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1. Intel Tests Out Sharp PV for Solar-Powered Data Center
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2. T. Boone's Wind Farm: At Least 2-3 Years Off
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3. PG&E to Soon Take Equity in Solar Projects
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4. Daily Sprout
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5. Changing World Pushing Ahead with Biofuel IPO
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6. Smart Energy Trials Making Headway, But Still Early
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7. Tesla Snubs Customers for A Couple Million Dollars on Delayed Roadsters
Intel Tests Out Sharp PV for Solar-Powered Data Center
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
The containers could also lead to solar-powered servers on a larger scale. As Data Center Knowledge explains, solar has made few inroads with data centers because “the large amounts of energy required to power the servers and cooling equipment in modern mission-critical facilities” would demand massive, expensive PV installations. Containers present the option of lower-cost modular systems.
Intel’s new $200,000 project, installed above a parking lot, comes as just the latest trial in the company’s ongoing search for ways to conserve energy and secure more stable sources of power. Intel has placed its chips, so to speak, on going off-grid — and off oil. It installed an $800,000, 100-kilowatt photovoltaic system at its Hillsboro, Ore., campus last month, and the chipmaker’s investment arm, Intel Capital, has taken a shine to cleantech startups with aggressive timelines.
In a time when researchers expect more than 70 percent of U.S. enterprise data centers to face “tangible disruptions related to energy consumption,” rising costs, and growing area needs in less than two years, Intel is hardly the only tech company wrestling with this. Google has been looking at solar thermal, wind, geothermal and even wave power. For both companies, the clock is ticking.
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T. Boone's Wind Farm: At Least 2-3 Years Off
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Even after T. Boone Pickens’ plan to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas got kicked by the debt markets, he tried to remain optimistic that the funding would come and his plan would only suffer a minor delay. But at the Clean Tech Investor Summit on Wednesday, Pickens said that the farm will likely be pushed back at least to 2011, when the wind turbines are due to be delivered.
And even that deadline might be optimistic, admits Pickens, who calls himself an eternal optimist. “We’ll see what happens in 2-3 years,” he said. Construction of the wind farm was supposed to start in 2010, but this best-case scenario would involve a delay of at least a year. At this point there’s just no money to finance the wind project, says Pickens.
But the hedge fund manager did offer up one new possible way to finance wind projects while funding is scare: a wind bank. Pickens says the Obama administration should look into ways of developing a wind bank that would offer funds for wind developers. He didn’t elaborate on how it would work.
With his wind plans on hold, Pickens largely steered his talk to that of natural gas-powered vehicles, which he says are crucial to getting the U.S. off foreign oil in any meaningful short-term timeline. Pickens says with $28 billion the U.S. could convert 350,000 diesel trucks to natural gas, which as he’s noted before, could create 454,470 jobs and reduce oil imports by 5.14 percent. He wants to address the heavy-duty vehicles first, that the “dribble-down” effect onto regular cars will be felt later.
So far, Pickens is feeling good about the new administration; he called Obama a charismatic guy whom he thinks can get the job done. This is one of the first times in Pickens career that he’s been satisfied with a Democrat. Previously Pickens helped fund the Swift Boat campaign, which played a role in John Kerry’s failed bid for president. As he noted, Sen. Harry Reid once called Pickens his mortal enemy; he has since become Reid’s mortal friend.
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PG&E to Soon Take Equity in Solar Projects
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Northern California utility PG&E will soon start taking equity stakes in solar projects, CEO Peter Darbee told the audience at the Clean Tech Investor Summit in Palm Springs, Calif., on Wednesday. Darbee has openly talked about possibly pushing PG&E to invest in renewable power before, but this morning he said the company plans to submit a filing to the SEC as soon as the next quarter that details its investment plans.
PG&E generates billions in taxable income and could provide much-needed funding for companies to get solar plants up and running. It's a big deal because utilities don't traditionally own solar power-generating systems, and the sagging economy has been forcing solar companies to delay construction of plants and cut staff.
Federal renewable-energy tax credits, which were just revised to include utilities, come in the form of tax breaks, so only companies that pay enough in taxes can take advantage of them. Last April Darbee said that the biggest barrier to taking equity stakes in solar projects was the fact that the credits didn't extend to the utility industry. But the potential investments aren’t only coming from the utility sector: As we’ve previously reported, Fortune 500 companies like Google and Microsoft have also been looking at investing in renewable energy in exchange for the tax credits.
Darbee said at the summit this afternoon that the utility is looking to take stakes in central solar thermal plants, as well as distributed solar PV rooftops, similar to what Southern California Edison has done, and will look at different ways to partner with solar companies. Wind, Darbee said, will be secondary.
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Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Chrysler-Fiat Deal Contingent on More Loans: Anonymous sources say Fiat’s agreement to take a 35-percent stake in Chrysler will not be binding unless Washington loans Chrysler an additional $3 billion. — Wall Street Journal
Toyota the New Top Dog: For the first time since the Great Depression, General Motors cannot call itself the world's largest automaker. Its sales fell behind Toyota in 2008.– New York Times
Energy Storage Taxonomy Unveiled: The Storage Networking Industry Association has proposed a "Green Storage Taxonomy" for classifying energy storage devices based on power consumption where and how they’re used. The group also wants to set a standard for measuring idle power consumption. — Press Release
Carbon Prices Tank: The price of carbon permits has fallen by more than half since mid-2008. They were trading at 11.63 euros (about $15) by early afternoon on Wednesday, largely because of the global economic downturn. — NYT’s Green Inc.
Obama Halts Midnight Regulations: President Barack Obama ordered a freeze on new or proposed regulations at all government agencies and departments yesterday. The Federal Eye blog has a link to the full memo from Rahm Emanuel. — Washington Post’s Federal Eye
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Changing World Pushing Ahead with Biofuel IPO
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Is the recession over? Someone must think so, because Changing World Technologies, a West Hempstead, N.Y.-based biofuel developer, is moving forward with plans for an initial public offering, setting terms at 2.8 million shares for $11 to $15 per share.
In its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Changing World said it has a small-scale facility in Carthage, Mo., that uses a thermal conversion process to make biodiesel, as well as some fertilizer, out of animal and food processing waste. The Carthage plant, the company’s only production facility, has the capacity to convert 78,000 tons of waste into 4-9 million gallons of biodiesel per year, depending on the feedstock mix.
This looks like the first movement in the IPO market for a cleantech company in 2009, and it’s one of just a handful of companies of any kind making an attempt at going public so far this year. A recent report from New Energy Finance painted a grim picture for the public markets for 2009, with debt financing continuing to be a major issue. The group’s chairman and CEO, Michael Liebreich, said in a statement that the stock markets “remain fragile, and this will deter clean energy firms wanting to launch IPOs or secondary issues.”
While it’s unclear what’s compelling Changing World to push ahead with an IPO, it certainly isn’t going to be the same offering that was expected back when the company first filed in August 2008. It’s now aiming to raise up to $42 million, a big drop from the estimated $100 million in the company’s original filing.
The bulk of the money raised could go toward the development of new facilities. In its filing, Changing World said it didn’t have any specific deals in place for new plants, but it’s started talks with several animal and food processors in North America and Europe, as well as with municipal treatment facilities and trap grease aggregators in the northeastern United States.
Backed by Apex Capital, ConAgra Foods, Stonehill Capital, and others, Changing World is aiming to list on the Nasdaq Global Market or NYSE Arca, but did not disclose what symbol it plans to trade under.
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Smart Energy Trials Making Headway, But Still Early
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
The idea of making the power grid smarter has entered the mainstream lexicon this year, with the inclusion of smart grid funding in the proposed stimulus package. Part of making the grid smarter is installing technology in homes — from smart meters, to better software, to wireless in-home networks — to help people monitor and reduce energy and cut down on their electricity bill. Some of the early trials that started in 2008 are starting to show positive results, but the more advanced technology is still taking baby steps.
This morning, smart grid startup Silver Spring Networks and software developer Greenbox are touting results of a small trial with Oklahoma Gas and Electric. Silver Spring’s network technology was installed, along with smart meters in 6,600 apartments for a trial that tested remote monitoring and termination of services; 25 customers tested out energy management services using Greenbox in-home software.
During the trial, the 25 Greenbox customers could view electricity prices, which rise and fall during peak and off-peak times, and were able to adjust their energy consumption accordingly. Silver Spring and Greenbox say the results of the trial were “overwhelmingly positive,” and they said customers were pleased with greater control of their energy consumption. As a result, Oklahoma Gas and Electric says it plans to present the state regulatory commission for an expanded deployment.
Still, a 25-person trial is peanuts on the larger scale and the study didn’t disclose any real data (we’ve asked for more info and we’re waiting to hear back). More than anything, the tiny size is an indicator that utilities are starting to show interest in testing smart grid service, but that energy management is still in the very early days. Think about it: Utilities can clearly see the benefit of being able to remotely monitor and respond to the grid — they can respond faster to outages, and can save on transportation and staffing costs associated with reading meters on site. But it’s too early to tell if customers will actually want to actively manage their energy consumption.
Another recent smart energy trial with startup Positive Energy and Sacramento utility Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is also illuminating on this point. In April 2008, SMUD started working with Positive Energy to offer basic energy reports for 35,000 customers that examine their energy consumption and compare it to the average energy consumption of other users. The trial is still ongoing until March 2009, but SMUD’s Project Manager Ali Crawford told us that so far the results show that “it is working” to reduce energy consumption and offer customers better service. SMUD will likely issue an RFP to start a commercial deployment in the near future.
But unlike energy management services like Greenbox, Positive Energy’s reports — which are printed out and mailed — are supposed to appeal to the average, non-technical, busy household. Customers in the SMUD trial didn’t even have smart meters; they just benefited from more information. While U.S. utilities are about ready to start offering more energy data to customers, they’re treading very cautiously into the early-adopter, real-time-pricing energy management services.
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Tesla Snubs Customers for A Couple Million Dollars on Delayed...
Josie Garthwaite - Startups
Tesla Motors had a tough call to make this week: Anger customers with a price hike on pre-ordered Roadsters that were supposed to be “locked in,” or risk lower profit margins that might scare off future investors. The Silicon Valley luxury electric automaker opted for the former, notifying the 400 people who have deposited $50,000 apiece for undelivered 2008 Roadsters that they will have to pay extra for previously standard options — things like a metallic paint job or a navigation system.
Tesla spokesperson Rachel Konrad explained that the company faces increasing pressure to beef up its profit margins. “The margins are really important on this car for the next group of investors,” she told Wired, “whether it’s public shareholders in an IPO, the federal government looking at federal loan candidates or the next group of venture capitalists.”
Really important. Absolutely. So, will this big bold move give Tesla the boost it needs to get through the credit crunch and on with mass-market production? Probably not. From the numbers posted by Roadster owners (and would-be owners), it looks like the price hikes will bring in only a few million dollars for a company that claims to need $200 million in loans to produce a long-promised sedan priced for the mass market — the supposed key to Tesla’s profitability. If the 400 affected customers fork over at least $6,700 to get all of the previously standard options (not at all guaranteed, since they can skip the special features), it will bring in only about $2.7 million in additional revenue. Not exactly a needle-mover. Would that give you the confidence to invest?
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