at gas stations across the U.S. It is estimated that Obama’s bill would create more than 7,000 new E85 pumps in the country. “For too long, American taxpayers have been forced to pay billions in subsidies to the very same record-profiting oil companies who now charge them record gas prices at the pump,” said Obama. “It’s time for the oil companies to give something back to America by investing just 1% of their record profits into the cheaper, cleaner renewable fuels like E85 that can finally free us from our dependence on Middle East oil,” the Senator added. The top five U.S. oil companies made $28.2 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2006, a 50% increase from 2004. Services stations that install alternative fuel pumps would be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $30,000 to offset the cost of installation. This tax credit was championed by Senator Obama and became law […]

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EPA Challenges Green Power Partners to Do More

Because of increasing demand for large-scale green power purchases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Green Power Partnership members are raising the bar to maximize environmental benefits of purchasing green power from renewable sources of energy. Beginning in January 2007, the program will require partners to purchase 100 percent “new renewables” in meeting their minimum purchase requirements for membership. “Our nation is moving toward a clean, secure energy future under President Bush’s leadership by jumping off the treadmill of foreign energy dependency,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Voluntarily switching to renewable energy sources, EPA’s environmental partners are showing that it is easy and rewarding being green.” The more than 650 Green Power Partners are purchasing enough clean, renewable energy to power over 400,000 American homes each year. Green power is electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, low-impact biomass, and low-impact hydro sources. New renewables are eligible renewable generating facilities placed in operation on or after January 1, 1997. The previous threshold for the minimum green power purchase benchmark was 50 percent “new” renewables. The Green Power Partnership encourages organizations to voluntarily purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated […]

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SunPower Prices Stock Offering

SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high efficiency, commercially-available solar cells and solar panels, announced the pricing of a public offering of 7 million shares of its class A common stock at $29.50 per share. SunPower has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,050,000 shares to cover overallotments, if any, which the underwriters may exercise within 30 days of the date of the final prospectus for the offering. SunPower anticipates that it will use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and potentially for further expansion of SunPower’s Philippines manufacturing facilities. In addition, SunPower may use proceeds of the offering for the acquisition of, or investment in, complementary businesses, technologies or other assets, and to invest in joint ventures. Any such transactions may be undertaken in furtherance of SunPower’s strategy to broaden its supply-chain opportunities, increase the efficiency of the downstream channel and reduce the cost of SunPower’s products delivered to end customers. SunPower may also use a portion of the proceeds for prepayments to vendors of polysilicon, ingots and wafers. Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers are joint book-running managers for the offering […]

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Hoku Scientific to Enter Solar, Silicon Markets

Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOKU), a designer, developer and manufacturer of hydrocarbon-based membranes and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, announced it plans to diversify its product offerings by manufacturing and selling solar modules, in addition to manufacturing polysilicon, a key material used in the production of solar modules. Hoku anticipates the costs to establish such facilities will be approximately $250 million, which the company will seek to fund through the issuance of debt and from potential customers’ cash down payments for future supply of polysilicon and modules. Hoku will explore basing these manufacturing operations in Singapore. “Our plans to enter the solar power market represents the logical extension of our business as a provider of clean energy technologies, and complements our core fuel cell business,” said Dustin Shindo, chairman of the board of directors, president and chief executive officer of Hoku Scientific. “However, while the market for fuel cell products is still emerging, the solar market is already a rapidly growing industry. One of the primary limits to the growth of the solar market is supply constraints of polysilicon, the key material used in solar modules and integrated circuits. To address these supply constraints, […]

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FuelCell Energy Contracts for 10 MW Plant

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL), a stationary plant fuel cell manufacturer, announced the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) is paving the way for the country’s largest fuel cell project. CCEF has signed a loan agreement with Bridgeport Fuel Cell Park, LLC for pre-development financing of a 10-megawatt fuel cell park comprised of five of the company’s 2-megawatt (MW) Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants that would be located on a brownfield site in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This fuel cell project will be able to power over 9,300 households with clean energy. The loan of up to $500,000 is being provided through CCEF’s Pre-Development Program, which funds the early stages of renewable energy projects that will feed power from clean energy sources into the New England electric grid. The program supports renewable energy projects that will potentially move into the construction phase and operation, providing funding for financial and interconnection analyses, facility design, permitting and other activities. Both FuelCell Energy, Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut, and PurePower, LLC (PurePower) of Farmington, Connecticut, are partners in BFCP. FuelCell Energy, which will provide the project’s five fuel cells, is a leading manufacturer and developer of fuel cells. PurePower is a consulting firm with experience in assessing the […]

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