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Renewable Energy Associations Form National Alliance

Leading renewable energy associations announced the formation of the Renewable Energy Business Alliance to amplify and unify their voice in support of policies and programs to expand renewable energy production in the United States. The national trade associations representing the wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, and waste-to-energy industries together with public power and rural electric co-ops, joined in founding the organization. “Strong and sustained growth in renewable energy production will lead to major benefits in U.S. energy security, job growth, fuel diversity, domestic supplies of fuel, and environmental enhancement,” said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. “This new Alliance is focused on developing and advocating the policies and programs that, from a business perspective, will achieve these results.” As its priority, the Alliance will seek a significant extension of the production tax credit. The organizations announced, “The Alliance supports making the federal Production Tax Credit permanent, applying it to all renewable technologies on an equal basis, and providing comparable incentives for non- profit entities.” According to the Renewable Energy Business Alliance, “these policies would lead to the stability necessary to provide business an effective incentive to invest in new renewable energy facilities.” Organizations involved in founding […]

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Sowing More Growth: Wild Oats

URL: http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/comment/stocksunderten/10201117.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA Website: http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/comment/stocksunderten/10201117.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA     

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Sanyo to Increase Solar Cell Capacity 15-Fold

Sanyo Electric Co., announced plans to raise production capacity for solar cells to 1,000 megawatts a year — 15 times its present capacity — by 2010, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources. Sanyo intends to spend 7-8 billion yen by fiscal year 2006 to set up cell lines at its Osaka Prefecture plant. It has already decided to boost annual solar cell output capacity by 140% to 153 megawatts next spring by starting operations at a new building at the Osaka plant on January 6 and by expanding a production subsidiary in Shimane Prefecture, the report said. By adding lines at the Osaka plant, Sanyo’s group-wide output capacity is expected to increase to 250 megawatts annually in financial 2006. It also plans to expand production capacity for modules in Japan, Mexico, Hungary and elsewhere. In sales, Sanyo intends to focus on the European market, mainly Germany, to take advantage of government aid for solar cell installation. It plans to introduce a high-output module in Europe in April 2005. Sanyo’s sales in its home-use solar cell business are expected to exceed 40 billion yen in the year to March 2005, 80% more than in the previous year. It plans […]

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U.S. Organic Cotton Production Drops Despite Increasing Sales

U.S. organic cotton production in 2003 dropped to less than half that recorded for 2001, reports the Organic Trade Association (OTA. According to an OTA survey funded by a grant from Cotton Incorporated and additional information supplied by the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative, U.S. growers harvested at least 4,628 bales of organic cotton in 2003. Excluded from the 2003 figure, however, were data for 80 acres for which the number of bales harvested went unrecorded. A 2002 OTA study of organic production showed a total of 9,897 bales harvested in 2001. Despite the drop in production, overall U.S. sales of organic fiber finished products, predominantly made from organic cotton, grew 23 percent in 2003, to reach $85 million, according to OTA’s 2004 Manufacturer Survey released earlier in the year. Meanwhile, U.S. acreage planted to organic cotton in 2003 was less than half that planted the previous year, according to survey findings. In preliminary results released today, the survey reported on 12 farmers who grew and harvested organic cotton in the United States during 2003. Of the 12, nine are members of the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative, and three farm independently. Upland cotton was the predominant crop, with some […]

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