Companies
Will Konarka’s solar plastic finally hit the big time with its new $23.8M?
By Camille Ricketts, Green.Venturebeat.com
Konarka, maker of a unique solar plastic, is an old company. In nine years, it has raised more than $150 million from the likes of Chevron, New Enterprise Associates, and the government. But it’s had little to show for it on the market. That could change with a new round of funding (its seventh) that closed today, totaling $23.8 million, according to a filing with the SEC.
Will the company finally have what it needs to step out of the shadows?
Money isn’t Konarka’s only strength. Its technology is actually pretty special too. Its patented photovoltaic material, called Power Plastic, is more efficient than even the best thin-film systems devised by the likes of First Solar and Solyndra. It is lightweight, portable, and perhaps most importantly, flexible — making it suitable for a host of interesting applications ranging from rooftops to apparel.
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SunEdison to Build 50MW of PV Solar for Xcel in New Mexico
SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR), and Xcel Energy’s (NYSE: XEL) regional operating company, Southwestern Public Service Company, announced a deal for five photovoltaic solar installations in New Mexico that will total 50 megawatts (MW) in generation capacity.
The five 10MW sites, to be located in Lea and Eddy counties in southeastern New Mexico, will comprise a utility-scale, ground-mount system that will be fully operational by the end of 2011. In total, the installations will generate enough power for more than 10,000 homes in its first full year of operation.
This total project will enable Xcel Energy to continue meeting New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires that regulated electric utilities meet 15% of their electricity needs by 2015, and 20% by 2020, through renewable energy sources.
The five installations will be built, financed and maintained by SunEdison, under a 20-year solar power services agreement (SPSA) with Xcel Energy, which will buy the solar power generated by the plant.
This project eclipses the 8.22MW (DC) solar power system SunEdison activated for Xcel Energy in Alamosa, Colorado in December 2007.
SunEdison finances, installs and operates distributed power plants using proven photovoltaic technologies, delivering fully managed, predictably priced solar energy services for its commercial, government and utility customers.
Solar wafer maker MEMC acquired SunEdison in October 2009.
The Green Rush Is On In China
by Louisa Lim, NPR.org
A new gold rush in China is actually a green rush — an urgent drive to develop green technologies. One group of Western companies, the Cleantech Initiative, suggests China’s market for renewable energy could eventually be worth as much as $500 billion to $1 trillion a year.
Now, Obama administration officials are warning that the U.S. could risk losing the race in green technologies.
“The future of sustainable energy is here.” The words are emblazoned on a wall at the world’s largest nongovernmental solar research center. It was built by an American company, Applied Materials, in the central Chinese city of Xian.
The cost of solar panels has dropped dramatically — 30 percent in the past year alone. One major reason is the “China price,” or the competitive advantages offered by Chinese manufacturing, with its cheap labor and economies of scale. China is now the world’s biggest producer of photovoltaic solar panels, making about 40 percent of all panels, according to the China Daily, mostly for export.
At Applied Materials’ $250 million research center in Xian, Elizabeth Mayo, a process engineer from Santa Clara, Calif., is working with local staff testing solar panels in the Sunfab panel reliability test lab. This simulates extreme weather conditions, and the company boasts that it is the world’s only laboratory capable of testing 61-square-feet solar panels.
Mayo is impressed by the facilities in Xian. “We don’t have facilities like this in the U.S. We don’t have anything of this magnitude,” Mayo says.
Catrina Ren, an enthusiastic English-speaking engineer, beams while showing a visitor another facility at the research center: vast empty hangars waiting for new pilot lines for crystalline silicon, and thin film solar technology to be installed. “I’m very proud I have chance to work here,” she says. “This is most advantaged tech center in world. I graduated from university only two years ago. I’m very proud.”
And Applied Materials is no doubt overjoyed to have Catrina and her former classmates on staff. Costs in China are much cheaper than in the U.S. An engineering graduate in Xian earns one-tenth of her American counterparts.
And the biggest draw is the eternal lure of China’s fabled market. Gang Zhou, general manager of Applied Materials Xian facility, says the company has decided to put its money where its customer base is.
“China is No. 1 producer of solar panels. That’s where our market is. The China new R&D center, that’s where we validate a lot of R&D work that is being carried out in U.S. and in Europe,” he says.
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Boulder City to have nation’s largest solar PV array
By Stephanie Tavares, Lasvegassun.com
Boulder City is soon to be home to yet another large solar plant, thanks to Sempra Generation receiving final approval to sell solar energy generated in the Eldorado Valley to a California utility.
The company received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission today to sell energy to California’s Pacific Gas and Electric. Sempra will begin construction next month on a 48-megawatt solar thin film power plant, an expansion of its existing 10-megawatt solar plant located near a Sempra natural gas plant along Highway 95.
The two solar plants combined will create the nation’s most powerful solar photovoltaic array, outdoing Nellis Air Force Base’s 14-megawatt photovoltaic array by dozens of megawatts.
The new Boulder City plant will take at least a year to build and will employ more than 200 construction workers and electricians during the building phase, said Sempra President Michael Allman.
“It will be a mix of job types,” Allman said. “Some are for trained electricians but some of the work is basic construction work: installing posts in the ground and installing brackets to hold the panels. … We expect to fill the vast majority of the jobs locally.”
This will be the first solar project built since Sempra completed its 10-megawatt array last December. There are several other projects planned, but most would be on federal land which has a longer permitting process.
The solar energy corridor in Boulder City is owned by the city and is already zoned for solar energy development allowing for fast tracked permitting.
“The land was zoned and ready to go,” Allman said. “We just entered into a lease and we’re off and running. You can’t compare that to BLM land that’s similarly situated with the flat land and the transmission lines, the permitted process is much more complicated and a lot slower.”
New solar energy product could revolutionize industry
From CoolerPlanet.com
A newly announced development from Dow Chemical may change the solar energy industry for homeowners in the coming years.
Dow’s new Powerhouse solar shingle is said to incorporate photovoltaic technology into a roof shingle, potentially allowing people to use their entire rooftop to generate electricity at a reasonable cost. According to the company, the new shingles will be on the market in limited quantities next year, becoming more widely available in 2011.
“These types of innovative products not only showcase our deep scientific and technical expertise but also demonstrate how our commitment to R&D is fueling Dow’s future growth agenda around the world,” said company chairman Andrew Liveris.
The news was also hailed by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm because of the green manufacturing jobs the new product is expected to bring to the state, which has it headquarters in the city of Midland.
The technology is said to involve thin film technologies that have been growing more common throughout the industry. In the coming years, thin film technology may provide advanced new applications for solar energy technology, such as wrapping or printing solar generating material onto a variety of surfaces.
