Renewable Energy Focus
Alternative Energy News - Jan 12
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is set to launch a solar feed-in tariff program for its customers for the first time ever. Under the program, households, businesses, and warehouses would be able to inject excess electricity generated from solar power projects into the grid and earn up to $0.17 per kilowatt hour (kWh). The program will also be open to third-party solar power generators and renewable energy technologies other than solar power.
Renewable Energy World - Solar Energy News - Jan 17
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed changes to a rule that will speed up the process and reduce the costs to interconnect smaller-sized solar power projects to the grid while maintaining system reliability and safety. The changes were necessary, the organization claims, because of market changes that were due to state renewable energy goals and policies.
Bloomberg News - Jan 17
Goldman overtook Morgan Stanley as the biggest lead manager for share offerings with three deals valued at $405.6 million, according to an annual ranking by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The investment bank is backing renewable energy that it expects will gain favor in a global shift it says is inevitable.
Bloomberg News - Jan 16
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who led the government’s response to the BP Plc (BP/) oil spill in 2010, said he will leave his cabinet post by the end of March and return home to Colorado. Salazar, who represented the state in the U.S. Senate before joining President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009, led the 70,000-employee department in promoting solar-energy projects on federal lands, overseeing oil exploration off Alaska’s coast and expanding the nation’s parks network.
Marketwire - Breaking News Releases - Jan 14
Global venture capital (VC) investments plunged nearly 50 percent to $992M in 103 deals in 2012 compared to $1.9B raised in 108 deals the previous year. The 2012 total represents the lowest amount since 2007. VC funding in Q4 2012 came in at $220M in 27 deals compared to just $72M in 14 deals in Q3.
Bloomberg News - Jan 16
Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP), the clean-energy company that received U.S. backing for a $98.5 million loan, will transfer ownership of a power plant to EIG Global Energy Partners LLC to settle a debt. Nevada Geothermal will give up its 100 percent stake in the Blue Mountain geothermal field to repay a loan of about $97.4 million, Vancouver-based Nevada Geothermal said today in a statement. The deal is expected to close within two months.
PhysOrg News - Jan 11
In an effort to provide the most accurate assessment of high-temperature geothermal energy potential in the region, the Idaho Geological Survey recently drilled new wells in southeastern Idaho. Workers successfully completed installation of three wells in the Blackfoot-Gem Valley volcanic field of southeastern Idaho during the fourth quarter of 2012. The wells were drilled within an 18-mile radius of China Hat, a 60,000-year-old region of volcanic rock near Soda Springs, Idaho. The wells allow researchers to precisely measure heat coming out of the Earth, which will help them better understand Idaho's geologic framework, in addition to offering insight into the region's geothermal energy potential.
Notable Renewable Energy Projects and Deals
Wind Power Monthly - Jan 17
Siemens has won an 11.5MW contract from the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for a project in Texas. The Pantex Plant is America's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility and maintain's the US's nuclear weapons stockpile. The Pantex wind farm, located on 1,500 square metres to the east of the plant, will use five Siemens 2.3MW wind turbines. It will be the first project developed by the NNSA and the largest by a federal department.
Energy Business Review - Solar News - Jan 16
Solar panels manufacturer SunPower will deploy a 7.5MW system at the Lake Pleasant Water Treatment Plant in the city of Phoenix. The company will design, manufacture and install 22,936 panels to produce 15 million kWh energy per annum to meet 70% of the plant's energy requirement.
Recharge News - Jan 16
Vestas has signed a deal to supply wind turbine towers to third-party projects in North America, in a boost for its plant in Colorado. The Danish wind equipment group says the two-year supply agreement could utililise up to 25% of the capacity at its tower factory in Pueblo and will create more than 100 jobs by the end of the current quarter.
Forbes Business News - Jan 16
The U.S. Army dedicated its largest solar photovoltaic (PV) system to date at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The 4.1 MW, $16.8 mn system covers 42 acres and utilizes almost 15,500 panels. It was developed in coordination with the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville (Huntsville Center), Siemens Government Technologies, Inc., and Bostonia. The project is expected to provide annual savings of $930,000 and supply approximately 10% of the installation’s electricity requirements.
Fuel Fix - Jan 14
CPS Energy agreed to buy 200 megawatts of wind-generated electricity from a new South Texas wind farm as part of a 25-year agreement with Duke Energy Corp. The wind power is coming from Duke’s Los Vientos I in Willacy County, about 120 miles south of Corpus Christi. The wind farm is on 30,000 acres 20 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
