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

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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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

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

Act Solar Receives 8MW Order for PowerString From Pacific Power Management

Act Solar’s Optimization Solution Boosts Power Output and Extends Life of PV Systems

Act Solar, Inc., a power management company that provides optimization solutions for solar power plants, has received an 8MW order for PowerString from Pacific Power Management, a full service commercial solar provider. Act Solar’s flagship product, PowerString, improves array performance by 6-11% using its patent-pending Injection Boost^TM technology. Extensive field tests and historical modeling have shown that PowerString will cumulatively deliver 40-80% more power over 20-40 years of operations.

“We have a great deal of experience as a solar systems provider and that experience is one of our key competitive advantages,” said Mark Frederick, Managing General Partner of Pac Power. “We are deploying Act Solar’s technology because it enables us to instantly improve system performance, increase the ‘power density’ of our arrays and deliver lower cost solar power, thus strengthening our competitive position. PowerString further protects our investments by assuring optimal performance in the real-world environment of commercial installations.”

“The solar industry is now focused on ensuring maximum performance of PV arrays,” said Act Solar CEO Andrew Foss. “PowerString ushers in the next phase of efficiency and cost reduction by further lowering generation costs and assuring maximum power output over the life of the array. Solar system integrators, operators and financiers will substantially lower their generation costs-per-kWh by deploying PowerString.”

Act Solar products and services dramatically lower the cost of solar generated electricity over the life of a system by allowing each module in an array to perform at its maximum potential, regardless of asymmetric electrical conditions caused by shading, soiling, ground faults, etc. Wireless management features further lower costs by eliminating design constraints and providing full system monitoring, analysis and unmatched diagnostic reporting.

Act Solar

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