Posts Tagged ‘solar technology’

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Nov

15th

Study Says Energy Policy=1.9M Jobs


From GreenBeat:  The Obama administration’s progressive support for renewable energy will result in about 1.9 million green collar jobs, according to a new report published by three U.S. universities. It will also elevate the average household income by more than $1,000 and America’s GDP by $111 billion by 2020.       

This sets Obama on track to create 5 million green (not just renewable energy) jobs over the next decade. Granted, he made this promise early in his campaign, all the way back in the spring of 2008. At that point he planned to spend $150 billion total to stimulate the green economy.

The estimates in the report depend on several conditions that could be a bit of a stretch — namely that all U.S. utilities will be able to generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020 and that a carbon emissions cap and trade system becomes a reality. It also anticipates that billions of dollars will be invested in cleantech research and development.

Considering that most utilities aren’t approaching 20 percent renewables in their energy mix, and the climate bill that would establish cap and trade has stalled in the Senate, this may be a little far-fetched.

But if these criteria are fulfilled, all 50 states will have an opportunity benefit economically from the green stimulus packages being given out one industry at a time — so far solar, Smart Grid, biomass, wind and advanced batteries have each received up to billions of dollars, mostly through the U.S. Department of Energy.

The study was produced by the University of California, in tandem with Yale University and the University of Illinois.

Another study, presented earlier this week by Booz Allen Hamilton at Greenbuild 2009, predicted that the green building industry alone will generate or support 7.9 million jobs and infuse the U.S. GDP by $554 billion in just the next four years.

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Oct

22nd

First Solar First Renewable on S&P 500


First Solar, a thin film solar panel manufacturers, has achieved a first for any pure-play renewable energy company: inclusion on the venerable Standard & Poor’s Index of 500 commonly traded stocks.

Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar was added to the S&P 500 after the market closed October 15. The company will be part of the S&P 500 GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) Electrical Components & Equipment Sub-Industry of the Industrials sector.

The addition of First Solar, which had $1.2 billion in sales last year, is a milestone not only for the company, but for renewable energy in general. Although non-hydroelectric renewables, including solar, wind and biomass, make up a minute fraction of overall energy generation worldwide, that percentage is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades.

Source: Triple Pundit

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Sep

14th

Fed Clean-Energy Officials Meet w/ State Leaders in Austin


A high-powered group of state and local leaders met in Austin on Friday with officials from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as the lab explores the prospect of collaborating with Central Texas groups on clean-energy initiatives.

The delegation from the U.S. Department of Energy lab was led by Robert McGrath, the lab’s deputy director for science and technology. Also attending were Robert Hawsey, an associate lab director for renewable electricity and end-use systems; Pete Sheldon, a scientist in the lab’s National Center for Photovoltaics, and David Ginley, a research fellow working with HelioVolt Corp., a pioneering solar power technology company in Austin.

“Texas is moving forward smartly and aggressively with deployment of renewable and energy efficiency technologies,” McGrath said. “We see multiple opportunities for partnerships for technology development and for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment with many of the industry and university groups with which we met today.”

McGrath said his organization, which is based in Golden, Colo., wants to “capitalize upon the very productive, long-standing and continuing collaboration that NREL has with HelioVolt.”

Friday’s introductory meeting with state officials, led by Comptroller Susan Combs, included representatives from Gov. Rick Perry’s policy office and the Texas Enterprise Fund, state and federal lawmakers or their aides and Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce representatives.

Another meeting took place with managers of area utilities, including Austin Energy and CPS Energy of San Antonio, and officials with the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems and Texas State University.

McGrath said the officials all “enthusiastically encouraged” the lab’s expanded participation in planning and implementing renewable energy projects in Texas.

Laboratory officials also toured HelioVolt’s Southeast Austin plant with company executives and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

“Obviously we want to transform Texas into a clean-technology leader, and we want to make the greater Austin region a center of innovation for clean technologies,” said Jose Beceiro, director of clean-energy initiatives for the Austin chamber.

Beceiro said local officials have been talking to the lab for a while. He was not at Friday’s meetings but has been involved in previous discussions about collaborating with the lab.

A larger presence of the lab in the Austin area could help recruit clean-technology companies and green jobs, developing new clean-energy technologies and attracting more federal grant money, Beceiro said.

B.J. Stanbery, chairman of both HelioVolt and the nonprofit Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities, said that “Central Texas’ unique combination of diverse utility markets, world-class research institutions and farsighted public leadership provide an opportunity for NREL to further their mission of accelerating commercialization and deployment of renewable energy.”

Bob King, president of Good Company Associates Inc., a business development consulting practice focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, said his company helped the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities organize Friday’s meetings.

King emphasized that discussions are in the early stages about how “the Central Texas communities can benefit from a relationship with our national lab,” which he called “the only national lab whose entire responsibility is energy efficiency and renewable energy.”

King said the meetings were productive.

“Everyone left with the next actions to take, and we’ll be having follow-up meetings,” he said. “This could be a long process, but I think we made some progress today.”

Article courtesy AAS, snovak@statesman.com; 445-3856

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Jul

1st

Proposed Renewable Energy 401k Tax Credit


will help create 500,000 green collar jobs and double annual increase of renewable energy production within three years.

An unusual alliance of business, trade association and environmental groups are calling on President Barack Obama, Congress and the Senate to implement a tax credit incentive for companies that add a renewable energy fund to employee 401(k) plans. The new legislation could be added to the near completed economic stimulus bill or follow quickly after.

According to the Renewable Energy Task Force of the South Denver Chamber of Commerce, the Renewable Energy 401(k) Tax Credit will be a high yield federal investment.

  • Government cost of $7 to $8 billion dollars will generate $60 to $100 billion investment in renewable energy.
  • Allow 50 million Americans to invest a projected 5% of their 401(k) plans to clean energy production.
  • Create 500,000 or m ore clean energy jobs over three years.
  • Create an annual increase of 20,000 MW of new wind, solar and geothermal electrical generation by 2012.
  • Help renewable energy meet 100% of new national electricity demand in three years.

“Last year almost half of all new US electricity was generated from renewable energy,” says Jim Welch, CEO of Bella Energy, a Colorado based solar energy firm, “The Renewable Energy 401(k) Tax Credit will rapidly allow all new US electricity to be generated from renewable sources.”

American Wind Association data released last week indicates that more than 8,000 MW of new wind production was built in 2008 with investment in the wind energy sector passing the $17 billion mark. Totaling 42% of all new US generation capacity added in 2008, the newly added wind farms produce enough electricity for 2 million homes. These numbers are up from wind providing 30% of all new US electrical generation in 2007.

The additional annual $20 to $30 billion of new investment generated by the Renewable Energy 401(k) Tax Credit will help to more than double the number of new clean energy megawatts installed each year. With swift passage of the proposed tax credit bill, by 2012 one hundred percent of new US electrical demand can be provided by renewable energy. This is consistent with President Obama’s target to double renewable energy production over the next three years.

“In 2007, investment in the American renewable energy sector, including both wind and solar, was $19 billion dollars with employment of 116,000 people. More than 50,000 new renewable jobs were created in 2008 – that’s an impressive annual growth rate of 45%,” continues Jim Welch, “Congress and the Senate need to support the Renewable Energy 401(k) Tax Credit which will create $100 billion in clean energy investment and 500,000 new green jobs over the next three years.”

Reflecting the national trend, Colorado’s renewable energy sector has been experiencing rapid-fire employment growth. In 2008, AVA Solar added 550 new manufacturing and engineering jobs in Ft. Collins and Longmont. The new AVA manufacturing plant produces thin film solar panels at 30% of the cost of existing solar technology. Vestas built a new wind turbine manufacturing facility near Denver that employs 1,350 Coloradoans and uses 200,000 tons of steel annually to produce enough wind turbines to power more than half a million homes per year. Nationally, wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers announced, added or expanded 55 new facilities in 2008.

As renewable energy production rises faster than demand for electricity, surplus clean generation capacity will be used to retire aging conventional power plants over a 10 to 30 year period leading to significant reductions in climate change causing emissions.

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