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	<title>California Solar Installation</title>
	<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com</link>
	<description>Solar Technology News, Reviews &#38; Resources for Californians</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:52:09 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Green Tech at a Crossroads: In Search of the Green Tech Google</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3466</link>
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		<title>Union Ironworkers Provide Training for Green Energy Job Corps</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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.

Ironworkers train in three and four-year programs that offer the opportunity for college credit towards an Associate's Degree and various opportunities for lifelong careers in the green energy sector. The national training curriculum also includes certification programs that ensure consistency and a high-level of instruction. Training includes learning techniques that focus on welding, placing and tying rebar, rigging of materials and equipment, structural steel erection, miscellaneous steel installation and ornamental ironworking to include installation and retrofit of glass curtain and window wall systems.

"Our union has been in existence for over one hundred years and during that time we have evolved into a centralized training operation that ensures a productive workforce for our contractors," said Hunt. "Our members are ready and able to work, well-trained and committed to improving the economic and operational success of those contractors we work with, especially in the green energy sector."]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3458</link>
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		<title>British Company Romag Tests Solar-Powered Electric Car Parking Bay</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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 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.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3441</link>
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		<title>MIT Team Builds Solar Car for World Solar Challenge (Video)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Calling any vehicle Eleanor is a bit cheeky, considering that it evokes the image of brawny Ford Mustangs made famous in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds." In this case, it may even be ironic, since the car the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team is referring to is solar-powered, rides on three wheels, and tops out at 90 mph.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's latest competitor in the upcoming 10th World Solar Challenge couldn't be more different than its namesake. Its Eleanor is low slung, highly aerodynamic, and covered by 6 square meters of silicon solar cells that generate 1,200 watts of electricity. On board the car is a 6kWh lithium ion battery pack that stores enough power to travel from New York to Boston without the sun, or about 250 miles at around 55 mph.

But on a sunny day, the solar car can run nonstop at a cruising speed of 55 mph, and calculations show that it can reach 90 mph.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3427</link>
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		<title>Industrial Nanotech Enters Solar Energy Market after Completing Successful Field Trials</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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."]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3414</link>
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		<title>Sunsei GreenMeter Approved for Rebates in California</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
ICP Solar Technologies Inc., a        developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary solar panels and        products, today announced that the Company&#8217;s Sunsei® GreenMeterTM has        been approved for certain solar-based incentives in the State of  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3404</link>
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		<title>Los Angeles Solar Measure Falls Behind in Votes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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.

The ballot measure, which had union support, stated that the solar systems should be "installed, owned, operated and maintained" by the Department of Water and Power.

Opponents charged that the utility had never done anything like installing large numbers of solar panels before, and was likely to be less competent at it than more experienced private installers.

Many environmentalists backed the measure, as did the Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa (who was re-elected on Tuesday amid a paltry 15 percent turnout). But a number of papers urged a "no" vote - including the Los Angeles Times editorial page, which challenged the measure as "a grab for power - the political kind, not the solar stuff - by the City Council and the union that represents D.W.P. workers."]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3394</link>
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		<title>Acme Group Invests $30mn in California eSolar to Build India Solar Thermal Plants</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Acme Group will have exclusive rights to eSolar's design to set up thermal solar power plants in India.

Gurgaon-based telecom power solutions firm Acme Group has made an investment of $30 million for a 5% stake in California-based eSolar. The US-based company is involved in developing, constructing and deploying modular, scalable solar thermal power plants. Acme has also entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the company. The deal involves Acme Group having exclusive rights to eSolar's design to set up thermal solar power plants in India.

Acme can also work with other companies to build solar thermal power plants in India using eSolar technology. ACME is targeting 1,000 MW of solar power within India over the next 10 years. The company has already signed power purchase MOUs for 250 MW.

Though this is eSolar's first international licensing agreement, it had entered into a similar agreement with US-based NRG Energy.

It raised $130 million in funding from Google.org (Google's philanthropic arm), Idealab and Oak Investment Partners in April 2008.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3383</link>
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		<title>Eco Barons Lead The Way In Alternative Energy Investments</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The global rich are going green as never before. This first Sunday Times Green Rich List shows that the enthusiasm among the world's wealthiest for investments in areas as diverse as electric cars, solar power and geothermal energy is unaffected by the recession.

The Green List has unearthed 100 tycoons or wealthy families worth £200m or more who have made either serious investments in green technology and businesses or hefty financial commitments to environmental causes. In total, the Green 100 are worth nearly £267 billion. The top 50 are listed below and the next 50 can be found on The Sunday Times - The Green Rich List.

This enormous sum demonstrates that many of the world's richest tycoons and entrepreneurs have embraced environmentalism. Indeed, the list is dominated by America's wealthiest financiers and entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffett (worth £27 billion) and Bill Gates (worth £26 billion).

These two canny investors, who regularly swap places at the top of Forbes magazine's annual list of world billionaires, have spent some of their financial firepower on areas such as wind power and electric cars in Buffett's case, while Gates has backed alternative fuels such as oil from algae. These are not trifling sums here. Buffett has invested $230m in the Hong Kong battery-maker BYD.

Many of the 35 Americans in the Top 100 are drawn from Silicon Valley. Having made their first fortunes in microchips, the internet or software, the likes of Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin (each worth £7.5 billion) are turning to green investments with all the entrepreneurial zeal that made their first fortunes.

It helps that the Obama administration is committed to a huge stimulus package involving the very technologies that investors are focusing on.

Even tycoons who are not in President Barack Obama's camp have moved into alternative energy, none more so than T Boone Pickens, oil explorer, corporate raider and a Texan Republican to his core. He is using part of his £1.8 billion fortune on filling the huge and windy Texas Panhandle with turbines as part of his Pickens Plan to wean America off its dependence on foreign energy.

American money may be chasing smarter and greener technologies, while the Chinese rich on the list are definitely about mass production of green technologies.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3293</link>
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		<title>Growing Excitement, Expectations For Green Jobs Corps</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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.

Government support has rallied excitement for the prospect of a green jobs corps, as President Obama's stimulus package puts about $20 billion into greening the economy, according to the White House.

In his recent speech to Congress, Obama said the U.S. will double its supply of renewable energy in three years. To do so, he's calling on a new class of workers to be trained in environmental fields. Green jobs training programs will get $500 million from the stimulus.

At a summit in Philadelphia on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said people who make $20 per hour before a green jobs training program can make $50 per hour after. On average, the clean-energy jobs pay 10 to 20 percent more than similar work outside the field, he said.

Adding to the enthusiasm, Biden cited a recent case in Chicago where a maker of energy-efficient windows intends to gradually rehire 250 workers who were laid off when their window company closed late last year.]]></description>
		<link>http://californiasolarinstallation.com/archives/3278</link>
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