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GE Energy Financial Services Expands Renewables Unit

To accelerate the growth of its global renewable energy holdings from a nearly $1 billion base, GE Energy Financial Services announced it has significantly expanded its team of experienced finance and technical professionals serving this market. The team, aligned with GE’s ecomagination initiative to expand its cleaner energy products while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, provides structured project finance from debt to equity as well as construction and lease financing, and also considers late-stage project development and technology investments. With more than 20 dedicated professionals, the renewable energy team draws upon Energy Financial Services’ expertise and decades of experience as an investor in the sector worldwide. Estimates of annual global renewable energy investment requirements range from $20 billion-$30 billion, excluding large hydroelectric plants. Energy Financial Services is seeking to grow its renewable energy investments to more than $3 billion by 2008. “We’re expanding our renewable energy team to take advantage of a perfect nexus of positive developments in relative costs, technology, regulations and public opinion,” said Kevin Walsh, Managing Director and leader of GE Energy Financial Services’ renewable energy team. “This nexus propelled our renewable energy portfolio growth during 2005 by 40 percent, to nearly $1 billion.” Energy Financial Services’ growth […]

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NREL Releases RFP to Build Research Facility

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today issued a request for proposals for design and construction of a state-of-the-art office building for the laboratory’s South Table Mountain campus in Golden, Colo. NREL’s vision is to design and build 210,000 square feet of research support facilities that would house approximately 780 staff who currently work in leased space at the Denver West Office Park. The facilities would integrate high performance design and building practices and showcase the latest renewable energy and energy efficiency technology advances. “We envision this facility as one that will capture the public’s imagination for the renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that NREL develops,” said Dan E. Arvizu, NREL’s director. The laboratory plans call for a multiphase approach, with the first phase being the design and construction of the first building in 2006 -2007. Ten million dollars in funding for this phase was appropriated by the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress in FY2006. The research support facilities are another step in developing NREL’s 327-acre campus on South Table Mountain just west of Denver, Colo. The Laboratory has a multi-year vision for the site that includes construction of several […]

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Germany: Prime Solar to Set up ?425 million Silicon Wafer Manufacturing Facility

Prime Solar Pty Ltd, based in Australia, is setting up a silicon manufacturing facility in Germany with annual production capacity of 680 MW, at a cost of ?425 million. The facility will operate 24 hours a day and offer over 1,000 full time employment opportunities. The silicon wafers commonly known as silicon chips are the base components for the fabrication of solar cells and the wafers produced by Prime Solar will be used in the manufacture of silicon solar cells by Q-Cells of Germany. “The first phase of the project of 50 MW per annum capacity will be set up at Thalheim, Germany’s “Solar Valley” approximately 50 km North of Leipzig in 2006-07 with a total project cost of ?36.5 million”, Mr John Carstairs, Chairman of Prime Solar said. The German Government will provide up to 45% non-refundable grants. Negotiations are being held with the Commerzbank for debt funding and working capital. Prime Solar recently entered into an agreement with Q-Cells to supply up to 100% of its wafer production for ten years. Q-Cells is the world’s second largest manufacturer of mono and multicrystalline solar cells. In 2005, Q-Cells produced 165.7 MW of solar cells. This represents an incredible 118% […]

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SunPower Reports First Profitable Results

SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), a manufacturer of solar cells, today announced it achieved a first-quarter profit with nearly quadrupled revenue. Revenue rose from $11.1 million to $42 million, exceeding company and Wall St. expectations of $39.5 million. Net income came in at $300,000 on earnings of $2.8 million, or 4 cents a share. For Q1 2004, the company reported a loss of $7.2 million. SunPower increased its 2006 revenue guidance from $210 million to $220 million. Some highlights: — Continued capacity expansion at SunPower’s SPML Philippines-based solar cell manufacturing facility with the start-up of the company’s third manufacturing line. Line 3, which runs thinner 190-micron wafers, is scheduled to be running at full capacity by the end of the second quarter and brings SunPower’s solar cell annual manufacturing capacity to 75 megawatts. — Approval by SunPower’s Board of Directors to proceed with construction of the company’s second solar cell manufacturing plant which will have a 200 MW capacit, and is scheduled to start production in the first half of 2007. — Manufacture of the first 22%-efficient solar cells using the company’s improved Gen 2 (second generation) manufacturing process. — Began construction at SunPower’s first solar panel manufacturing facility in the […]

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FuelCell Energy to Supply 1MW Plant to CA. University

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL), a leading manufacturer of fuel cell power plants, and its partner Alliance Power Inc., announced the sale of a 1 megawatt (MW) fuel cell power plant to California State University, Northridge. The fuel cell will be used in a combined heat and power plant. It will generate base load electricity for the university’s facilities and surplus heat for hot water. Uniquely, the university also plans on routing exhaust from the heat exchanger into an adjacent greenhouse and arboretum to enhance photosynthesis, boosting plant growth and harvests by 10 to 40 percent. The carbon dioxide enrichment potential provided by the fuel cell plant may be used for specialized plant research, or as a convention of study within the regular biology academic program — an opportunity rarely made available to baccalaureate biology students. CSUN’s unit will be the single largest fuel cell power plant at any university in the world and is the seventh DFC plant of any capacity installed at a university. Institutions of higher education represent an excellent application of fuel cells’ 24/7 electrical generation — where they can power academic facilities during the day and address critical base load needs at night. Because the units […]

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