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1. Acciona Switches On 46 MW Portuguese Solar Plant
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2. Hoku Hatches Investment Firm for Hawaiian Solar Projects
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3. Volt Still Kicking as Feds Take $5B GMAC Stake
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4. Daily Sprout
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5. Air New Zealand Takes Off With Jatropha Biofuel
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6. Dell's Carbon Neutral Goal Is a Mere Fraction of Emissions for Its Products
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7. Tesla Backpedals on Model S Factory Promise
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8. Top 10 Earth2Tech Stories of 2008
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9. Israel's SolarEdge Raises $23M to Crush Shady Solar
Acciona Switches On 46 MW Portuguese Solar Plant
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Spain’s Acciona has plugged its Portugal solar project into the grid, announcing this week that the new 46-megawatt plant can produce enough electricity to power over 30 million Portuguese homes.
One of Spain’s largest construction contractors, Acciona invested €261 million ($367 million) into the photovoltaic plant, which consists of 2,520 solar trackers supporting 262,080 photovoltaic modules. The trackers can follow the sun throughout the day, boosting the output of the solar modules over the output of a stationary system. The project covers 617.8 acres in Amareleja in the south of Portugal, just over the border from Spain.
Acciona said the plant was constructed in just 13 months, with the first 3 MW installed at the end of 2007 and connected to the grid in March of this year. The rest of the project was hooked up to the grid last week.
The company — which also has operations in wind, biomass, biofuel, environmental services, and water — already has 68 MW of photovoltaics up and running in Spain, with another 100 MW of concentrated solar power currently under construction.
In the U.S., Acciona owns the Nevada Solar One project, a 64 MW concentrated solar facility. Wells Fargo took an undisclosed stake in the €220 million Nevada project back in 2007, along with JPMorgan Capital and an affiliate of Northern Trust.
Most of the 68 MW installed in Spain by Acciona use the company’s “solar gardens” concept, in which a number of solar trackers and panels, ranging from 5-11 kilowatts each, are owned by different individuals but located on a common site. Acciona said that means infrastructures can be shared, reducing equipment costs and lowering operation and maintenance costs. The company said that so far, more than 3,500 owners have invested a total of €456 million in solar garden installations.
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Hoku Hatches Investment Firm for Hawaiian Solar Projects
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Clean technology in Hawaii is ending the year with a bang. The Aloha State kicked off December with an agreement for Better Place to build an electric vehicle-charging network on the islands, then Khosla Ventures teamed up with utility Hawaiian Electric Co. to evaluate and test solar, lighting, battery and other technologies. And the state is also getting a smart grid under a contract between Hawaiian Electric and Sensus Metering Systems.
Now Hawaii has attracted financing for government solar installations from United Fund Advisors and U.S. Bancorp in the form of an investment company launched with Hoku Solar, a subsidiary of the polysilicon, photovoltaic, and fuel cell company Hoku Scientific.
Under an agreement announced yesterday, United Fund Advisors will invest in a special-purpose entity Hoku has created to hold the power purchase agreements for seven photovoltaic projects, which Hawaii’s Department of Transportation contracted Hoku to engineer, design and install at state airports. USB will finance United Fund Advisors’ investment. Hoku’s special-purpose entity will own and operate the solar systems, and sell the electricity they generate to the transportation department over a 20-year contract period.
Hoku (which we’ve written about before) said yesterday it expects to complete all seven projects in the first quarter of 2009, generating a total of nearly 1 megawatt of energy. That’s not much for a state that wants to have 70 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030. But this week’s partnership could help smooth the road for financing future clean energy projects in Hawaii. At least United Fund Advisors Senior V-P Chris Hasle hopes it will. “These types of PPA deals are increasingly common on the mainland U.S.,” he said in yesterday’s announcement, “and we believe that these projects could serve as an excellent model for many similar clean energy opportunities in Hawaii.”
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Volt Still Kicking as Feds Take $5B GMAC Stake
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
With a new $6 billion bailout from the Treasury approved late yesterday, General Motors has lowered its requirements for auto loans. The bailout includes a $5 billion stake in the company’s financing arm, GMAC, plus a $1 billion loan that GM can use to reorganize the lender as a bank holding company (required for access to funds from the $700 billion rescue package).
The federal aid for GMAC, which is owned by GM and Cerberus Capital, is aimed at getting GM to sell enough cars to stabilize the auto industry. The belief is that Americans want GM vehicles and simply can’t get loans to purchase them (GMAC financed 35 percent of GM’s retail customers last year, Bloomberg reports). This morning GMAC announced it will provide loans to customers with a credit rating of 621 or above, down from yesterday’s minimum score of 700.
We want to see how quickly GM resumes work on the Chevy Volt. Earlier this month, GM slammed the brakes on construction of a Flint, Mich., factory slated to produce engines for the extended-range electric vehicle. Although an existing plant in Flint offered a way for GM to produce Volt engines while saving $150 million compared with the all-new facility, the company still decided to take a step back from its plans for the manufacturing plant. "It's temporarily on hold as we assess our cash situation," said GM spokesperson Sharon Basel. At the time, we questioned whether the company might use progress on the Volt as leverage in negotiations for federal aid.
So, bailout? Check. Cash situation? Assessed. Volt? GM’s next move could tell us whether the much-hyped model remains (a) on track to begin production in November 2010 and (b) the company’s top priority, as the company has claimed.
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Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
UK Wind Farms Tangled in Red Tape: Britain has 262 wind projects representing seven gigawatts stuck in planning stages, and the rate of approvals is only getting slower. — The Guardian
Electric Bikes Grow Up: “Even though motorcycles and scooters may represent a smaller percentage of the pie when it comes to emissions inventory, it doesn’t mean their makers shouldn’t have proper incentive to be using new, greener technologies.” — Wired’s Autopia
San Franciscans Resist Congestion-Pricing Plan: Public opposition to fees for driving into San Francisco raises the question of whether environmental initiatives are too important to be left to voters. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital
Ford Fusion Scores Better Fuel Economy: Tricked out with Toyota technology, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid has been certified at 41 mpg for city driving, compared with only 33 mpg for Toyota’s Camry. — BusinessWeek
Power from the People: The 2009 sign at tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will run (for 15 minutes) on electricity generated by tourists pedaling on stationary bikes. — NYT’s Bits Blog
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Air New Zealand Takes Off With Jatropha Biofuel
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Air New Zealand has completed what it says was the first commercial test flight using biofuel made from the jatropha plant. Jatropha, which produces seeds that contain inedible lipid oil, can be grown on land that’s not usable for food crops, making it a potentially more environmentally friendly feedstock for biofuel than other plants.
The airline worked on the test project with partners Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Honeywell International’s UOP unit, along with support from biofuel developer Terasol Energy. There were four pilots and two engineers on board for the 2-hour test flight today, which was conducted over the Hauraki Gulf area on the North Island, with a blend of half jatropha biofuel and half jet fuel used to power one of the four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines on an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400.
Over the past year, Virgin Atlantic and Continental Airlines also announced biofuel test plans, but some environmental activists criticized the flight, pointing out that only a small amount of biofuel was actually being used. Virgin Atlantic’s test flight in February had only 5 percent biofuel in its tanks, with the biofuel made from coconut and babassu palm oil.
Next month, Continental is expected to test a jatropha and algae blend, with the jatropha coming from Terrasol and the algae from Sapphire Energy, one of a number of startups looking at turning algae into jet fuel.
For the Air New Zealand flight, Terasol Energy supplied the jatropha oil, with refining technology from UOP used to turn the oil into renewable jet fuel.
Air New Zealand Chief Pilot David Morgan said the biofuel performed well on the test flight through both the fuel system and engine. In a statement, he said, “To complete our testing program our engineers will over the next few days be thoroughly assessing the engine and fuel systems looking for any changes as a result of the use of biofuel.”
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Dell's Carbon Neutral Goal Is a Mere Fraction of Emissions for Its...
Katie Fehrenbacher - Carbon Markets
Dell recently made it clear in a blog post that it thinks rival Apple’s green laptop claims have a lot of holes. Well, the Texas-based computer maker, which has been making one of the most substantial efforts in the computing world to produce more eco-products and neutralize its carbon footprint, also has a few questions to answer when it comes to the validity of its green efforts.
This morning the Wall Street Journal’s Jeffrey Ball has a really interesting investigative piece that claims Dell is actually only neutralizing about 5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that go into making its products. That small figure will surprise many who listened to Dell announce recently that it had reached its carbon-neutral goal a good five months ahead of schedule.
And while it’s difficult to know how much Dell could boost that percentage, the WSJ article also points out that Dell is largely relying on renewable energy credits to offset its carbon footprint, which can be highly controversial. It was no secret that Dell was using renewable energy credits as part of its carbon-neutral plan, along with energy efficiency, but we are unsettled to hear that the company “is claiming carbon neutrality mostly by purchasing environmental credits,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The kicker is that the Wall Street Journal also did substantial legwork looking into whether or not the renewable energy credits were supporting projects that would have already happened even if Dell had not supplied funding. Mid American Energy Co., the owner of wind projects in Iowa that are the biggest contributor to Dell’s renewable energy certificate offsets, says that the wind projects would have been built without Dell’s funds.
All of this isn’t an implication of Dell and acts instead to shine a light on the problems associated with carbon neutrality and offsets. Dell has actually been pretty aggressive about this — a lot more aggressive than many in the industry. And we hope that a closer look at Dell’s carbon footprint plans ends up helping the company make those plans better, and does not deter it and other large corporations from attempting to reduce their emissions.
Overall we hope that more transparency will spur companies to take this issue even more seriously. Dell has said it is dedicating $5 million to the carbon-neutral project, which was spent over a period of about two years. Considering Dell’s overall balance sheet, that’s nothing. Boost that budget and we’re thinking the company will get better results.
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Tesla Backpedals on Model S Factory Promise
Josie Garthwaite - Startups
Not too long ago, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk called a government guarantee for loans to build its mass-market electric sedan factory a “when, not an if.” Supposedly all the luxury electric car startup needed to begin construction on a plant for its elusive Model S was a $200 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. But in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, his confidence turned to hedging on plans to produce the Model S for the duration of the recession. The Chronicle writes:
The factory project wasn’t abandoned, but Musk says it’s no longer a done deal. . . . Rather than ramping up, the company is hunkering down. “I hate it,” said Musk. “I really didn’t want to do it. But I also didn’t want to be a casualty of the recession and see all that time and effort go to waste.”
Musk isn’t too worried, though. Again, from the Chronicle:
Musk says the company is now in good shape to reach profitability, despite the recession. Still, he’s hoping the recession will be brief, perhaps ending in a year. “It’s funny: in the good times, no one thinks there can be bad times,” he said. “And in the bad times, no one thinks there can be good times.”
Musk’s predicted timeline matches the one generally agreed on by forecasters. But while the recession is expected to officially last until mid-2009, recovery could be slow enough to make a turnaround next year little more than economic semantics. As the banking system rebuilds, credit markets could remain tight and keep Tesla’s long-promised Model S entirely out of reach.
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Top 10 Earth2Tech Stories of 2008
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
We’ve brought you the victories and the disappointments of the year in cleantech, and now here’s a top 10 list that’s a little more personal: The top 10 Earth2Tech stories of 2008. The list is a combo of reader favorites — page views and number of comments — along with editor’s favorites, because there were some stories that made me glad to be part of this team this year. Let’s take a look at them in descending order, Letterman-style:
10) Video: Solar + Robots = AWESOME: This post is proof that you shouldn’t edit a green technology website if you can’t celebrate your geekiness. I shot this mini video of these robots stacking solar panels — digg loved it and so did you.
9) FAQ: Thin-Film Solar: You liked it because thin-film solar is confusing and you want to know more about the technologies, the players and the market.
8) 11 Companies Racing to Build U.S. Cellulosic Ethanol Plants: Yes, cellulosic ethanol companies were definitely racing through the first three-quarters of 2008, all claiming they’d be the first to produce cellulosic ethanol. Towards the end of the year that turned into more of a stroll, and in some cases, a crawl. Will the race be declared DOA in 2009? Biofuels sure don’t have the backing they used to and the corn ethanol markets are ugly.
7) Pics of the First Production Tesla Roadster: Sometimes you’d rather see it than read about it. Particularly if it’s the first Tesla Roadster ever made being delivered. Of course nowadays Tesla isn’t even sure if it’s building its factory to produce the Model S, but at one point you guys cared.
6) Earth2Tech Maps: 101 Cleantech Startups: We love us some Google maps! And in 2008 we plotted 101 cleantech startups that we’ve covered. We’ll continue to update the map in 2009, and bring you another round of where the up-and-coming will be located.
5) Hyperion's Nuclear-In-A-Box Ready By 2013: Ah Hyperion… one of the more — how should we put it? — unusual clean power ideas out there. A hot tub-sized nuclear battery that developers can bury beneath rural off-grid villages and provide a significant amount of carbon-free power. It’s $25 million for nuclear-in-a-box — any takers?
4) 25 Who Ditched Infotech for Cleantech: We started looking at the intersection between infotech and cleantech back in May with this list of entrepreneurs who had abandoned IT for green. More project than post, we profiled each of the execs that decided to take the plunge and join the climate change fight.
3) T. Boone Pickens: Kicking Off the World's Largest Wind Farm: Readers couldn’t get enough of the 80-year-old hedge fund manager turned cleantech junkie, T. Boone Pickens, this year. But while the Pickens wind farm may have faltered by the end of 2008, the post still gets supportive comments for the man with a plan. If you skim the almost 100 comments there’s several dozen asking Pickens to contact them directly — he’s got some real fans!
2) Pictures of Dell's Eco Bamboo Computer: Who knew that some hastily snapped photos of Dell’s bamboo-encased PC at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference could cause such a stir? At the time readers, seemed surprised that Dell was taking such a green marketing angle, but by now Dell has had more than its fair share of green announcements.
1) 15 Algae Startups Bringing Pond Scum to Fuel Tanks: This algae primer featured over a dozen startups trying to crack the algae-to-fuel code and was the big winner of the year, in terms of both page views and comments. While other non-food forms of ethanol — from switchgrass to plant waste — seemed to stall in 2008, the idea of algae fuel moved up in the ranks, and Googlers looked for which companies will lead the algae race. Or maybe readers liked the Britney Spears reference. Who knows.
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Israel's SolarEdge Raises $23M to Crush Shady Solar
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Herzliya, Israel-based startup SolarEdge gave its first press interview earlier this month and closed on a $23 million Series B round of financing. So why has the company — which has raised a total of $34.8 million in venture capital from Vertex Venture Capital and Genesis Partners of Israel and the U.S. firms Walden International and Opus Capital — been hiding behind a stealthy cloak these last two years?
SolarEdge says its technology can boost solar panel efficiency by 15-20 percent using semiconductors and software. The company’s approach, similar to that of National Semiconductor and Tigo Energy, involves monitoring individual solar panels with embedded integrated circuits. The idea is to sidestep the problem of partial shading, which can keep typical inverters from harvesting enough voltage to feed usable electricity (alternating current) into a connected power grid.
The Wall Street Journal gets into the nitty-gritty of inverters here. But the main point, as National CEO Brian Halla explained earlier this month at Actel’s EcoChip forum (the company’s SolarMagic device also tackles partial shading), is that shade, dirt or shadow on just a few cells of a solar panel can disproportionately reduce energy output. According to California’s public utility and energy commissions, the solar cell with the least light typically determines the operating current for all cells wired in that series — more so for crystalline modules, and less for thin film. Using semiconductors and software, SolarEdge would allow unshaded cells to harvest energy at full throttle despite sullied neighbors.
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