Rise & Shine, September 22, 2008
The Rise & Shine is your daily source for all solar-industry news. Brought to you by Sweet Solar Home and the Experts at SunRun.
California News
SantaBarbarasBlog.com – EcoFacts
Employing a ?power-purchase agreement?, Sun Run installs the solar systems and pay most of the upfront costs. The homeowner pays a percentage of these and then pays the company a fixed monthly rate, is therefore immune to rising energy costs, and gets free maintenance for the life of the system. It would seem that this is proof that solar makes good financial sense.
Mayoral Candidate Emphasizes Alternative Energy
A Tracy, CA mayoral candidate shed light on her plans to make the city the “center of the universe” for solar power.
National News
Ashland Changes Solar Power Policy
Ashland, OR has expanded its policy on selling excess power from residential solar panels in order to encourage large-scale projects. People could receive credit on their electric bills for solar systems up to 25kW by feeding the extra electricity back into the city.
DOE To Fund 15 New Solar Projects
The DOE has selected 15 new projects for funding. These projects are expected to promote DOE’s goal of reducing the cost of CSP electricity from 13 to 16 cents/kWh today with no storage to eight to 11 cents/kWh with six hours of storage by 2015 and to less than seven cents/kWh with 12 to 17 hours of storage by 2020.
US Army Considers Solar-Powered Winged Vehicles for Future Air Attacks
The armed forces are planning to use solar powered unmanned aerial vehicles to coordinate and execute future attacks with surgical precision.
SBD Plans Solar Farm on Property in Florida
SBD International Inc., a solar power systems integrator, has announced that it will seek at least a partial rezoning of the property in which it has a joint venture interest in Chiefland, Florida to allow construction of a small solar farm with a capacity of up to 20 megawatts (MW).
Utility Industry & Regulatory News
Q&A: MegaWatt Storage Targets Utilities
The co-founder of the two-year-old startup in California says the company is seeking funding for developing energy storage centers for power companies.
High Cost of Energy Hits Closer to Home
Kansas City Power & Light anticipates the company’s new power plant will cost almost 47% more than originally planned. Customer bills will rise by as much as 27% because of the new cost figures.
Utilities Shrink the Role of Coal on Global-Warming Worries
The power industry is stepping up its shift away from coal-fired electricity amid global-warming concerns, as some utilities shut down generators early or terminate contracts to buy coal-based energy.
Financial News & Markets
LDK Wants $200M More for Manufacturing
The Chinese solar-wafer company said it would offer additional American depositary share, after raising $400 million in convertible notes in April, to build its planned silicon plants and expand wafer production.
GreenVolts Secures Series B Funding
GreenVolts, a specialist in concentrating photovoltaic technology, has secured $30 million in Series B funding from Oak Investment Partners. GreenVolts will use the funds to continue to build out its organization, accelerate its advanced R&D efforts and scale capacity for anticipated 2009 deployments.
Government & Politics
Senate Delays Vote on Energy Tax Credits
The Senate tried to vote on $17 billion in renewable-energy tax incentives Thursday, but objections from one lawmaker delayed the final vote until Tuesday.
Technology
Sanyo Releases Test Results of Thinner HIT Solar Cells
Sanyo claims their HIT solar cell reached an efficiency of 21.4% at a thickness of 85 micrometer-thick.
Solar Power Advances For Sept 2008
They look like foil party balloons, but they are actually very efficient solar concentrators. These solar ?balloons? were developed by a company called Cool Earth, based in California.
International News
China to Boost Renewable Energy Production
The renewable energy will replace coal, oil and gas as the major energy in China by 2050, meeting 43 percent of the energy demands, predicted by Huang in an environment protection forum.
Trina Solar and Gestamp Asetym Inaugurate 26 MW PV Project
Trina Solar inaugurated a 26MW PV project in the south-east of Spain, which uses primarily PV modules manufactured by Trina Solar.
German Solar PV Industry Optimistic Despite Adjustment
The industry is optimistic mainly because of the drop in the solar PV costs, which have dropped 15%.
Spain’s Minister of Industry on the Country’s Solar Industry
The Spanish feed-in tariff could soon be less than in many other European countries. But, the Spanish Minister of Industry says that the new legislation will be “much more flexible.?
Moser Baer Receives PV Investment
The PV subsidiary of Moser Baer India has entered into definitive agreements to raise US $93M from a consortium of global investors in order to fund growth plans.
Trina Solar Sees 2009 Sales Doubling
To fuel the expansion, Trina Solar’s capital expenditure is expected to rise to $250M in 2009 from $200M this year and reach $350M in 2010, with funding coming mostly from internal resources.
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