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Nuclear Power's Scorned Small-Scale Competitors Are Walloping It in the Marketplace

Rocky Mountain Institute researchers today doused the hype about “nuclear revival” in an icy bath of real-world data. They documented that worldwide, the decentralized, low- or no-carbon sources of electricity-cogeneration and renewables – all claimed by nuclear advocates to be too small and too slow to help much with climate change – are already bigger than nuclear power and are quickly leaving it in the dust. “Nuclear advocates are desperately trying to create an illusion that their failed option is being revived,” said RMI CEO and cofounder Amory Lovins, the lead author of the analysis, “so all its remaining costs and risks, which private investors have rejected, can be loaded onto taxpayers. This bailout, now being debated in Washington, is claimed to be vital because nuclear power is the only power source big and fast enough to combat climate change. But industry and official data reveal that claim to be false. While nuclear power dies of an incurable attack of market forces, its derided smaller-scale competitors are already a bigger global power source and are growing very rapidly, while nuclear power continues to fade away.” The analysis appears as the cover story in RMI’s summer 2005 newsletter, published online today. […]

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California to Create World's Leading Center on Energy Efficiency

The California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF), a $30 million public benefit investment fund created as part of the Pacific Gas and Electric bankruptcy settlement, announced it intends to award a one million dollar grant to establish and maintain the world’s leading university center on energy efficiency. The grant will be awarded to a Northern California university which aspires to international leadership in the development of energy efficiency technologies and the removal of barriers to their rapid commercialization. “Increasing energy efficiency is the single most important step California can take to minimize the long-term cost of reliable energy services,” said Michael R. Peevey, chairman of CalCEF and president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “Establishing a university center on energy efficiency is a natural way to meet the state’s goals by tapping into a wealth of academic expertise in developing and bringing innovative technologies to market.” By creating a university-based center for energy efficiency, CalCEF will bring together its diverse Board of Directors, partnerships with leading venture capital firms, and academic leaders from multiple disciplines to advance innovation and accelerate the commercialization of energy efficient products, services and practices. The center will also reinforce California’s standing as a national and international […]

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Feds Partner with NY Institute to Promote Fuel Cell Research

Jun. 22–TROY — Twenty-eight doctoral candidates will study fuel-cell science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute over the next five years, thanks to a new $4.8 million program funded by the federal government and the school. Once the program begins in the fall, doctoral candidates will begin an interdisciplinary program that includes courses on entrepreneurship as well as science and engineering. The program aims “to accelerate the process of moving ideas from discovery to the marketplace,” RPI Provost G.P. “Bud” Peterson said in a statement. The initiative, funded with $3.2 million from the National Science Foundation and $1.6 million from RPI, will bring together disciplines within engineering, science and management, and involve faculty and facilities from six departments and six research or student centers. There are already some commercial applications of fuel cells, which convert hydrogen to electricity. They include the GenCore system developed by Latham-based Plug Power Inc., which is used to provide backup power for telecommunications firms. Researchers at RPI have been delving into fuel cells for several years, but this is the first time a specific course of study has been packaged for doctoral candidates, school officials said. For the last two years, RPI has worked with […]

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Evergreen Solar Proposes Offering of Convertible Subordinated Notes

Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR) announced it intends to offer, subject to market conditions and other factors, $75 million aggregate principal amount of convertible subordinated notes due 2012, through a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933. The notes will be convertible into shares of common stock of Evergreen Solar. The interest, conversion rate and offering price will be determined by negotiations between Evergreen Solar and the initial purchasers of the notes. Evergreen Solar expects to grant the initial purchasers of the notes a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional approximately $15 million aggregate principal amount of the notes. Evergreen Solar intends to use the net proceeds from this proposed offering for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures, research and development and potential investments in and acquisitions of complementary businesses, partnerships, minority investments, products or technologies, to fund further enhancements of its operating infrastructure and manufacturing capacity increases and for working capital.

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