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1. eSolar's Engineers Give a Geeky Solar Birthday Shoutout
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2. Pinon House Renovation: A Modern Home that Conserves
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3. Daily Sprout
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5. GREEN GIFT GUIDE: For Girls
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6. Yingli Signs Supply Deal, Tweaks 2009 Outlook
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7. Massive Stirling Solar System Seeks Cali Approval
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8. UN: Poor Countries Will Need $130B A Year to Adapt to Climate Change
eSolar's Engineers Give a Geeky Solar Birthday Shoutout
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
Those kooky solar engineers are always up for a good lark! The engineers at eSolar decided to really cut loose for this year’s birthday celebration of the firm’s founder, Bill Gross. They put together this video, which is the equivalent of an all-night drinking binge in Vegas for a solar engineer…meaning they programmed their solar mirrors to spell out happy birthday for Gross. I think they might need some time out of the hot sun. Watch the video, which also looks weirdly like a North Korean festival.
The eSolar engineers do have reason to be giddy. Yesterday the California Public Utilities Commission approved eSolar’s potentially 245 MW solar plant contract with California utility Southern California Edison. Called the Gaskell Project, the farm will be built in Kern County and is supposed to come online in April 2012. The company is backed by Bill Gross’ Idealab, Google.org, and Oak Investment Partner.
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Pinon House Renovation: A Modern Home that Conserves
Bridgette Steffen - Architecture
One of the best ways to have a green home is to renovate– and by reusing as much original material as possible, you can reduce the amount of virgin material necessary for construction. This beautiful renovation of a mid-century modern house by Erik Sommerfeld, from the3rdspace, and Rob Pyatt of Pyattstudio in Boulder, Colo. is a great example of resource conservation and modernization. The original concrete block and plate glass home was failing structurally due to poor soil conditions– and in need of some serious repairs. However, rather than tear the Pinon House down to the ground, it was shored up and reworked to make the house comfortable, livable, and eco-friendly.
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
New Mission for Iceland’s Geothermal Industry: Engineers in Iceland, where geothermal power provides 30 percent of the nation’s electricity, have learned how to keep a geothermal plant running smoothly at relatively low cost. But startup costs — surveying and extracting heat from below the earth’s surface and turning it into electricity — remain high. That translates to opportunity, and Icelandic companies are seizing it. — Time
California Regulators Approve Edison-eSolar Plant: The California Public Utilities Commission approved a contract yesterday between Southern California Edison and eSolar, moving them one step closer to developing a planned 245-megawatt solar power plant. Pasadena-based eSolar will build and own the facility. — CNN Money
EPA Gets Tough on Heavy Diesel Truck Emissions: The EPA yesterday ordered heavy diesel truck and bus makers to install dashboard lights by 2010 that signal whether emissions-control equipment is malfunctioning. Environmental watchdogs called it a “rare positive eleventh-hour Bush administration rule.” — Washington Post
Texans Torn Over Carbon Cap: Texas produces and consumes more energy than any other state, largely due to carbon-intensive industries like oil, gas, and chemicals. But since it also leads the nation in wind energy, the state is divided on how carbon caps would impact its economy. — NYT’s Green Inc.
Obama Team to Name Key Energy, Environment Nominees Next Week: President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team plans to name nominees for EPA administrator and secretaries of energy and the interior. Scientific types top the list for the energy job, but they had better mind their social networks: Question #58 in the vetting process asks candidates for URLs of any sites featuring them “in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.).” — Washington Post
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GREEN GIFT GUIDE: For Girls
Desmond Williams - 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
I know what girls like, I know what girls want. They want a dollhouse, and a couture blouse. They want some leggings, they’ll grow some Egglings. They want a princess, sans frilly excess. I know what girls want… girls want… Girls want ‘green’!
READ MORE AT INHABITOTS.COM>
Yingli Signs Supply Deal, Tweaks 2009 Outlook
David Ehrlich - Energy
China’s Yingli Green Energy today announced new supply contracts with Germany’s IBC Solar; it also clarified its 2009 shipment outlook after one of its executives apparently gave out some wrong numbers earlier this week.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Yingli expects its shipments of solar modules to reach 400 MW next year, well below Yingli’s previously stated target of 600 MW. Reuters attributed its info to Cherradi Nabih, Yingli’s vice president for manufacturing, who chatted with the wire service on the sidelines of a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Hong Kong.
Yingli didn’t mention the Reuters story in its statement today, saying only that it was responding to “certain recent news articles.” But while Yingli called the lower number erroneous, the solar firm also backed away from its firm 600 MW target, saying instead that it estimates its total photovoltaic module shipments for 2009 will range from 550 MW to 600 MW. Yingli added that the shipment target is subject to the successful installation and ramp-up of its planned 200 MW expansion in the third quarter of 2009.
As for IBC, Yingli said it’s inked two contracts to supply IBC with a total of 91 megawatts of photovoltaic modules starting this month and running through December 2009. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
This is Yingli’s second deal with IBC; the company signed a contract in May to supply the firm with 35 MW of photovoltaic modules. That deal runs through this month, but also includes an option for IBC to buy up to an additional 45 MW of modules for 2009. It’s not clear if today’s deals include a similar option.
Yingli’s last photovoltaic module supply deal was announced in October, when it said it won a bid to supply 1.5 MW of modules to state-owned China Mobile Communications. Yingli said it has been working with China Mobile since 2002, when it helped the mobile phone operator build some solar-powered base stations in western China.
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Massive Stirling Solar System Seeks Cali Approval
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
This week, Stirling Energy Systems submitted an application for certification (AFC) to California’s regulatory body, the California Energy Commission (CEC), for a planned 850 MW solar power plant, dubbed “Solar One,” in the Mojave Desert. This is the second large solar application the startup’s submitted this year — in June, Stirling handed in an application for a 750 MW solar plant, named “Solar Two,” that the CEC deemed “data adequate” in October.
While the CEC still needs to approve these projects, Stirling is at least a few steps closer to starting construction of the solar plants. If Solar One is approved, construction is supposed to start in late 2010 and take 40 months to complete, while construction of Solar Two could start in late 2009 or early 2010 and could also take around 40 months to complete. Solar One would be built on 8,230 acres of land in San Bernardino County, Calif., use 30,000, 25-kilowatt solar dishes, and will sell power to California utility Southern California Edison. Solar Two will use 6,500 acres of land in Imperial County, Calif., 30,000 25-kilowatt solar dishes and sell power to San Diego Gas & Electric.
In April Phoenix-based Stirling raised $100 million from Dublin, Ireland’s NTR, and in the process NTR took a 52-percent stake in the company, according to the Cleantech Group. Stirling’s technology, unlike most of the utility-scale solar providers, uses a combination of solar thermal concentration devices and engines to produce clean power.
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UN: Poor Countries Will Need $130B A Year to Adapt to Climate Change
Josie Garthwaite - Policy
Delegates from 190 countries have gathered in Poznan, Poland, this week as part of negotiations for a climate change treaty expected to be finalized in Copenhagen next year. According Yvo de Boer, the top climate change official at the UN, delegates today focused largely on adaptation, or helping developing countries take steps to withstand severe drought, extreme storms, and other events expected to become more frequent as a result of of climate change. (You can watch a video of his press briefing here.)
Officials said this morning that wealthy nations will have to step up funding for that effort. By 2030, the AP reports, poor countries will need $130 billion each year for adaptation and emissions-reduction projects, about six times the amount now available. Boer described the Developed Countries Fund — and strategies for streamlining it and feeding it into sustainable development — a “hot topic” at this week’s talks.
In an interview with the Science and Development Network earlier this week, de Boer emphasized another fund. He said he hoped the Poznan talks, which continue next week, would “mark the launch of the Adaptation Fund, which is important to developing countries and will provide real money for them to adapt to the inevitable impact of climate change.”
Today Boer noted an “emerging convergence” among delegates that a global response to climate change should have four building blocks: mitigation, finance, technology and adaptation. The importance of this newfound common ground, he noted, is not to be overlooked. “Many have pointed to the fact that this shared vision is an opportunity to channel society in a low-carbon direction.” And while delegates in Poznan have called for speeding implementation of known adaptation strategies, it could also be an opportunity (as a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation report found this summer) to channel innovation into technologies that can help accelerate that move.
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