Cleantech Update

This interesting piece was posted in the Linkedin Cleantech group  pormoting research white paper.com. Promoting commerce is a great thing if its good stuff.  Its an exec summay of  global meta analysis whitepaper on what kind of cleantech each country will be meeting in the future. Thanks, Karen Zang -Editor CleanTech &  Environmental: Emerging Markets Part 1 Our research has highlighted a number of emerging opportunities and markets for different environmental applications; with new opportunities in emerging markets, let us look at China and Gulf States in Part 1. Visit http://researchwhitepaper.com for Global CleanTech & Environmental Capital Providers Guide We had interviewed a number of CleanTech /Environmental professionals in emerging markets last month as well as meeting with the Government policymakers to find out what their “priorities” are in terms of cleantech / environmental tasks. China (National and Health Issues) • Health issue instead of enviro

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved two solar energy contracts for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG & E). Both plants are being developed by BrightSource Energy Inc. The first project, Ivanpah 1, features a 25-year contract length and is expected to be in service in July 2012. Planned for Ivanpah, Calif., the solar thermal plant will have a 110 MW generating capacity and produce 284 GWh per year. Ivanpah 3, which will also be located in Ivanpah, Calif., will have a capacity of 200 MW and generate 516 GWh per year. PG & E has signed a 25-year contract for the energy generated by this project, which has an expected operation date of July 2013. Through its agreements with BrightSource, PG& E will receive deliveries up to 800 GWh of energy per year from two new solar thermal facilities, with deliveries beginning in 2012. PG& E also negotiated a royalty agreement with BrightSource for payments based on sales and licensing fees of its technolo

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) filed an objection with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to a proposal by the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator that would dramatically increase the cost of wind farms grid connections, according to a report by James Murray in Business Green Under the new proposal, energy generators (including wind farms) in 13 midwest states would be required to pay 90% of the cost of any new transmission lines. Previously, the cost was split 50-50 between energy generators and transmission line owners. “At a time when the wind industry is one of the few bright spots of the US economy, having created 35,000 new jobs last year, this policy is saying the Midwest is becoming less friendly for the wind business, and that will clearly have an impact on not only wind development but manufacturing and supply chanin jobs throughout the region, ” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode, quoted in Business Green. The Rest @  Business Green

AltaRock Energy , which received $6.25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for the first demonstration project of enhanced geothermal energy, is facing major delays according to an article by James Glanz of the New York Times. Unidentified scientists told the New York Times that after two months of drilling the company has only reached a depth of 4000 feet. AltaRock started drilling at 3200 feet, the bottom of one of the older holes at The Geysers in Northern California. According to the New York Times, the drill bit snapped off at least once and the company has had to start drilling the hole again. AltaRock originally expected to reach a final depth of 12,000 feet after 50 days of drilling. Enhanced geothermal energy appears to hold great promise for replacing electric power plants run on fossil fuels. It is, however, not without problems. The initial investment needed to develop enhanced geothermal is steep. In addition, technological advances are needed for development

Augsut 5th The Energy Information Agency (EIA), has issued a draft analysis which makes the case for chartering a Green Bank/Clean Energy Deployment Administration. A Green Bank would, according to John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, “enable clean-energy technologies—in such areas as wind, solar, geothermal, advanced biomass, and energy efficiency—to be deployed on a large scale and become commercially viable at current electricity costs.” The establishment of a Green Bank and the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) has already been included in the House energy bill and the Senate Energy Committee bill. Reed Hundt, co-chair of the Coalition for the Green Bank said, “CEDA’s low-cost financing can protect consumers state by state from any electricity price increases as well as create millions of new jobs converting our nation from carbon to clean as the basis of our economy.” Podesta pointed out that “China is investing $220 billion of its economic stim

"Silicon Valley Six" companies are ripe for M&A or IPO * Top four are Solyndra, LinkedIn, Silver Spring, Zynga * Companies have $100 million revenue, proven record By David Lawsky SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Investors, encouraged by a growing number of acquisitions and public floats in the past few months, are keeping a close eye on a coterie of promising startups in Silicon Valley. An informal poll of venture capitalists and others pointed to six privately held companies as the ripest for acquisition or readiness to go public, out of 34 cited in industries ranging from alternative energy to social networking. For now, the Silicon Valley Six say they intend to keep growing rather than agreeing to be acquired or go public during the recession. The top four are business social network LinkedIn, solar panel maker Solyndra, smart grid company Silver Spring, Zynga, a casual games company whose products run on social networks like Facebook. Two others

VRB Power Systems suggests they have an Energy Storage Solution CANADA - JD Holdings Inc acquired all the outstanding common stock of VRB Power Systems (VP), a manufacturer of electrical energy storage system, US7227275 - Method for retrofitting wind turbine farms - 06/05/2007 A power generation system with a predetermined rating limit includes one or more wind turbine generators and a vanadium redox battery. The vanadium redox battery absorbs excess energy to ensure that the rating limit is not exceeded, provide system stability, and improve power generation availability. The power generation system may further include a control system to manage the vanadium redox battery's absorption and power generation to control system stability and system frequency. Altenergy Stocks brief 2006 News

Yingli Enery Holding Company, China's largest PV Producer, producing 450-500 Megawatts this year, has declared a loss on unchaged production. Add this to Spains. PV market drop and we are see ing the affect of PV Overall Prices coming down. -Editor NEW YORK (AP) — Solar cell maker Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. on Wednesday posted a second-quarter loss driven by one-time charges, sending shares tumbling in premarket trading. Shares of Yingli fell 12.5 percent, or $1.47, to $10.27. The Baoding, China-based company reported a loss of 393.7 million Renminbi ($57.6 million), or 3.03 Renminbi per American Depository Share (44 cents per ADS), compared with earnings of $203.9 million Renminbi, or 1.57 Renminbi per ADS ,during the same period last year. Results include charges related to debt extinguishment and derivative liabilities. Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings amounted to 119.8 million Renminbi ($17.5 million), or 0.91 Renminbi per ADS (14 cents per ADS). An

August 18, 2009, 5:56 am The U.S. green technology sector, which suffered a drop in funding early this year, is seeing renewed interest with venture dollars flowing in once again to promising startups and some companies looking to resurrect public offerings that had been set aside, Reuters reported. Investment is seen shifting from capital-intensive energy generating technologies, such as solar and wind, to those associated with energy storage, transportation and efficiency. Bets are being placed on lithium-ion battery makers and startups in the smart grid sector that offer a range of possibilities from helping electric utilities operate systems more efficiently to enabling consumers to control energy use. Smart grid technologies aim to make the existing power grid more efficient and reliable. “Six to nine months ago, people were putting the brakes on everything,” said Gary Vollen, managing director of Robert W. Baird’s clean technology investment banking . “I don’t think w

17 August 2009 (San Francisco Chrinicle) On a high ridge in the Mayacamas Mountains, a drill slowly bores into the earth to test a new way to generate electricity. The test, by a Bay Area company called AltaRock Energy, could give the world another source of renewable energy, a valuable weapon in the fight against global warming. It could also trigger earthquakes in a corner of California that already shakes most every day, a prospect that is jangling the nerves of some nearby homeowners. AltaRock has chosen this ridge to try a new form of geothermal power, using the heat of the Earth to produce energy. The surrounding hills -- in an area known as The Geysers, about 70 miles north of San Francisco -- hold more than a dozen older geothermal plants that tap underground pockets of steam to turn turbines and generate electricity. But AltaRock will drill below the steam pockets, burrowing into deep rocks hotter than 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The company, based in Sausalito, will fracture

In August of last year I wrote an article titled “Grid-based Energy Storage: Birth of a Giant.” Over the last 12 months I’ve written a series of follow-on articles that discuss the principal classes of manufactured energy storage devices and the companies that are making or planning to make products for smart grid energy storage applications. My entire archive of articles on the energy storage sector is available here. One of the biggest problems I’ve encountered over the last year has been a dearth of reliable third party information that can help investors understand the breadth and depth of the business opportunity, and sift through the frequently contradictory claims of energy storage device manufacturers that plan to target the smart grid as a principal market. Since energy storage investors are generally well-informed and frequently opinionated, most of my articles have lengthy comment streams that round out my perspective and are usually more interesting than the articles

Index will drive higher quality, lower costs and measure sustainability of products for first time BENTONVILLE, Ark., July 16, 2009 – Walmart today announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index during a meeting with 1,500 of its suppliers, associates and sustainability leaders at its home office. The index will establish a single source of data for evaluating the sustainability of products. “Customers want products that are more efficient, that last longer and perform better,” said Mike Duke, Walmart’s president and CEO. “ And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know that the materials in the product are safe, that it was made well and that it was produced in a responsible way. “We do not see this as a trend that will fade. Higher customer expectations are a permanent part of the future,” Duke continued. “At Walmart, we’re working to make sustainability sustainable, so

(Sam Hopkins) I had never really wondered what Mars would look like if it had heavy industry. When I set foot in western China's Gansu Province in 2005, I knew. The terrain outside Lanzhou, Gansu's capital and one of the most polluted cities in China, seems other-worldly. Bizarre stone shapes line the road as far as the eye can see. And, as it turns out, you can't cast your gaze very far through the brown haze that shrouds the city. Pregnant women ride their bikes around Lanzhou wearing surgical masks so as not to inhale the noxious air, but so do many men. It's a frightening sight, and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel a little guilty that I would be able to go home to clean air while locals seemed doomed to a life of sooty snot and coughs. Now, though, I feel more optimistic about Gansu's future. . . the province will soon be home to China's first 10 gigawatt wind farm. China's Hinterlands are Ignored No More People in Shanghai or Be

American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) to establish a combined efficiency and renewable electricity standard that requires utilities to supply an increasing percentage of their demand from a combination of energy efficiency savings and renewable energy (6% in 2012, 9.5% in 2014, 13% in 2016, 16.5% in 2018, and 20% in 2021-2039). Provides for:  (1) issuing, trading, banking, retiring, and verifying renewable electricity credits; and  (2) prescribing standards to define and measure electricity savings from energy efficiency and energy conservation measures. Amends the Clean Air Act (CAA) to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to: (1) set forth a national strategy to address barriers to the commercial-scale deployment of carbon capture and sequestration; (2) establish an approach to certify and permit geologic sequestration; and (3) promulgate regulations to minimize th

June 26, 2009, will go down as an historic moment in world’s efforts to tackle climate change. For the first time, a Congressional body passed legislation that would place mandatory limits on the emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. By the barest margin of 219 to 212, the House of Representatives voted for a bill spearheaded by Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). If it becomes law, the measure would require a massive switch to cleaner sources of energy over the next four decades. “This is the landmark energy and environmental legislative achievement of a generation,” says Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Global Warming Campaign. The legislation itself is enormous. It’s more than a thousand pages long, filled with obscure provisions that will keep an army of lobbyists employed for years. It’s been resoundingly panned both by groups on the left, such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, who see it

The concept of additionality addresses the question of whether the project would have happened anyway, even in the absence of revenue from carbon credits. Only carbon credits from projects that are "additional to" the business-as-usual scenario represent a net environmental benefit. Carbon projects that yield strong financial returns: even in the absence of revenue from carbon credits; or that are compelled by regulations; or that represent common practice in an industry are usually not considered additional, although a full determination of additionality requires specialist review. It is generally agreed that voluntary carbon offset projects must also prove additionality in order to ensure the legitimacy of the environmental stewardship claims resulting from the retirement of the carbon credit (offset). According the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WRI/WBCSD) : "GHG emission trading programs operate by capping the emissions

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Joint implementation (JI) is one of three flexibility mechanisms set forth in the Kyoto Protocol to help countries with binding greenhouse gas emissions targets (so-called Annex I countries) meet their obligations. JI is set forth in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol . [1] Under Article 6, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as "Joint Implementation Projects") in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically. In this way countries can lower the costs of complying with their Kyoto targets by investing in greenhouse gas reductions in an Annex I country where reductions are cheaper, and then applying the credit for those reductions towards their commitment goal. A JI project might involve, for example, replacing a coal-fired power plant with a more efficient combined heat and power plant. Most JI projects are expected to take place in so-called "economies in transition," noted in Annex B of the

A carbon project refers to a business initiative that receives funding because of the cut the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that will result. To prove that the project will result in real, permanent, verifiable reductions in Greenhouse Gases, proof must be provided in the form of a project design document and activity reports validated by an approved third party in the case of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI) projects. Carbon projects are developed for reasons of voluntary environmental stewardship , as well as legal compliance under a Greenhouse Gas Cap & Trade program. Voluntary carbon (GHG) reducers may wish to monetize reductions in their carbon footprint by trading the reductions in exchange for monetary compensation. The transfer of environmental stewardship rights would then allow another entity to make an environmental stewardship claim. There are several developing voluntary reduction standards that projects can use as guides for d

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex B countries) invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionality". The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialized countries. However, in recent years, criticism against the mechanism has increased. The CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board (CDM EB) and is under the guidance of the Conference of the Parties (COP/MOP) of the U

A carbon offset is a financial instrument aimed at a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. There are two markets for carbon offsets. In the larger compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. In 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.[2] In the much smaller voluntary market, individuals, companies, or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electricity use, and other sources. For example, an individual might purchase carbon offse

Enphase Energy Inc. Announces Executive Appointment 05/18/2009 Enphase Energy Inc. announced it has secured $22.5 million in new financing, led by Madrone Capital Partners . This round of funding also includes new investor Bay Partners as well as existing investors Third Point Ventures , RockPort Capital Partners and Applied Ventures , LLC. Jamie McJunkin, General Partner of Madrone Capital Partners will join Enphase Energy's Board of Directors. Akeena Solar Inc. and Enphase Energy Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership 02/2/2009 Akeena Solar Inc. and Enphase Energy Inc . have announced a strategic partnership to develop and market Andalay solar panel systems with ordinary AC house current output instead of high voltage DC output. Andalay AC panels are expected to cost less to install and provide higher performance than ordinary DC panels. Under the agreement Akeena will purchase a minimum of 5,000 microinverters in each of 2009 and 2010, and Enphase will supply up to 100,000 micro

August 2009 U.S. Department of the Treasury and Department of Energy to make Direct Cash Payments for Businesses Developing Renewable Energy Facilities- The U.S. government announced Friday that it is now accepting applications for renewable energy funding lead by President Barack Obama ’s initiative to expand nationwide sustainability and green energy job prospects. The U.S. Department of Energy , along with the U.S. Department of the Treasury will be allocating direct payments in place of tax credits to companies that establish and develop renewable energy facilities; funding to the sum of roughly $3 billion for approximately 5,000 generation plants producing varying sources of renewable energy . Secretary Steven Chu states, “This program will play a major role in encouraging private sector capital to invest in clean energy development, creating new jobs that can’t be outsourced. It is an investment that will continue to help our economy grow and ensure advancement in clean and ren

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Renewable Ventures, a Fotowatio company, today announced the completion of Solar Fund V to finance more than $200 million of new solar energy projects across the United States. The fund's first project is a two-megawatt solar photovoltaic project located in Ft. Collins, Colorado that will sell energy to Colorado State University and renewable energy credits to one of the state's utilities, Xcel Energy. Solar Fund V, the fifth fund organized by Renewable Ventures and the first as Fotowatio's U.S.-based subsidiary, reinforces the company's growth strategy in the United States. The fund will focus on the development and acquisition of commercial, public sector, and utility-scale solar projects from one to 10 megawatts in size. "With this new infusion of capital, we stand ready to work with businesses, utilities and others to immediately finance, develop, or acquire megawatts of large-scale solar projects in the U.S.," said Re

And the host of companies looking to make such in-home energy display systems is expanding rapidly, with dozens of startups such as Integrators: People who have busines models that selecte and group pieces of technology and services to activly monitor Energy Use in a facility. Tendril Networks , EnergyHub Energate Control4 , Greenbox Technology , Onzo AlertMe eMeter OpenPeak Utility Companies will have to provide the power for these guys, and there are many of them. They will buy software that holds it all together. People that make software that holds it all together, and are comepting to sell to the utility companies Google , Microsoft Cisco ,

By Jeff St. John Comverge ( COMV ) has landed another deal that calls for it to turn down homes' energy use during peak demand times with pagers at first, and with smart meters later on.The deal is with Dominion Virginia Power ( D ), and calls for Comverge to manage about 117 megawatts of commercial and industrial power loads . Comverge will also provide its Apollo software platform to manage demand response devices for about 150,000 homes – representing roughly 150 megawatts of power use – which the utility wants to hook up with smart meters eventually. The idea is to turn down home air conditioners, water heaters and pool pumps – the devices Comverge can now control – using its existing mainly pager-based communication system at first, said Mike Picchi, Comverge's interim president and CEO. Then, as Dominion rolls out its smart meters, made by German manufacturer Elster, Comverge will switch over to using them as the gateway into the home instead, Picchi said. Comverge'