Green Tech at a Crossroads: In Search of the Green Tech Google

A year ago, solar-technology start-up Ausra was ready for the big time. There were plans on the table to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build giant power plants and to conduct an initial public offering of Ausra shares by 2010.

Then the recession hit. Ausra executives refocused on more modest goals, such as building small solar units, and selling equipment for industrial operations like desalination and food processing. It also is trying to sell to utilities, rather than build massive solar plants itself.

“Utilities are really in a great position to build large-scale projects,” said Katherine Potter, communications vice president at Ausra. “You need to walk before you can run, but the technology is there.”

That IPO goal, it’s fair to say, is off the table for the foreseeable future. And as executives came to accept that Ausra had to change its business, the Palo Alto, Calif., company cut about 10 percent of its 108 employees.

Ausra isn’t the only green-tech company dealing with reduced expectations. Despite high hopes, $14.5 billion in worldwide venture funding over the last two years, and cheerleading from the Obama White House, 2009 could be a make-or-break year for many green-tech outfits. And the stakes may be greater than the fortunes of a few entrepreneurs and their investors.

Save The World, Make Money

Can the United States simultaneously lean on green-tech investment to help fix its broken economy, wean itself off dependence on foreign fuel sources, and address climate change concerns? President Obama, for one, appears to be a believer in one of the fundamental underpinnings of green business: you can make money while helping save the world.

“One of the key points that…I will repeat again and again during the course of my presidency is there is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices,” Obama said when he named his energy and environment team in December. “I think that the future of innovation and technology is going to be what drives our economy into the future. And the energy economy is going to be part of what creates the millions of jobs we need.”

Green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are well aware of these lofty goals. But these days, they’re more focused on other issues, such as finding the money to stay in business and landing customers.

“We had closed a round of funding in October for the next stage of vehicle development–then all of that went off the table in about six days,” said John Waters, the CEO of stealthy electric-car start-up Bright Automotive, which restructured two months later and managed to find alternative funding.

The question isn’t whether the green-tech movement will whither away. Already, there is a growing consumer niche for green technologies, from rooftop solar panels to low-power consumer electronics made from recycled materials.

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Union Ironworkers Provide Training for Green Energy Job Corps

Accredited Apprenticeship Training Program Secures Safety and Productivity throughout United States and Canada

The skilled tradesmen who do more than you can imagine - Union Ironworkers - in response to Vice-President Biden’s recent comments regarding green jobs training, are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to install and maintain green energy projects in a safe and productive manner throughout the United States and Canada.

“Vice-President Biden is correct in stating that a well-trained workforce is required to successfully erect, install and maintain the promising green energy category. Our members are not only capable of successfully achieving this goal, but also in a position to immediately begin work on green and renewable energy projects as soon as the economic stimulus package is appropriated,” said Joseph Hunt, general president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.

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British Company Romag Tests Solar-Powered Electric Car Parking Bay

Glass and plastics specialist Romag Holdings has developed a new solar-powered canopy that could offer a recharging bay for electric cars in open-air car parks.

The PowerPark system consists of a panel of Romag’s PowerGlaz photovoltaic modules standing over and above a car parking bay.

The PV panels generate electricity to charge electric vehicles parking underneath, or to feed into the national grid or a building’s power supply when it is not being used to charge up an electric vehicle.

Romag Holidings has already secured a contract with regional development agency One NorthEast to build two prototypes at its own site in County Durham and at Tegrel Engineering in Blaydon on Tyne, where the steel structure used in the product is made.

The company will be targeting owners of car parks including airports, stations, supermarkets, shopping centres, offices and public buildings to take up the product, pointing to government ambitions to encourage the use of electric vehicles nationwide.

Romag, which already produces PowerGlaz panels and building-integrated PV systems at its 30MW capacity production facility in Consett, says the new PowerPark canopy systems will be “very competitive” in price when launched.

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Growing Excitement, Expectations For Green Jobs Corps

When Rita Bryer sees 300-foot-tall wind turbines sprouting up from the prairie near her home in western Oklahoma, she can’t help but wonder about the view from the top, where blades the size of semi-trucks spin.

“Out here, you can see the wind turbines from 10 miles away,” she said. “Think about how far you’ll be able to see when you’re at the top.”

So, partly out of curiosity, partly because she wants to be part of something new, the 51-year-old is leaving behind a career of odd jobs and oil-field work.

She’s going back to school to become a wind turbine mechanic — one who’ll have to scale the turbines to make repairs.

Across the country, people like Bryer are looking to the renewable energy sector in hopes its “green-collar jobs” will offer them stability in this shaky economy. Some are signing up for community college or apprenticeship programs that train students to be wind turbine mechanics, solar panel installers, fuel-cell engineers or energy efficiency experts.

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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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California’s Renewable Energy Goals Feasible

California’s goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from the sun, the wind and other renewable sources by 2020 might be more feasible than previously thought, according to a new government report.

If all the renewable power projects proposed in the state last year were built, California would easily surpass that goal, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Public Utilities Commission. All told, those projects would generate 24,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 18 million homes.

That’s on top of the renewable power already flowing in California. According to the report, solar plants and wind farms built in California during 2008 can generate 516 megawatts of electricity, roughly as much as a midsize, fossil-fuel power plant. The previous year, the state only added 113 megawatts of renewable power.

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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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Obama Signs Stimulus Packed With Clean Energy Provisions

President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package today, and the clean energy industry - among the biggest winners - is celebrating.

The signing ceremony was heavily loaded with solar symbolism: Mr. Obama signed the bill after touring the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which has solar panels on its roof. He was also introduced by Blake Jones, head of Namaste Solar Electric, a Colorado company that installed solar panels on the governor’s mansion there.

“It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years,” said Mr. Obama, who also promised that the bill would help “transform the way we use energy.”

The text of the bill is posted by the House Appropriations Committee here. This detailed summary is particularly helpful.

The provisions include:

* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.

* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.

* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).

* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.

* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”

* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).

* The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost.

Kate Galbraith
The New York Times

BrightSource Announces Big Solar Energy Deal With Southern California Edison

BrightSource Energy of Oakland scored another big deal in California today, announcing a contract to supply Southern California Edison with solar energy from remote desert generating plants — enough to power 845,000 homes.

The deal for 1,300 megawatts of renewable energy is believed to be the biggest contract for so-called solar thermal power, which uses heat from the sun to create steam to spin electric turbines.

The agreement calls for a series of seven plants to be built in far-flung areas of southeastern California over the next seven years. If approved by regulators, the first 100-megawatt facility would be constructed in the Mojave Desert near the San Bernardino County community of Ivanpah. That plant could be operational by 2013.

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Palm Desert Helps Secure Solar Tax Credit

Provisions in the economic stimulus package going to the U.S. House of Representatives today could make it easier for cities across the country to start Palm Desert-style energy loan programs.

Palm Desert city officials helped author the changes that would ensure residents who take out the loans can cash in on the 30 percent federal income tax credit for solar installations.

Another provision will allow cities and counties to issue tax-free bonds to fund loan programs.

The federal tax code allows cities to issue tax-free bonds only for public improvements. The proposed changes will include renewable energy installations in the definition of public improvements.

The bond provisions mean cities will be “able to access capital on the open market at a much lower rate than if you were to go out and get (taxable) bonds,” said Palm Desert City Councilman Jim Ferguson, who has pushed for the changes. “Taxable bonds depend on the credit- worthiness of a city. Municipal (tax-free) bonds are viewed as a safe investment.”

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