Companies
Empower Energies Seeks North American Renewable Energy Projects In Need of Financing
US renewable energy investment advisory services and development company specializes in connecting bankable projects with financing.
Empower Energies, LLC, a global renewable energy investment advisory services and development company headquartered outside Washington, DC, announced the availability of new funding sources for renewable energy projects, with an emphasis on North American ventures.
“We’re looking to immediately secure more bankable renewable energy projects,” said Len Jornlin, President and CEO of Empower Energies. “Over the next 45 days we’re prioritizing projects for domestic investors and several visiting international due diligence teams on site visits to the US.”
The company’s consortium of investors is seeking to finance or acquire clean energy projects, developers, or manufacturers according to the criteria listed in this downloadable pdf. This group will also consider co-investment in renewable energy funds.
“We are exclusively focused on Renewables,” Jornlin noted. “That is our forte. Our partners are primarily interested in solar, wind, and biomass projects, and in developers with “live? projects.”
Empower Energies offers extensive financing and development expertise in the renewable energy business worldwide. Since 1994, its management team has experience in the pioneering clean energy companies of their time on the ground in more than 45 countries across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Empower Energies provides fit-for-market solutions which accelerate development and entry or expansion into growing markets. Working closely with a unique mix of financing partners, the company understands and manages risk – especially in emerging markets – and delivers attractive returns on investment and measurable local economic development.
Although the organization specializes in emerging clean energy markets worldwide, Empower Energies is a US-based company, and is currently focused on the rapidly-developing North American marketplace.
“Solar, in particular, has been a cyclical business,” Jornlin continued. “Investment has traditionally focused where government support intersects with a strong technology base, manufacturing capacity, local development capability, and an engaged public. Right now no markets are hotter than the United States and Canada.”
Empower Energies helps local developers do more faster with less risk, by providing financial resources, proven expertise, and global relationships. The company provides select partners in emerging clean energy markets with an array of branded, adaptable tools and services engineered to enable accelerated time-to-market, ROI, and risk management.
Since its founding in 2009, Empower Energies has originated and executed confidential investor transactions amounting to more than $378 million, including the monetization of “orphaned” or distressed solar and wind projects.
About Empower Energies, LLC
Founded to finance and develop clean energy projects globally, Empower Energies, LLC also specializes in helping overseas Renewable Energy companies compress their North American market entry timeline. With a focus on solar electric projects, the organization’s principals provide extensive experience in solar photovoltaic CPV, biomass and other renewable energy technologies as well. Empower Energies has significant experience across the solar value chain, and offers a successful track record since 1994 in established and emerging solar markets around the world. To date, Empower Energies has provided investment advisory services and clean energy investment opportunities valued at $378 million. The company is headquartered just outside Washington, DC, in Frederick, MD, USA.
Removing the Rare Element Shackles from Solar Energy
By Daryl J. Ehrmantraut
Our future energy requirements depend on reaching the ‘holy grail’ of electricity generation – Finding a cheaper alternative to coal and other fossil fuels. The availability of an alternative energy source would also contribute significantly to energy self-sufficiency in North America.
Every hour more energy from the sun hits the earth than the world’s entire population consumes in a single year. Given this abundance, solar energy is our world’s most obvious energy choice. Why then, is less than 1% of our global electricity supply powered by solar energy? Because the industry has been unable to harness the three critical success factors for global solar deployment – high efficiency, low cost and high materials availability for deployment on a global scale.
Current solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies generate electrical power by converting solar radiation into an electric current using semiconductor material. The process involved is called the photovoltaic effect (PV). Today, solar PV cannot be realized on a worldwide scale because neither of the two main technologies presented today; crystalline silicon PV and thin-film PV, completely address the three critical success factors. Crystalline silicon PV possesses high efficiency using abundant materials but they are very expensive to manufacture. It wins on two of the 3 critical success factors. Thin-film PV on the other hand is cheap to manufacture but has low efficiency and relies on rare and toxic elements in its manufacture. It wins on one critical success factor. Furthermore most thin-film technologies use dangerous, toxic materials including cadmium telluride and indium among others.
Despite the challenges, the global market for solar PV technology is growing very rapidly. Some analysts predicting solar PV could contribute as much as 10-15% of our global electricity by 2050.
As we seek to move solar energy into the mainstream, we need to retain the industry’s green integrity and bypass the pitfalls of electronic waste. Creating safe, affordable solar energy solutions requires research and development that eliminates the sector’s reliance the scarce and dangerous elements that are in limited supply, toxic, difficult to mine, or found only in select, sometimes geopolitically unfriendly regions of the world.
At Quantum Solar Power Corp., we are developing NGD™ a solar PV device which we believe will address all 3 critical success factors –high efficiency, low cost and high scalability through the use of abundant non-toxic materials. We believe Quantum will win on all three critical success factors. Quantum’s revolutionary approach to solar PV design will revolutionize the solar power market. We invite other solar technology companies and manufacturers to join our quest to create safe, affordable solar technology solutions that will literally light up the lives of people across the world.
There is no doubt that our predicted energy needs have a “sunny” future. According to the American Solar Energy Society, U.S. manufacturing of PV components — wafers, cells, and modules — has increased substantially year-over-year, with growth rates demonstrated at 97%, 81%, and 62% respectively. In 2009, the U.S. solar industry grew 36% to nearly $4 billion and supported the addition of 17,000 new jobs.
It is important for our geopolitical future that we create a clean energy economy along with a strong energy policy. A sunny future for our children demands that we continue to create green sector jobs that replace our dependency on fossil fuels with renewable energy through wind turbines, hydro-electric power and solar photovoltaic technologies that make solar energy a globally deployable, environmentally smart energy source.
About the author:
Daryl J. Ehrmantraut is Chief Executive Officer, President & Director of Quantum Solar Power Corporation, www.quantumsp.com, which is developing a “Next Generation Device” (NGD™) photovoltaic technology. Mr. Ehrmantraut lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. He can be reached at info@quantumsp.com
New Energy Generates Electricity on Flexible Plastic Using Novel See-Through SolarWindow(TM) Coatings
New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: NENE) today announced that researchers developing its SolarWindow(TM) technology, capable of generating electricity on see-through glass, have now successfully generated electricity on flexible plastic using the Company’s ‘spray-on’ coating methods – an important technical achievement necessary for the development of electricity-generating window films.
“Today’s breakthrough supports a brand new commercial application for our core SolarWindow(TM) technology and is the direct result of numerous patent-pending methods, materials, and processes we have worked hard to invent and develop,” explained Mr. John A. Conklin, President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.
“These important technology breakthroughs have already resulted in a successful public demonstration last year of our SolarWindow(TM) application on glass, able to generate electricity while remaining see-through. Since then, New Energy’s product development group has worked aggressively to advance our SolarWindow(TM) application for glass windows towards commercial manufacturability. Concurrently, our research scientists have been working to create new and exciting SolarWindow(TM) products which reach beyond glass. The result is today’s announcement regarding our ability to generate electricity on flexible plastics.”
Scientists anticipate that commercially developed electricity-generating flexible plastic could be deployed as tinted window film, which remains see-through while generating electrical power. Traditionally, the prospect of creating see-through flexible plastic which generates electricity has been limited by numerous technical challenges, including the need for cumbersome temperature-specific, pressure sensitive, and expensive process methods for applying coatings to plastic surfaces.
New Energy researchers achieved today’s breakthrough by spraying the Company’s electricity-generating coatings onto flexible, lightweight lab-scale plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or “PET”) at room temperature and at low pressure, which may result in reduced manufacturing costs. While developing the first working PET prototype, researchers also overcame conventional issues with surface preparation, considered vital to achieving maximum strength of the coatings’ bond to the surface, and for optimizing product durability and lifespan.
Notably, researchers were able to maintain the working ‘architecture’ of New Energy’s SolarWindow(TM) while achieving flexibility. The SolarWindow(TM) architecture enables various important functions such as generating electricity on the surface of plastic and distributing electricity to the circuit.
Currently under development for eventual commercial deployment in the estimated 85 million commercial buildings and homes in America, SolarWindow(TM) is the subject of ten new patent filings and is the world’s first-of-its-kind technology capable of generating electricity on see-through glass windows.
About New Energy Technologies, Inc.
New Energy Technologies, Inc., together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a developer of next generation alternative and renewable energy technologies. Among the Company’s technologies under development are:
MotionPower(TM) roadway systems for generating electricity by capturing the kinetic energy produced by moving vehicles – a patent-pending technology, the subject of 18 US and International patent applications. An estimated 250 million registered vehicles drive more than six billion miles on America’s roadways, every day; and
SolarWindow(TM) technologies which enable see-through windows to generate electricity by ‘spraying’ their glass surfaces with New Energy’s electricity-generating coatings – the subject of ten patent applications. These solar coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of ‘thin’ films and make use of the world’s smallest functional solar cells, shown to successfully produce electricity in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics.
Through established relationships with universities, research institutions, and commercial partners, we strive to identify technologies and business opportunities on the leading edge of renewable energy innovation. Unique to our business model is the use of established research infrastructure owned by the various institutions we deal with, saving us significant capital which would otherwise be required for such costs as land and building acquisition, equipment and capital equipment purchases, and other start-up expenses. As a result, we are able to benefit from leading edge research while employing significantly less capital than conventional organizations.
For additional information, please visit: www.newenergytechnologiesinc.com
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
No statement herein should be considered an offer or a solicitation of an offer for the purchase or sale of any securities. This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although New Energy Technologies, Inc. (the “Company” or “New Energy Technologies”) believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” or “project” or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to adverse economic conditions, intense competition, lack of meaningful research results, entry of new competitors and products, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, inadequate capital, unexpected costs and operating deficits, increases in general and administrative costs, termination of contracts or agreements, technological obsolescence of the Company’s products, technical problems with the Company’s research and products, price increases for supplies and components, litigation and administrative proceedings involving the Company, the possible acquisition of new businesses or technologies that result in operating losses or that do not perform as anticipated, unanticipated losses, the possible fluctuation and volatility of the Company’s operating results, financial condition and stock price, losses incurred in litigating and settling cases, dilution in the Company’s ownership of its business, adverse publicity and news coverage, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and research scientists, changes in interest rates, inflationary factors, and other specific risks. There can be no assurance that further research and development will validate and support the results of our preliminary research and studies. Further, there can be no assurance that the necessary regulatory approvals will be obtained or that New Energy Technologies, Inc. will be able to develop commercially viable products on the basis of its technologies. In addition, other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company’s most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports and filings may be inspected and copied at the Public Reference Room maintained by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. You can obtain information about operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission at 1-800-SEC-0330. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission also maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect the events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Principal Solar, Inc. (PSWW) Launches World’s First Solar Energy Library
Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), a publicly traded renewable energy holding company which concentrates its resources on rapidly advancing the inevitable, worldwide utilization of solar power through a unique roll-up strategy, today launched the Definitive Solar Library, the world’s first online reference center dedicated exclusively to solar energy.
“Efforts to capture the power of the sun at a reasonable cost continue to evolve, positioning solar energy as one of the hottest topics around the world and creating the need for straightforward information and perspectives that improve upon the renewable energy exchange of ideas,” says Michael Gorton, CEO and president of Principal Solar, Inc. “By defining the issues, collecting and distributing information, the Definitive Solar Library will serve as a valuable educational outpost for leaders of government, business and academia. It will also be accessible to consumers who want to join the dialogue.”
In conjunction with launch of the Library, Principal Solar today released two white papers:
• “Under the Sun: Putting Environmental and Regulatory Issues to Work,” co-authored by Gorton and Scott D. Deatherage, partner, Patton Boggs, guides investors through the technical, legal and environmental issues required for making solar projects work successfully.
• “Interfacing with the Electrical Grid,” co-authored by Ken Allen, chief operating officer, Principal Solar, and Ron Seidel, PE, board of directors, Principal Solar, outlines the interconnection of power sources with renewable generation and the roles of federal, regional and state regulatory agencies in the processes.
“Because more entities have become aware of solar energy and its many attributes, timing for this launch is ideal,” said Gorton. “We expect the Library to improve upon existing practices and deliver additional solutions that advance significant social and economic value to communities, governments and individuals worldwide.”
About Principal Solar
Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), is a publicly traded renewable energy holding company which concentrates its resources on the acquisition, finance, development and management of solar power companies to rapidly advance the inevitable utilization of solar power. The company is building the world’s first online library dedicated exclusively to the field of solar energy – a 24-hour gateway to current information, perspectives and thought-leadership: www.definitivesolarlibrary.com. Visit www.PrincipalSolar.com.
Silicon Energy Unveils One of the World’s Strongest Extended Warranties for PV Systems
Woodland Park Zoo
Silicon Energy, a manufacturer of world-class solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for the North American market, announced today that it has extended its Silicon Energy Cascade PV System Power Warranties by five years. Based on over two years of field performance data and extensive third-party testing by NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), Silicon Energy’s decision to extend its product warranty makes it one of the strongest warranties in the industry.
“We are committed to making solar a mainstream energy source with products that are safe, durable, maximize energy production, increase energy harvest, are aesthetically appealing, and support our local economy and environment with smart manufacturing practices,” said Gary Shaver, president, Silicon Energy. “Customers who choose Silicon Energy for their PV systems are choosing best-in-class products, now backed by one of the industry’s top warranties. Our product lifespan, application flexibility and optimized energy harvesting capability make our product a great investment.”
For Silicon Energy’s growing network of partners and contractors who sell and install the company’s PV systems, the extended warranty provides an added incentive for customers who want a long-term system that boasts a 40+ year usable life and innovative design that provides completely sealed wiring to make it extremely safe, a theft-resistant mounting system, the highest industry fire rating, and frameless design that allows water, dirt, snow and ice to easily flow off for optimal light access and energy creation even in extreme weather conditions. The Silicon Energy glass-on-glass construction also enables installations such as awnings, carports, patio covers, and bus shelters. For those design-conscious customers, the company also provides custom color mounting hardware for visual continuity.
Silicon Energy’s extended warranty is available starting July 1st for its Cascade PV System.
· Limited Product Warranty Materials & Workmanship: 5 years
· Limited Power Warranty:
Power Output Table
1-15 years (up from 10 years) ? 90% PMAX
16-30 years (up from 25 years) ? 80% PMAX
In addition to presenting its extended warranty, Silicon Energy recently has been able to reduce its pricing as a result of manufacturing improvements and strengthened vendor relationships.
“When choosing Silicon Energy PV systems, our customers are making a sound investment in solar, their local economy, their environment, and clean energy creation for many, many years to come,” closed Shaver.
About Silicon Energy
Founded in 2007, Silicon Energy delivers the highest quality and durable photovoltaic (PV) modules on the market today. Made in Washington and Minnesota, Silicon Energy’s sustainable approach to doing business offers customers a durably-made, locally-manufactured product that was created without negative environmental impact. The company’s philosophy of supporting the local and US economy and commitment to creating long-lasting, aesthetically pleasing PV allows customers to be confident that they are reducing their carbon footprint through solar installations and contributing to local business. Silicon Energy PV Systems are available through select partners for home, commercial, government and utility installations. For more information about Silicon Energy, please visit www.silicon-energy.com or call (360) 618-6500.
Running on Sunshine: Watch a Solar Field Being Built
DURHAM, NC – GE Aviation’s Durham, North Carolina facility, cut the ribbon on its new $3 million, seven acre solar power field that will provide enough renewable energy to power 1/3 of the facility’s electrical power during daylight hours.
The new solar power field, located next to the Durham facility, will utilize products from GE Energy’s growing portfolio of solar solutions. The field is the first complete Utility Scale Solar Power Plant installed by the company and includes a Brilliance™ Inverter, monitoring and controls, and racking and cabling in addition to more than 9,000 thin film panels that provide the renewable energy. The field will produce 700 KW of power for the Durham facility or enough energy to power 200 homes. The solar power field will also help GE Aviation Durham reduce its CO2 emissions by more than 400 million tons a year, which is the equivalent of removing 77 cars from the road each year.
“The solar power field is one of more than 200 energy reduction projects that GE Aviation Durham has implemented in the last few years,” said Mike Wagner, plant manager of GE Aviation Durham. “These projects have enabled the site to reduce its electricity bill by 30 percent while increasing its production level by 50 percent.”
The solar power field is part of GE’s ecomagination initiative, which includes a commitment by GE to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25 percent, water usage by 25 percent and energy intensity reduction by 50 percent. For more information about GE’s ecomagination, visit: www.ecomagination.com.
GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. GE Aviation Durham assembles commercial engines for commercial aircraft. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation
EchoFirst Solar Energy Technology: How It Works
EchoFirst® Inc. (formerly PVT Solar) is the creator of Echo®, a revolutionary new solar energy system that delivers twice the energy of a basic solar electric (PV) system.
Unlike a basic solar system that only captures about 15% of the sun’s energy, Echo® captures over 50% of the sun’s energy, making it a more efficient system. This video helps explain the technology behind Echo’s revolutionary technology that produces electricity plus home heating, home cooling, water heating and fresh air ventilation.
For more information visit their website, EchoFirst.com
