Industrial Nanotech Enters Solar Energy Market after Completing Successful Field Trials

Industrial Nanotech, Inc., an emerging global leader in nanotechnology, announced today that the Company’s “Nansulate Solar” is currently being specified on both solar panels and the pipes and tanks of solar hot water systems to increase efficiency and lower operating costs.

“Field trials of Nansulate Solar began a year ago in March of 2008 by Universal Energy Group, Inc., located in Stockton, California,” stated Francesca Crolley, VP of Operations and Marketing for Industrial Nanotech. “After twelve months of data collection, the product proved to successfully increase the efficiency and lower the operating cost of solar systems when used on the solar panels of solar energy systems and on numerous components of solar hot water systems. Universal Energy Group is now including Nansulate Solar as the standard in their solar installations and selling to other solar energy companies. Additional information about this product can be found at Nansulate.”

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Sunsei GreenMeter Approved for Rebates in California

ICP Solar Technologies Inc., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary solar panels and products, today announced that the Company’s Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM has been approved for certain solar-based incentives in the State of California. Specifically, the GreenMeter^TM has been added to the list of approved products under California’s PMRS subsidy program, such that residents installing this unique ICP Solar application will qualify to receive rebates, tax credits, and other incentives under the “Go Solar California” initiative - a $2.2 billion program. The Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM is now listed as an eligible Meter and the associated web service is listed as an eligible Performance Monitoring and Reporting Service provider.

“California installers can now offer their clients an advanced, accurate metering and monitoring product with an even more attractive value proposition - making it easier to spur adoption of this innovative, solar-powered solution,” said Sass Peress, CEO. “Expanding into the California solar market - the largest in North America - is critical to our successful rollout out of the Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM and establishing it as the leading application of its kind.”

BusinessWire

Los Angeles Solar Measure Falls Behind in Votes

A controversial ballot measure in Los Angeles to increase solar power installations in the city has fallen behind, and will be rejected unless thousands of late or provisional ballots swing the outcome.

Measure B, as the issue was known, would require the local utility - the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power - to ramp up solar power production dramatically by installing 400 megawatts’ worth of panels by 2014. (That is a substantial amount - nearly one-third of the size of a record solar deal recently signed by Southern California Edison.)

The controversy centered on how - not whether - Los Angeles should move forward with solar power.

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First Solar Agrees to Acquire Multi Gigawatt Utility Scale Photovoltaic Pipeline

First Solar, Inc. today announced it has entered into an agreement to significantly expand its penetration within the U.S. utility solar power market with the acquisition of OptiSolar’s solar project pipeline. The acquisition includes:

• A 550 megawatt (MW) AC solar development project under a power purchase agreement with PG&E
• A project pipeline of additional 1,300MW AC which are in negotiation with Western region utilities for solar development projects
• Strategic land rights of approximately 136,000 acres (approximately 210 square miles) with the potential to deploy up to 19 gigawatts (GW) AC of utility-scale solar power projects

In addition, the core development team responsible for assembling and executing on the solar project pipeline will join the First Solar development team.

First Solar expects to construct solar power plants developed under the acquired solar power project pipeline over the next several years and sell them to a combination of regulated utilities, diversified energy companies and other independent power producers.

First Solar’s investment in the development pipeline and planned projects ensures that at least 400 new green collar jobs will be created in California. First Solar is committed to supporting the planned projects and will use its resources to bring these projects on-line on time. Project development is planned to begin as early as 2010.

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Bright Future As Berkeley Starts Solar Program

Two Berkeley homeowners received checks for their new solar panels on Friday, becoming the first to flip the switch on the city’s much-ballyhooed, closely watched solar financing program.

“I’m a guinea pig, but there’s no way I could have afforded solar otherwise,” said Jeanne Pimentel, an editor who has 11 solar panels on her Allston Way home. “Because of this, I can help solve our energy problem without putting any money up front.”

Berkeley’s program allows property owners to pay for solar panels through a 20-year assessment on their property taxes. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. rebates and new tax breaks guaranteed in the federal stimulus package reduce the cost further, so most homeowners begin saving on electric bills immediately.

Twelve states, including New York, Washington and Colorado, and 50 California cities, including San Francisco and San Diego, are following Berkeley’s model and are closely watching how the program unfolds.

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California Solar Startups Might Get Help in Unlikely Places

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s solar power market and its startups stand to gain from utilities making a direct play into renewable energy development, a prominent industry representative said in an interview yesterday.

Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, said she welcomes Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s decision this week to launch a five-year effort to build and own solar-run power plants totaling 250 megawatts. The deal, she said, is a sign that the state’s installers, distributors and manufacturers could find enough work to weather the economic downturn.

“It’s a win-win on either side,” said Kateley, who represents solar companies all along the supply chain.

San Francisco-based PG&E has backed its ownership plans with a second track under which the utility intends to help finance another 250 MW of development. PG&E CEO Peter Darbee said the company expects to spend $1.4 billion to see the entire 500 MW online by 2015.

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Cost of Solar Installation has Fallen in the Past Decade

The cost of installing solar panels on homes and businesses plunged 27.6 percent from 1998 through 2007, according to a new study that questions some of the conventional wisdom about solar power’s price.

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examined the costs of 37,000 photovoltaic systems across the country and found the average price fell from $10.50 per watt in 1998 to $7.60 per watt in 2007. Those averages include residential systems as well as larger arrays installed on businesses and do not take into account financial incentives from the federal or state governments.

Smaller, home-size systems averaged $8.30 per watt in 2007, which was more than the average at commercial installations. At that price, a typical 3-kilowatt residential solar system would cost $24,900.

The study’s findings, released Thursday, contain one surprise.

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Mergers Underway in Home Solar Installation Market

The home solar installation market will see fewer but larger players as the pace of mergers and acquisitions accelerates, industry insiders forecast.

Wednesday, a New England solar installer announced an aggressive move into sunny California, acquiring the residential-installation portion of Borrego Solar Systems, a San Diego County company with three Northern California offices.

GroSolar, based in White River Junction, Vt., will emerge from the deal as the fourth-largest residential solar installer in the United States, and its chief executive said it hopes to rival industry leaders SolarCity of Foster City, Akeena Solar of Los Gatos and REC Solar of San Luis Obispo.

“California is 70 percent of the solar market,” said Jeff Wolfe, GroSolar’s CEO. “We’ve very consciously grown our business. We wanted to be firmly established before we entered the fray here.”

The move follows the recent merger of two other solar companies, Regrid Power of Campbell and Real Goods Solar of Hopland.

“The market is definitely showing signs of commoditization,” said Tom McCalmont, the Regrid Power executive who is now CEO of Real Goods Solar. “This happens in all markets as they mature.”

Installing rooftop solar systems continues to be a booming business in the state. Twice as many megawatts of solar power went online in 2008 as in 2007, according to a recent report by the California Public Utilities Commission.

In all, 158 megawatts of solar power were installed in 2008, up from 78 megawatts in 2007. Since the California Solar Initiative was launched in early 2007, the state program has received 18,290 applications for solar project rebates.

GroSolar started as an installer in 1998, and began distributing panels to other installers in 2004, Wolfe said. It received venture funding in 2006, and added commercial installations to its residential and distribution business in 2008.

The company now does home solar installations in nine states and has 200 employees. It will absorb 65 workers from Borrego.

Borrego Solar Systems, based in El Cajon, will move away from residential installations to concentrate on commercial and government solar projects, which make up 75 percent of its business, CEO Mike Hall said.

“When we looked forward at how to scale the business, we needed to start thinking about megawatts, not kilowatts,” Hall said.

Borrego will focus on projects generating from 200 kilowatts to 3 megawatts, with a special emphasis on schools and low-income and multiunit housing projects. It will keep a Bay Area presence, opening an office in the East Bay in the near future, Hall said.

GroSolar will keep Borrego’s locations in San Jose, Berkeley and Petaluma, and plans to drop the Borrego name in about four months, Wolfe said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both companies are private.

GroSolar is well-positioned to become a large player in rooftop installations, Hall said. “My prediction is that there will be a couple of large, national residential integrators (installers),” he said, “but probably just a couple. There are economies of scale when you’re the biggest.”

Right now, seven to 10 companies are trying to become large national or multi-region players.

A 2008 study from the state’s community colleges found more than 700 companies were installing solar in California, but the head of the California Solar Energy Industries Association noted that the top 50 companies do the lion’s share of installations.

“It would not be surprising to see more mid- and large-size contractors start to merge,” said Sue Kateley, CalSEIA’s executive director.

Still, new companies continue to enter the solar market - especially in the down economy, when general contractors and roofing companies are adding solar to their portfolios, she said.

“One theory is that 20 years down the road, we might be looking at solar as similar to the heating-air conditioning model with large, franchises like Carrier, Trane and Lennox, and then a number of small, independent companies,” Kateley said.

Matt Nauman
San Jose Mercury News

President Obama’s Stimulus Package Gives a Boost to Clean Energy

Among the incentives, the plan will allow developers of renewable-energy projects to swap tax credits for cash grants.

The renewable-energy sector got a lift from the economic stimulus package signed Tuesday, with a fix to a crucial tax issue that had stalled projects nationwide.

Solar and wind companies said it could take several months for the legislation to get portions of the industry moving again. But some players are already gearing up for growth.

SolarCity, a Foster City, Calif., company that’s one of the nation’s largest residential solar firms, will end a hiring freeze in place since December and begin seeking more installers immediately, said Chief Executive Lyndon Rive.

“We should be adding 16 or so crews over the next few months,” Rive said. “This is a great step toward resolving our challenges.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will invest nearly $79 billion in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green transportation, according to a final tally of the legislation by the nonprofit Environment California.

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Solar Water Heating Incentives May Be On The Way

Ninety percent of the hot water that pours from Californians’ bathroom and kitchen taps is warmed with natural gas, but all those hot showers come with a cost. Burning natural gas pumps out hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year — and that’s in the state of California alone.

Capitalizing upon the state’s goals to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, the California Solar Energy Industries Assn. recently released a study to demonstrate the environmental and financial values of replacing natural-gas water heaters with those that are powered with solar energy in the hopes its study will greenlight a potential $250-million consumer rebate program in the state.

The consumer rebate program is part of AB 1470 — a 2007 law that charged the California Public Utilities Commission with conducting a pilot project to determine if solar water heating is cost effective enough to implement the rebate program, which would provide financial incentives for the installation of as many as 200,000 solar water heaters. A typical residential solar water heating system costs $6,500. Read more

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