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Starwood to Purchase Fuel Cells for Hotels: Agreement with FuelCell Energy and Alliance Power Joint Venture

One-Megawatt Project for Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina Will Be the First Executed Under the Agreement FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL) and Alliance Power have formed a joint venture, Alliance Star Energy LLC, which has entered into a Master Energy Services Agreement (MESA) with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT. The MESA provides the framework for fuel cell power plant projects for Starwood’s hotels and will streamline the process for business opportunities between Starwood and Alliance Star Energy. Initial focus will be in California, but the MESA is open to all of Starwood’s hotels and resort properties. The first project under this MESA is to provide one megawatt of fuel cell power to the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, the fourth hotel employing FuelCell Energy’s ‘ultra-clean’ Direct FuelCell (DFC) technology. Four 250-kilowatt DFC power plants will supply base load electricity for the 1,044-room hotel. The heat byproduct will be used for the hotel’s Lagoon Pool. Delivery is expected in the fourth calendar quarter of 2005. The San Diego Regional Energy Office, administrator for The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) Self-Generation Incentive Program for the San Diego area, has issued a reservation letter that will provide incentive funding […]

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CA. Energy Commission Awards Beacon Power $1.2 Million

Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON), a company that designs advanced products and services to support more reliable electricity grid operation, today announced that it has executed a contract with the California Energy Commission to demonstrate an advanced energy storage solution for frequency regulation and grid stability. At a business meeting on December 1, 2004, the California Energy Commission had given its approval to the project, leading to contract negotiations that have now been finalized. The contract is expected to produce approximately $1.2 million of revenue, with the majority of it in 2005. Under the contract, Beacon Power will develop and install a system to demonstrate the potential benefits of using flywheel energy storage to provide frequency regulation of the grid, a service required by all grid operators. A successful demonstration of frequency regulation with the California Independent System Operator (ISO) will also serve to demonstrate the system’s technical and market feasibility in a large, important, growing market – stabilization of the grid. The contract calls for the system to be delivered and installed during the first half of 2005. “Flywheel-stored power, which has long been in use but not yet for grid applications, could offer the California ISO an alternative […]

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Calpers Ups Ante on Emissions, Environmental Initiatives

The board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), the largest U.S. pension fund with $182 billion in assets, has voted to prioritize efforts to prod car makers into adopting California’s new, stringent tailpipe emission standards. They also voted to make environmentalism a top investment priority. Calpers investment staff will evaluate the fund’s portfolio companies in terms of environmental liabilities they might pose. That means car makers and utilities will come under scrutiny because of their greenhouse gas emissions. “We expect environmental corporate stewardship to play a greater role in corporate governance over the next 10 years,” Calpers board member Priya Mathur said. Steve Westly, California’s controller and a Calpers board member, said the fund’s aggressive posture is necessary with the Kyoto protocol set to go into effect. “What’s clear is that we’re giving the staff teeth,” Westly told Reuters in an interview. to shine light on corporate environmental liabilities, improving transparency and timely disclosure of environmental impacts. “Information is a necessary tool for investors,” said Rob Feckner, Acting President of CalPERS. “Shareowners need information on environmental liabilities to make informed investment decisions and assess costs associated with the impact to the environment.” Under the plan, CalPERS will pursue […]

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Coalition Calls Current US Climate Change Policy Inadequate, Irresponsible

In letters being delivered tomorrow to the White House and the leadership of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, 33 business and environmental organizations – members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition – urge the nation’s political decision-makers “to greatly reduce [U.S.] production of greenhouse gases through a mix of policies designed to shift [U.S.] energy use away from fossil fuels and towards greatly improved energy efficiency and a vast expansion of the use of renewable energy sources.” Noting that 2004 was the fourth warmest year on record and citing a series of recent studies suggesting that global climate change may be occurring more rapidly and with more sever consequences than earlier thought, the groups warn: “[I]n spite of the consistency and severity of these warnings, the United States remains wedded to a climate policy that is based almost totally on voluntary measures, carbon sequestration, and long-term research. Such a policy is not only inadequate, it is irresponsible. “It is even more troubling that today, the day that the Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, the United States remains isolated as one of the few industrialized nations that is not a party to the document. “It is now long […]

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