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1. Synfuels Converts Natural Gas to Gasoline to Cash
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2. SunPower Soaring on Huge PG&E Solar Deal
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3. The Shortlist of Cali Cities for Tesla Factory
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4. U.S. Wind Poised to Hit 150GW by 2020
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5. The Daily Sprout
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6. Wasn't T. Boone Supposed to Be Earning Money Off Green?
Synfuels Converts Natural Gas to Gasoline to Cash
Craig Rubens - Startups
The idea isn’t new — the Fischer-Tropsch process has been used widely for decades to convert coal and methane into syngas and fuel. And earlier this month Rentech said it had started producing an “ultra clean synthetic fuel,” from natural gas (coal will also be a feedstock) at a demonstration unit in Colorado using an advanced version of fischer tropsch. But Synfuel says it can do it better and cheaper than competitors.
Where the Fischer-Tropsch process can make a barrel of gasoline for about $35, Synfuels claims it can produce the same barrel for $25. The secret is a very efficient process that first “cracks” the natural gas into acetylene which is later converted into ethylene using a proprietary catalyst at an efficiency rate of 98 percent, the company claims.
Founded in 1999, Synfuels licenses its technology from Texas A&M University and has been fine tuning its process at a $50 million test facility in Texas since 2005. But the startup tells Technology Review’s Tyler Hamilton that it’s close to signing a deal for its first commercial plant, potentially near Kuwait City. The company estimates there are nearly 15,000 gas fields outside North America that could be served by plants using its process.
SunPower Soaring on Huge PG&E Solar Deal
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
PG&E’s solar power contracts suggest that solar photovoltaics are finally becoming a viable utility-scale option, and the cost of solar PV is creeping that much closer to grid parity (the cost of fossil fuel power electricity). American Technology research analyst John Hardy notes that the deal has “monumental implications” for SunPower; it’s equivalent to about 70 percent of the total installations the company has done to date, he says.
Hardy estimates that SunPower is selling the 250 MW system for around $6 per watt — that’s still relatively high compared to $1 per watt grid parity. But assuming SunPower is providing all of the modules, that could deliver SunPower $1.5 billion in revenues and around 33 percent blended gross margins. No wonder the street is shining on SunPower.
The project is contingent on renewal of the investment tax credit, so for the solar industry in general, the deal could act as a valuable pressure point to extend the 30 percent tax credit. PG&E now has more of an incentive to help get the credit renewed, and the stakes just got a lot bigger — financially and in terms of public perception. If the tax incentives fail it will be a public disaster, with an evaporation of so much funding and potential clean power.
And for all you number crunchers, Hardy offers these handy points of reference on the scale of PG&E’s solar PV plans:
- 800 MW is about 30 percent of the total worldwide installations in 2007.
- 800 MW is 3.6 times the total amount of PV installed in the US in 2007.
- 800 MW is about 80 percent of the installations expected to be completed in Spain in 2008, which has been the cause of much multiple compression.
The Shortlist of Cali Cities for Tesla Factory
Katie Fehrenbacher - NYT Startups
Ever since California Governor Schwarzenegger enticed Tesla to move its factory plans away from New Mexico and back to California, we’ve been waiting to hear which lucky Northern California city will get the pop of hundreds of green jobs and the claim to fame. Here’s the short list that Tesla is mulling over, according to the San Jose Mercury this morning: San Jose, South San Francisco and Vacaville.
For these cities, snagging the factory where Tesla plans to assemble up to 20,000 Model S electric sedans per year is a big deal. San Jose’s chief development officer Paul Krutko says the construction of the factory alone would deliver 600 jobs and $40 million in wages. The factory could then employ another 1,000 workers ongoing.
So that means the cities could very well be offering Tesla even more incentives to win its business. San Jose has offered solar companies various financial deals, though the Merc reports that San Jose city officials would only say that their offer to Tesla was “compelling” and “competitive.”
Already the state is providing incentives like a newly approved program that exempts green car builders from paying sales tax and use tax on the purchase of manufacturing equipment, and a grant program for training employees. The equipment incentives could save Tesla as much as $9 million. The cities are likely ponying up their own valuable plans to compete for what is ultimately the most valuable thing that Tesla can bring to a city — green buzzfactor.
U.S. Wind Poised to Hit 150GW by 2020
Craig Rubens - Big Green
The booming U.S. wind market is set to cross the 150 gigawatt mark by 2020, according to a report from market research firm Emerging Energy Research (EER). That includes 5.33 GW installed last year, and another 8 GW currently under construction and planned for completion by the end of this year, EER says. But it will take actually double that 2020 projection — a total of 300 gigawatts — if we want to get 20 percent of our electricity from wind like the DOE and T. Boone Pickens think we can.
Well, we’ve got to start somewhere. Where’s the growth coming from initially? EER credits increased participation from utilities for that. According to the firm, utility-owned wind capacity grew from 4 MW of added capacity in 2000 to 820 MW added in 2007. Consequently, US wind independent power producers will be competing more and more with huge utilities like Xcel, MidAmerican and Alliant who currently dominate their regions’ wind markets.
All of this projected wind power capacity means we’ll need more wind turbines, a commodity in short supply. EER expects the domestic wind turbine market to reach $12 billion by the end of this year and then $16 billion by 2015. T. Boone alone has already ordered an initial $2 billion worth of turbines and is rumored to planning to spend several more billion.
Images courtesy of Emerging Energy Research.
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
T. Boone Pickens: Oil Won’t Go Below $100: The inimitable Mr. Pickens predicted today that while oil may soon drop to $110 a barrel he doesn’t think crude will sink below the $100 mark. Meanwhile Boone’s own business prospects, his BP Capital and his Clean Energy Fuels, are reporting losses - Reuters.
Pelosi Calls for Tapping of Strategic Petroleum Reserve: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the most recent Democratic voice to come out in favor of tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to offer some short-term relief at the pump - ABC News.
The Ups and Downs of Oil Reveal America’s Way Forward: NPR’s Ron Elving knows that America wants to expand its own oil exploration and production. Combine this with the fact that America can actively control its demand of oil, and he thinks we can address the short-term price spike and our longer-term energy problem - NPR.
Domestic Automakers Scramble to Boost Efficiency: American automakers are finding they must retool their lines to offer more fuel efficient cars for surging demand as American consumers shun SUVs and trucks in favor of much smaller vehicles - Reuters.
Gemonics: The Key to Better Biofuels: “Genetics and genomics can catalyze progress towards delivering, in the not-too-distant future, economically-viable and more socially acceptable biofuels based on lignocellulose,” said Eddy Rubin, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute - Science Daily.
Wasn't T. Boone Supposed to Be Earning Money Off Green?
Katie Fehrenbacher - Big Green
We don’t doubt that T. Boone Pickens will eventually make substantial earnings off of his green kick — including the world’s largest wind farm, and the proliferation of natural gas to power our vehicles. But Clean Energy Fuels, Pickens’ natural gas distribution company, reported earnings yesterday and, yep, it’s still losing money. The company reported a loss of $2.41 million for the quarter, though that was narrowed from a loss of $3.56 million for the same quarter a year ago.
Despite overall losses, the company’s revenues are growing — the Seal Beach, Calif.-based company reported revenues of $34.60 million for the quarter up from $30.66 million from a year ago. And actually, the company’s performing better than it has in several years. In the the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2006, Pickens, the company’s director and largest shareholder, actually had to extend the company a line of credit to meet certain margin requirements for contracts.
And beyond propping up his natural gas distribution investments, the NY Post reports yesterday that Picken’s bets on natural gas and oil commodities for his hedge fund BP Capital sank 35 percent in July — overall, they’re down 10 percent for the year. The fund, which overall manages $7 billion through two funds and is half-owned by Pickens, tells the Post that the drop was due to a more recent decline in natural gas and oil prices.
The Post thinks the lost funds are embarrassing:
Pickens’ stumbling is particularly biting since the oil-and-gas magnate has been portraying himself as a energy sage to the U.S. presidential candidates.
But perhaps a loss like this is exactly why Pickens is diversifying and placing such a large bet — $12 billion by last count — on wind. We’ll see if that, as well as his water investments, pays off.
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