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1. Suntech CEO: Solar Panel Glut to Slash Prices by 30% in 2009
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2. Green-Collar Jobs Heading to the Clink
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3. Vatican Goes Solar with $1.6 Million Array!
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4. NetApp Grabs $1.4M Rebate for Green Data Center
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5. Daily Sprout
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6. Obama Calls for Recovery With Energy-Efficient Public Buildings
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7. Shell Pulls Out of UK Wind, Again
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8. 10 Tips for a Greener, Healthier, Money-Saving Christmas
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9. Green Holiday Gift Idea: Green Gift for Pool Sharks
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10. Thrifty & Lovely Recycled Home Decor Example
Suntech CEO: Solar Panel Glut to Slash Prices by 30% in 2009
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
For more than two years, solar and semiconductor companies have predicted that a glut of polysilicon coming online in 2009 would drive down their costs. Today Suntech Power Holdings CEO Zhengrong Shi put a number on the shift, saying in an interview with Reuters that he expects oversupply and top-to-bottom cost cuts to help drive the company’s prices down 20-30 percent compared with the third quarter of this year. The sector as a whole could slash prices by half as soon as 2013, he added.
Hot on the scent of a company within striking distance of grid parity, investors sent Suntech’s stock soaring (reports of the solar industry’s lobbying efforts at the UN climate talks in Poland combined with an overall market rally that saw major indexes surge couldn’t have hurt, either). Shares climbed as much as 24.4 percent to change hands for $10.58 — more than double the target set by HSBC Global Research in a new report.
Shi’s forecast actually echoed the predictions of a Lux Research report published last month which forecast that solar module supply would overtake demand beginning in 2009 (sound familiar?), causing prices to tumble (there we go again). What Shi did not get into is the industry shakeout expected to result from all this volatility. Lux anticipates it will be most damaging to small players, which Suntech is not. But it does rely heavily on the European market for sales, making it vulnerable to a resurging U.S. dollar. More importantly, it may not be able to take full advantage of the long-anticipated polysilicon glut, since, according to HSBC estimates, about 80 percent of its supply contracts remain locked in at higher prices.
When the company reigned in its fourth-quarter outlook last month, it announced it had begun renegotiating unfavorable short-term polysilicon contracts. In 2009, it will face bigger changes than that — starting with the shifting landscapes of energy and credit markets. As for politics — in the U.S., China, and internationally — the company has already jumped in with both feet.
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Green-Collar Jobs Heading to the Clink
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Forget license plates, prisoners are going solar these days. Massachusetts-based Spire announced today that it signed a $54.9 million deal to supply solar cells to a solar module factory located in a federal prison in upstate New York. And Spire is no stranger to prison work — the company installed the photovoltaic solar module factory in the Otisville, N.Y., prison earlier this year.
The contract is with the government-owned Federal Prison Industries, also known as Unicor, which uses prisoners to make products and provide services, mostly for the U.S. government. Spire said that modules manufactured at the prison in Otisville will be sold for use in government installations.
That could mean more than just a few government buildings getting solar panels. “If you consider the military barracks and all those military installations,” Nader Kalkhoran, VP of business development at Spire, told us. “That’s a huge market in itself.”
This isn’t the first cleantech deal for Unicor, which already has an electronics recycling program that offers recycling services around the country.
Spire said this deal could lead to more solar factories going up at other prisons. If that happens, Unicor could end up with a slight advantage over more traditionally-staffed solar module makers. Unicor pays inmates “considerably less” than minimum wage, according to its web site, and as a wholly-owned corporation of the federal government, Unicor is exempt from federal and state income taxes, as well as gross receipts taxes and property taxes.
But Unicor argues on its web site that those low wages don’t give it an unfair competitive advantage, saying that there are extra costs to operating a factory in a prison, citing inmate training and staff supervision, as well as what it says are efficiency constraints associated with a prison work environment.
“These inmates will gain experience, so once they are out of the prison, they can have the know-how [and] can enter the workforce,” said Kalkhoran.
The two-year contract is for a minimum of 25 megawatts of solar cells, according to the original government solicitation, but there are options to extend the contract, which could bring it up to 75 MW. In addition to supplying the solar cells and installing the turnkey production line, Spire said it also has contracts supply the training to operate the line, as well as assistance in making sure the factory and the modules pass international solar standards and certification.
More than one in 100 adults are behind bars in the U.S., according to a study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts earlier this year, which unfortunately means there could be plenty of workers available for an expanding cleantech industry in the prison system.
Kalkhoran said the solar production line in Otisville is expected to be operational in the first quarter of next year.
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Vatican Goes Solar with $1.6 Million Array!
Daniel Flahiff - Energy
Papal social policy is not typically characterized as progressive. Flying in the face of this perception, Vatican City has just installed 2,400 photovoltaic solar panels on the 5,000 square meter roof of Nervi Hall where popes hold general audiences when the weather is poor. The 1.2 million euro ($1.6 million) system went live earlier this month just hours before Pope Benedict held what is being called the “first ecological general audience in the Vatican.“
NetApp Grabs $1.4M Rebate for Green Data Center
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
The computing industries tend to build more energy-efficient data centers to save money on electricity bills, but if your company is in California, it could also get a fat check in the form of a PG&E rebate for green data center efforts. This morning California utility PG&E said it has given Internet services company NetApp a $1.43 million rebate — the largest new construction incentive the utility has awarded — for its efforts at an engineering data center in Sunnyvale, Calif.
NetApp says it focused on ways to make its data center use power more efficiently and decrease the power used for cooling the data center — tools to deliver that goal included adding energy-efficient transformers, outside air economizers, a variable primary chiller plant and flywheel systems for backup power. All those techniques have created a data center with a power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric of less than 1.3. — that’s really impressive — and means NetApp is saving 11 million or so kilowatt-hours per year. While that $1.43 million rebate is likely just a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost of the data center, the company also says it can save the equivalent of $1.18 million per year in power savings.
Computing is a power hog, and servers alone suck up 1 percent of the world’s electricity usage. That figure is set to grow considerably over the next 5 to 10 years. Computing companies are making data centers more energy efficient just to save money from reduced power consumption, but the result is that the computing industry can reduce its overall carbon footprint, too. It’s not just large companies focusing on these efforts, either: Startup Advanced Data Centers is working on some of the greenest datacenters in North America in Sacramento. But companies from Google to Yahoo, Dell, and Sun are following suit. We’re going to have a panel on this at our Green:Net conference on March 24 in San Francisco, so come check it out.
Update: PG&E has also provided rebates for green data center to HP and the State Compensation Insurance Fund, as well as rebates for new construction projects to other tech companies like 365 Main, Google, Charles River, Adobe, Cisco, eBay and Juniper.
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Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Electric-Vehicle Makers Struggle, Seek Aid Along With Detroit: Representatives from the EV industry sprang to action in Washington, D.C. last week before executives from Detroit’s Big Three arrived, calling for subsidized loans, expanded tax credits, a national push for development of advanced vehicle batteries, and more government purchases of electric cars. — Wall Street Journal
California Utility Commission Reconsiders Deregulation: The California Public Utility Commission has begun exploring ways to reopen a program allowing residential and large power users to shop around for the lowest electricity prices, reigniting the debate on what caused the state’s 2000-01 energy crisis. — Los Angeles Times
Daimler Plans EV Serial Production: German magazine WirtschaftsWoche reports internal documents from Daimler AG reveal the automaker plans to deliver an electric version of the Smart by 2012 (keeping with goals set this summer), plus electric and possibly hybrid versions of the Mercedes Benz A- and B-class models several months later. — MarketWatch
Wind Farms on the Horizon for Great Lakes Region: As the City of Cleveland nears completion of a $1 million study on turbines for the Lake Eerie shoreline, some local observers expect wind power to assume a central role in the region’s economy. Others worry it will destroy the landscape. — Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Carbon Trading on the Chopping Block: Several European Union governments are pushing back on plans to make utilities pay for all emissions permits beginning in 2013, rather than getting them for free. Reporter James Kanter calls it a sign of things to come for President-elect Barack Obama. — NYT’s Green Inc.
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Obama Calls for Recovery With Energy-Efficient Public Buildings
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
As part of his Economic Recovery Plan that he hopes will create 2.5 million new jobs, President-elect Barack Obama is calling for an effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. In his weekly radio address, Obama announced a plan to seek energy-efficient upgrades for federal and public school buildings (see video below).
Obama provided few details on how the green building makeover would work — or how many jobs it could provide — but he said he would start by replacing old heating systems and installing energy-efficient lighting. “Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that,” he stated. He said he would unveil more about the plan in the coming weeks and push to have congress start working to get the plan approved in January.
While clean energy initiatives like adding solar to the roofs of buildings tend to receive the bulk of attention, making buildings more energy efficient is typically a more cost-effective way to cut carbon emissions. There’s a great article in the Christian Science Monitor from November detailing how this works and some of the programs from energy-efficient building startup Sustainable Spaces.
The federal government has largely been slow to recognize the importance of making buildings more energy efficient, and states and local organizations have been leading these efforts. Oregon's governor Ted Kulongoski wants to mandate a rating and certification program that would disclose the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of buildings that would start in 2011 for homes and in 2012 for commercial buildings. Nevada has a similar law.
But many in the building industry, green and otherwise, would prefer a national standard — Sustainable Spaces CEO Matt Golden tells us that state programs are part of the solution but that these need to be standardized nationally. Compared to varying standards across states and counties, a national standard could simplify and unify the effort to make buildings more energy efficient, as well as help to give a boost to the nascent market.
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Shell Pulls Out of UK Wind, Again
David Ehrlich - Energy
First it was the London Array; now its the UK’s Cirrus Array that’s getting the cold shoulder from Royal Dutch Shell, dealing the latest blow to the UK wind market. Netherlands-based Shell confirmed with the Sunday Times that the planned 270-megawatt Cirrus Array offshore wind project has been dropped by a consortium made up of Shell, the UK’s Scottish Power and Denmark’s Dong Energy.
According to the Times, the consortium had previously denied that the project was dead but said this weekend that it was unable to overcome objections to the £800 million ($1.03 billion) offshore wind farm after five years of work and millions of pounds of investment. At the top of the list were complaints from the UK’s Ministry of Defence over potential radar interference from the turbines. As a result, the consortium has withdrawn its application for permission to develop the project, killing plans for the offshore wind farm.
Shell told the Times that it instead it planned to focus its future wind investments on projects in North America, following in the footsteps of London’s BP, which said last month that it was pulling out of wind developments in the UK, China, India and Turkey to put cash into the more favorable U.S. onshore market.
Back in May, Shell announced that it would pull out of the London Array, a 1,000 MW offshore wind farm that’s expected to be the largest in the world when it’s built. Shell was supporting that project along with Germany’s E.On and Dong Energy. Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Initiative has since stepped in, taking a 20 percent stake in the London Array.
The Cirrus Array, previously known as the Shell Flat Offshore Wind Farm, would have been located in the Irish Sea off the northwest coast of England, but it had been beset by objections from environmental groups English Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and, most significantly, the Ministry of Defence.
The Cirrus Array consortium had managed to reach an agreement with English Nature — now known as Natural England — and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds over concerns about birds in 2005 with a relocation of the wind farm site. But it was planes, not birds, that eventually killed the project.
According to the Times, the consortium blamed the failure of the project on continued complaints from the Ministry of Defence over potential radar interference from the turbines. On the consortium’s web site, the group said “it has not been possible to resolve underlying concerns about aviation.”
The UK has an ambitious goal to supply a third of its electricity from wind by 2020, but an investigation by the Observer in October said that goal could be on shaky ground. And that investigation was done before Shell and BP revealed their plans to shift their wind investments to North America. The Observer cited a potentially overwhelming number of obstacles, including the rising costs of offshore wind farms, bureaucratic bottlenecks and a lack of grid infrastructure.
But it’s not all bad news for the UK. Last month, Sweden’s Vattenfall announced plans to invest big in UK wind. The electric utility acquired the planned 300 MW Thanet Offshore Wind project for £35 million, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2009, and also teamed up with Scottish Power to make joint bids on a third round of offshore wind farm development in the UK. Vattenfall said it plans to build 6,000 MW of wind power in the country.
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10 Tips for a Greener, Healthier, Money-Saving Christmas
susan - Sustainable Ideas
1. Buy a live tree – the smell beats plastic — and plant it in your backyard come the New Year. If you’ve given up your car in pursuit of the greener life, you clever soul, here’s a good list of sources for live trees online, delivered to your door.
2. Decorate with solar powered LED Christmas lights – They save power and money and are a step beyond plain old LED lights, which are a step beyond the traditional strings. They can range from $20-60, but here's a source for $19.99 from Solar Illuminations.
3. Use one present to wrap another present — like a napkin or tea towel or scarf around a ceramic mug or box of organic dark chocolate.
4. Choose 100% recycled wrapping paper – or a decorative bag that you close only with a ribbon so the recipient can then easily recycle the bag for their gift to someone else.
5. Unwrap presents SLOWLY – it helps to savor the delicious moment of anticipation AND you can carefully fold the pretty paper and use it again next year.
6. Buy gifts that use no batteries or rechargeable batteries.
7. If you must go the mall, carpool with friends and family – make it into a little party as you travel there and back.
8. Stock the house and the refrigerator with food that is local and organic – it's fresher and healthier.
9. Tired of STUFF? Give food and local/organic wine as presents. Who doesn't like home-baked cookies?! No time for that? A bottle of wine from a local vineyard is always welcome. A good olive oil comes in handy, too – and the mono-unsaturated fatty acids are great for health-conscious friends. Whatever the yummy food, if the label says organic and local, it'll show you really care.
10. Save money decorating the house with holiday cards – hang a string from one corner to another and hang all the beautiful cards you've received from the line – like a laundry line. It's colorful and festive and a reminder of what the season is really about – nurturing ties to friends and family.
(Photo credit:
Green Holiday Gift Idea: Green Gift for Pool Sharks
jchait - Home & Garden
This Cue n’ 8 salt and pepper set is perfect for the green pool shark in your life this holiday season. Created by UK designer Alex Turner and made from “used and bruised” standard British 8 pool balls. Very cute, recycled, and not a bad price - a great gift idea.
Thrifty & Lovely Recycled Home Decor Example
jchait - Home & Garden
I recently saw this great example of a home that the owner decorated with inexpensive, reused, and homemade items. This is a super home example of how green is also extremely attractive, and doesn’t have to be expensive. New green items may be costly, in some cases, but using recycled or homemade items is just as green, and very cost effective.
Here’s a peak at this great home decor:
Many creative examples are in this home - great if you’re looking for DIY decor ideas. See the entire house here.
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