No Money Down Solar is Now Available Online:

OAKLAND, Calif., March 3 /PRNewswire/ — Sungevity, the leading online provider of residential solar installations, today announced that it has the industry’s best solar finance solution combined with its industry leading online quoting service.

“Online delivery of solar home solutions for no money down and with guaranteed savings is a game-changer that will enable everyone to go solar,” said Danny Kennedy, President and co-founder of Sungevity.

“It is so easy to get started. People across California are being served online and by solar consultants in our call center 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week – no home visit hassle required – and within weeks they’re getting savings from the sun,” he said.

Due to the appeal of the new Sungevity Solar Lease, the company has upgraded its call center and online services in a number of ways:

• Faster response – New customers can now receive a fully designed, engineered system proposal within 24 hours, seven days a week. (Most companies take days or weeks to even get a firm quote to a customer.)
• Leasing is a snap – Customers get all the bureaucracy and paperwork taken care of over the phone by skilled solar consultants and can even sign up online with eSignatures.
• Open every day – Sungevity Solar Consultants will be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week to make it convenient for customers to discuss their solar solution.

Best of all, the Sungevity Solar Lease requires no money down, and has a shorter term than any comparable product.

“We are thrilled to announce the best solar lease on the market with the first ever 10-year term as well as service unparalleled by our competitors, because Sungevity puts its customers first,” said Kennedy.

Sungevity will guarantee the savings from the day customers sign a contract, including the time customers wait for installation. Also, Sungevity will provide free monitoring, free maintenance and cleaning, and free insurance for the solar system for the term of the Sungevity Solar Lease.

“It is a cost-free way for most Californians to save thousands of dollars by putting their roofs to work for them,” said Kennedy.

To take this service to mainstream America, Sungevity recently added Skip Battle to its Board. Skip is a web-business veteran, who has worked on the Boards or been CEO of Expedia, Ask, Netflix and OpenTable where he helped to transform those industries.

“Sungevity has removed the final barrier to mass adoption of solar power,” said Battle. “Of all the companies in the solar space, only Sungevity has the capability to serve the most Americans seamlessly. With our easy online platform and this zero-down lease, which saves most families money each month, we’re bringing the sun to everyone.”

Get a quote by going to www.Sungevity.com or call (866.786.4255)

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

No Money Down Solar is Now Available Online:

OAKLAND, Calif., March 3 /PRNewswire/ — Sungevity, the leading online provider of residential solar installations, today announced that it has the industry’s best solar finance solution combined with its industry leading online quoting service.

“Online delivery of solar home solutions for no money down and with guaranteed savings is a game-changer that will enable everyone to go solar,” said Danny Kennedy, President and co-founder of Sungevity.

“It is so easy to get started. People across California are being served online and by solar consultants in our call center 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week – no home visit hassle required – and within weeks they’re getting savings from the sun,” he said.

Due to the appeal of the new Sungevity Solar Lease, the company has upgraded its call center and online services in a number of ways:

• Faster response – New customers can now receive a fully designed, engineered system proposal within 24 hours, seven days a week. (Most companies take days or weeks to even get a firm quote to a customer.)
• Leasing is a snap – Customers get all the bureaucracy and paperwork taken care of over the phone by skilled solar consultants and can even sign up online with eSignatures.
• Open every day – Sungevity Solar Consultants will be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week to make it convenient for customers to discuss their solar solution.

Best of all, the Sungevity Solar Lease requires no money down, and has a shorter term than any comparable product.

“We are thrilled to announce the best solar lease on the market with the first ever 10-year term as well as service unparalleled by our competitors, because Sungevity puts its customers first,” said Kennedy.

Sungevity will guarantee the savings from the day customers sign a contract, including the time customers wait for installation. Also, Sungevity will provide free monitoring, free maintenance and cleaning, and free insurance for the solar system for the term of the Sungevity Solar Lease.

“It is a cost-free way for most Californians to save thousands of dollars by putting their roofs to work for them,” said Kennedy.

To take this service to mainstream America, Sungevity recently added Skip Battle to its Board. Skip is a web-business veteran, who has worked on the Boards or been CEO of Expedia, Ask, Netflix and OpenTable where he helped to transform those industries.

“Sungevity has removed the final barrier to mass adoption of solar power,” said Battle. “Of all the companies in the solar space, only Sungevity has the capability to serve the most Americans seamlessly. With our easy online platform and this zero-down lease, which saves most families money each month, we’re bringing the sun to everyone.”

Get a quote by going to www.Sungevity.com or call (866.786.4255)

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

Kent Denver Goes Solar

LOUISVILLE, Colo., March 3 /PRNewswire/ — The future is looking bright for students at Kent Denver School, thanks to one of the largest prep school solar energy arrays in the nation. Colorado-based Bella Energy and international solar provider Conergy partnered to provide the school with a fully engineered and financed solar energy solution.

Building on Kent Denver’s goals to deepen its students’ appreciation for the world around them, the school supports sustainability projects that inspire its students to rethink how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed. Kent Denver’s head of school, Todd Horn, said, “Our students can now see how their smaller solar projects (such as a golf cart and a marine underwater camera in the Florida Keys) can be scaled up to a commercially viable level.”

Conergy, Bella Energy, and RC Energy worked together with the school to make the project a reality. Matt Kyriakos, head of Conergy US Small Commercial Projects, commented, “Conergy is extremely proud to be part of the Kent Denver School, Renewable Energy Project. Our team model for developing medium to large scale solar projects expands the capabilities of local photovoltaic integrators, while providing greater access to renewable energy for end users exactly like Kent Denver School.”

The 205kW solar energy system relies on 1,170 solar panels to provide the students with enough power to prevent over half a million pounds of CO2 from being emitted each year. As a result of the commitment of Kent Denver School and the collaboration of Bella Energy and Conergy, Kent Denver students’ scholastics efforts are now, in part, solar powered.

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

Clear Skies Solar to Enter Smart Grid Verification Testing for Patented Technology

MINEOLA, N.Y., March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Clear Skies Solar (CSS) (OTC Bulletin Board: CSKH) today announced it will commence smart grid verification testing with Met Laboratories of Baltimore, Maryland to further independently test the accuracy of the XTRAX® smart grid monitoring technology. The Company has been awarded patent number 7336201 on its XTRAX data communications technology from the United States Patent and Trademark Office protecting the intellectual property for a remote energy meter system and method where a electrical meter communicates with the client via a wireless connection link to recover energy production parameter values.

XTRAX was developed entirely by CSS for the high level tracking of energy production data and is housed under their technology subsidiary Carbon 612 Corporation. The XTRAX device monitors, collects, transfers and interprets energy data via cellular technology at very low costs and will be an integral part of the smart grid solution.

“This smart grid monitoring system, which we call XTRAX, is an important smart grid technology and significantly enhances our overall portfolio of grid-related technologies and services,” commented Ezra Green, CEO of Clear Skies Solar. “We have selected Met Laboratories to perform these important ANSI metering standards tests based on its high quality testing facilities and its excellent reputation in the industry. While our own in-house testing has already shown high levels of accuracy over predetermined periods of time, we believe it is important to have our findings verified independently.”

Spending on Smart Grid technologies is expected to grow significantly over the coming years, as the U.S. government and major electric utilities seek more efficient ways to connect homes and businesses to utilities, to transport more data, and to use less overall energy. While estimates of future spending vary widely, one estimate recently published by Pike Research indicates that the considerable momentum building toward smart grid construction could represent $200 billion in total spending by the year 2015.

Mr. Green continued, “We specifically developed this technology for small solar power producers, which is one of the fastest growing segments of the alternative energy and smart grid construction industries. With our proprietary data management software and patented hardware, we expect to gain a substantial market share based on our low cost-factor. We believe our revenue opportunities relative to this market segment are very significant as we believe we can become the dominant player in the sub 100 kilowatt systems market. We view the overall Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC), carbon credit and production data verification markets to easily exceed $1 billion annually. We expect the SREC program in New Jersey alone to be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars and with the financial markets requiring production backup, sub metering, string verification and default tracking, we believe our opportunities relative to our XTRAX technologies are highly significant.”

Clear Skies Solar is the majority shareholder of Carbon 612 Corp and plans on launching the Company into the commercial markets as soon as the ANSI & UL testing being announced today is completed.

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

Clear Skies Solar to Enter Smart Grid Verification Testing for Patented Technology

MINEOLA, N.Y., March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Clear Skies Solar (CSS) (OTC Bulletin Board: CSKH) today announced it will commence smart grid verification testing with Met Laboratories of Baltimore, Maryland to further independently test the accuracy of the XTRAX® smart grid monitoring technology. The Company has been awarded patent number 7336201 on its XTRAX data communications technology from the United States Patent and Trademark Office protecting the intellectual property for a remote energy meter system and method where a electrical meter communicates with the client via a wireless connection link to recover energy production parameter values.

XTRAX was developed entirely by CSS for the high level tracking of energy production data and is housed under their technology subsidiary Carbon 612 Corporation. The XTRAX device monitors, collects, transfers and interprets energy data via cellular technology at very low costs and will be an integral part of the smart grid solution.

“This smart grid monitoring system, which we call XTRAX, is an important smart grid technology and significantly enhances our overall portfolio of grid-related technologies and services,” commented Ezra Green, CEO of Clear Skies Solar. “We have selected Met Laboratories to perform these important ANSI metering standards tests based on its high quality testing facilities and its excellent reputation in the industry. While our own in-house testing has already shown high levels of accuracy over predetermined periods of time, we believe it is important to have our findings verified independently.”

Spending on Smart Grid technologies is expected to grow significantly over the coming years, as the U.S. government and major electric utilities seek more efficient ways to connect homes and businesses to utilities, to transport more data, and to use less overall energy. While estimates of future spending vary widely, one estimate recently published by Pike Research indicates that the considerable momentum building toward smart grid construction could represent $200 billion in total spending by the year 2015.

Mr. Green continued, “We specifically developed this technology for small solar power producers, which is one of the fastest growing segments of the alternative energy and smart grid construction industries. With our proprietary data management software and patented hardware, we expect to gain a substantial market share based on our low cost-factor. We believe our revenue opportunities relative to this market segment are very significant as we believe we can become the dominant player in the sub 100 kilowatt systems market. We view the overall Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC), carbon credit and production data verification markets to easily exceed $1 billion annually. We expect the SREC program in New Jersey alone to be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars and with the financial markets requiring production backup, sub metering, string verification and default tracking, we believe our opportunities relative to our XTRAX technologies are highly significant.”

Clear Skies Solar is the majority shareholder of Carbon 612 Corp and plans on launching the Company into the commercial markets as soon as the ANSI & UL testing being announced today is completed.

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

Energy Conversion Devices Announces 2.4-Megawatt Rooftop Solar Project in Portland

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich., March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (Nasdaq: ENER), the leading global manufacturer of thin-film flexible solar laminate products for the building integrated and commercial rooftop markets, today announced it has been selected by ProLogis and Portland General Electric (PGE) to deliver 2.4MWp of Uni-Solar® laminates for installation on seven ProLogis distribution warehouses in Portland, Gresham, and Clackamas in Oregon. The solar power systems will be installed by Northwest Solar Solutions on rooftops leased from ProLogis. U.S. Bank and PGE have formed SunWay 3, LLC to own and operate the system and to secure state and federal solar tax credits to help finance the project. Construction will take place in the spring and summer of 2010.

This rooftop solar installation is ECD’s second project with ProLogis and PGE. The new project will use the same type of UNI-SOLAR light weight, flexible solar laminates that were featured on the previous 1.1 megawatt rooftop project that ProLogis and PGE brought online in 2008. Taken together, the two projects produce enough energy to power approximately 388 households annually.

“We are pleased to again be working with both Energy Conversion Devices and PGE,” said Drew Torbin, vice president of renewable energy for ProLogis. “Once completed, the 906,000-square-foot project will become the largest rooftop solar system in the Pacific Northwest.”

Mark Morelli, ECD’s president and CEO, said, “This announcement is another indication that we are gaining traction as we transition our business model to focus on large-scale, multi-rooftop projects. We have worked with ProLogis on projects in France and Spain, and we are always pleased to do repeat business with this valued customer. We look forward to completing this installation for PGE and working with ProLogis on many more projects.”

Visit the original post at: Solar Power News

Laser Hydride CD Storage for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Now, many people probably haven’t heard about laser hydride compact disc (CD) storage before. I know that I hadn’t before I stumbled across a company called Plasma Kinetics.

Sure, there are many ways to store hydrogen including metal hydride containers which can be quite heavy, compressed hydrogen tanks which are extremely insulated and built to withstand leakage and impact. Some of these tanks are built out of metal alloys and others out of more expensive carbon fiber.

But, Plasma Kinetics has come up with a novel way to store hydrogen for cars that can reduce the weight of the storage tanks by as much as 400 lbs as compared to a conventional automobile and 500 lbs as compared to a Tesla Roadster.

The novel approach is to use Laser hydride CD storage. What this means is that a hydrogen car owner will refuel their vehicle at a regular hydrogen fueling station. The compressed hydrogen fuel will flow into the car and microwaves will ionize the H2 onto CD, similar to what we would put into a CD player in which to listen to music.

And much like the process of listening to music, the device would use a laser to release the hydrogen on demand from the magnesium CD as the car needs it for fuel. The CD’s would be stacked in a series and could provide a range of over 300 miles for the average hydrogen fuel cell car.

Plasma Kinetics is currently displaying their laser hydride H2 storage device at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Arpa-e Summit, which was developed to showcase leading edge and breakthrough clean energy technology. Plasma Kinetics is currently looking for investors to bring their product to the next level of development.

Visit the original post at: Fuel Cell News

Laser Hydride CD Storage for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Now, many people probably haven’t heard about laser hydride compact disc (CD) storage before. I know that I hadn’t before I stumbled across a company called Plasma Kinetics.

Sure, there are many ways to store hydrogen including metal hydride containers which can be quite heavy, compressed hydrogen tanks which are extremely insulated and built to withstand leakage and impact. Some of these tanks are built out of metal alloys and others out of more expensive carbon fiber.

But, Plasma Kinetics has come up with a novel way to store hydrogen for cars that can reduce the weight of the storage tanks by as much as 400 lbs as compared to a conventional automobile and 500 lbs as compared to a Tesla Roadster.

The novel approach is to use Laser hydride CD storage. What this means is that a hydrogen car owner will refuel their vehicle at a regular hydrogen fueling station. The compressed hydrogen fuel will flow into the car and microwaves will ionize the H2 onto CD, similar to what we would put into a CD player in which to listen to music.

And much like the process of listening to music, the device would use a laser to release the hydrogen on demand from the magnesium CD as the car needs it for fuel. The CD’s would be stacked in a series and could provide a range of over 300 miles for the average hydrogen fuel cell car.

Plasma Kinetics is currently displaying their laser hydride H2 storage device at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Arpa-e Summit, which was developed to showcase leading edge and breakthrough clean energy technology. Plasma Kinetics is currently looking for investors to bring their product to the next level of development.

Visit the original post at: Fuel Cell News

A coming convergence in the energy sector?

I got my start in mainstream journalism as a technology and telecommunications reporter for the Globe and Mail, a beat I later took on at the Toronto Star and covered for six years before switching to energy. When I first started we were still using the term “information highway” to describe the coming convergence between the telephone and cable companies. Cable companies in Canada had their own networks, their own turfs, and their own regulated monopolies, while the phone companies had the same. The turfs overlapped, but the products and services stayed largely separate. You got cable from the cable guys, and phone service from the phone guys. The information highway threatened to change that, allowing the phone and cable guys to invade each other’s turf and bust through their respective monopolies.

The commercial Internet was still in its infancy and was considered part of the information highway. It was only in the mid-1990s that the Internet emerged as the dominant disruptive force in this technological vision. Internet Protocol, the communications standard underpinning the Internet, allowed all sorts of information — text, audio, video — to be treated as packets of data that could be shipped at high speed across cable and phone networks, which were privately operated networks that had on-ramps and off-ramps to the public Internet. As networks became faster, as compression of data got better, as computing power and memory grew exponentially, it became technologically possible and economical to deliver phone, broadcast, e-commerce, Web surfing and e-mail over both the cable and phone networks. The result: network convergence. Suddenly technology was creating competition in these regulated monopolies, forcing regulators to adapt and establish rules that permitted regulatory forbearance when competition in a market was deemed acceptable. For the phone and cable companies, the gloves were off. It was game on. 

Why am I telling you this? Because I’m seeing the same thing happening in the energy sector. Electric utilities and natural gas utilities — in Canada at least — have operated in largely different worlds, each with their own rules and regulations, each with their own regulated monopolies and turfs. Actually, that isn’t entirely the truth. The electric utilities still offer electric hot-water tanks and electric heating, though this is slowly being phased out. But on the natural gas side, offering electricity directly to residential customers just hasn’t happened. Sure, in some jurisdictions there are parent companies that own both a natural gas utility and electric utility and offer services to customers on the same bill. But that’s not the convergence I’m talking about. I’m talking about using a natural gas pipeline network as direct competition against an electric transmission and distribution network.

I got thinking about this more after Bloom Energy announced its Bloom Energy Server. As far as technology goes, I didn’t see this unveiling as a big deal. Solid-oxide fuel cells have been around for decades. Today, there are several companies working on the same thing. What Bloom comes to the party with is good marketing, high-profile financial backing, and a great vision. By calling it an “energy server” it’s drawing parallels to the Internet, which gave us ubiquitous distributed computing, storage and delivery of information. Bloom is aiming to encourage distributed generation — the idea that power is efficiently produced and delivered close to the point of consumption, rather than generated far away from a central plant and transmitted long distances to the consumer. The latter sounds like mainframe computing from the 1970s and 1980s. We know what happened there. And yes, we do have distributed generation today in the form of rooftop solar, on-farm anaerobic digestors, industrial CHP and community wind farms, but for residential purposes there is nothing economical that can supply all our electricity and heating needs 24-hours a day.

An affordable Bloom Energy Server in every home, or something equivalent, would dramatically change the market landscape. It would allow natural gas to provide electricity, heating and hot-water heating with a single energy source, squeezing out the electric utility altogether. And even if it’s not in the home, large Bloom Energy Servers could be situated in the middle of subdivisions. Connected to a larger natural gas pipe, or better, to a local source of carbon-neutral biogas, one can envision district heat and power systems that are complemented by solar or geothermal. Sure, under this scenario, some wires would need to go into the home, but the community would be effectively off-grid. Again, electric utility gets the squeeze.

This changes the game, and presents challenges to energy regulators that have treated the natural gas and electric folks as distinct industries and markets. Suddenly these overlapping turfs mean something. Competition is possible. Regulation is out of date. This is a trend that will increasingly take hold over the coming decade.

K.R. Sridhar, founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, described his vision this way in the company’s first press release: “We believe that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cell phones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localized energy source.”

I don’t agree with Sridhar. The cell phone analogy doesn’t work, because he conveniently ignores that you still need a natural gas pipeline. Mind you, if a small village in India wants to turn manure and other waste into biogas and use that to power itself, that would work and the Bloom Energy Server would enable it. Also, the fact that the Bloom box works in reverse means you can hook up a wind mill or solar panel and have it generate storable hydrogen, which can be converted back into electricity by reversing the process again. It’s possible, one day, but a lot of things are possible — let’s stick with what’s practical, economical and likely.

Another reason the cell phone anology doesn’t work is because the compelling part of cell phones is that you can carry them wherever you go. Unless Sridhar has plans for a pocket-sized Bloom Energy Server that operates on the sweat from your body, this won’t have the same impact as wireless portable communications.

I think a more accurate comparison is the impact of the Internet and Internet protocol. Before IP the phone networks and the cable networks operated in their own worlds. With IP they now invade each other’s worlds. We’re seeing something similar unfolding in the energy market. We’re seeing energy convergence.

Visit the original post at: Energy News

A coming convergence in the energy sector?

I got my start in mainstream journalism as a technology and telecommunications reporter for the Globe and Mail, a beat I later took on at the Toronto Star and covered for six years before switching to energy. When I first started we were still using the term “information highway” to describe the coming convergence between the telephone and cable companies. Cable companies in Canada had their own networks, their own turfs, and their own regulated monopolies, while the phone companies had the same. The turfs overlapped, but the products and services stayed largely separate. You got cable from the cable guys, and phone service from the phone guys. The information highway threatened to change that, allowing the phone and cable guys to invade each other’s turf and bust through their respective monopolies.

The commercial Internet was still in its infancy and was considered part of the information highway. It was only in the mid-1990s that the Internet emerged as the dominant disruptive force in this technological vision. Internet Protocol, the communications standard underpinning the Internet, allowed all sorts of information — text, audio, video — to be treated as packets of data that could be shipped at high speed across cable and phone networks, which were privately operated networks that had on-ramps and off-ramps to the public Internet. As networks became faster, as compression of data got better, as computing power and memory grew exponentially, it became technologically possible and economical to deliver phone, broadcast, e-commerce, Web surfing and e-mail over both the cable and phone networks. The result: network convergence. Suddenly technology was creating competition in these regulated monopolies, forcing regulators to adapt and establish rules that permitted regulatory forbearance when competition in a market was deemed acceptable. For the phone and cable companies, the gloves were off. It was game on. 

Why am I telling you this? Because I’m seeing the same thing happening in the energy sector. Electric utilities and natural gas utilities — in Canada at least — have operated in largely different worlds, each with their own rules and regulations, each with their own regulated monopolies and turfs. Actually, that isn’t entirely the truth. The electric utilities still offer electric hot-water tanks and electric heating, though this is slowly being phased out. But on the natural gas side, offering electricity directly to residential customers just hasn’t happened. Sure, in some jurisdictions there are parent companies that own both a natural gas utility and electric utility and offer services to customers on the same bill. But that’s not the convergence I’m talking about. I’m talking about using a natural gas pipeline network as direct competition against an electric transmission and distribution network.

I got thinking about this more after Bloom Energy announced its Bloom Energy Server. As far as technology goes, I didn’t see this unveiling as a big deal. Solid-oxide fuel cells have been around for decades. Today, there are several companies working on the same thing. What Bloom comes to the party with is good marketing, high-profile financial backing, and a great vision. By calling it an “energy server” it’s drawing parallels to the Internet, which gave us ubiquitous distributed computing, storage and delivery of information. Bloom is aiming to encourage distributed generation — the idea that power is efficiently produced and delivered close to the point of consumption, rather than generated far away from a central plant and transmitted long distances to the consumer. The latter sounds like mainframe computing from the 1970s and 1980s. We know what happened there. And yes, we do have distributed generation today in the form of rooftop solar, on-farm anaerobic digestors, industrial CHP and community wind farms, but for residential purposes there is nothing economical that can supply all our electricity and heating needs 24-hours a day.

An affordable Bloom Energy Server in every home, or something equivalent, would dramatically change the market landscape. It would allow natural gas to provide electricity, heating and hot-water heating with a single energy source, squeezing out the electric utility altogether. And even if it’s not in the home, large Bloom Energy Servers could be situated in the middle of subdivisions. Connected to a larger natural gas pipe, or better, to a local source of carbon-neutral biogas, one can envision district heat and power systems that are complemented by solar or geothermal. Sure, under this scenario, some wires would need to go into the home, but the community would be effectively off-grid. Again, electric utility gets the squeeze.

This changes the game, and presents challenges to energy regulators that have treated the natural gas and electric folks as distinct industries and markets. Suddenly these overlapping turfs mean something. Competition is possible. Regulation is out of date. This is a trend that will increasingly take hold over the coming decade.

K.R. Sridhar, founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, described his vision this way in the company’s first press release: “We believe that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cell phones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localized energy source.”

I don’t agree with Sridhar. The cell phone analogy doesn’t work, because he conveniently ignores that you still need a natural gas pipeline. Mind you, if a small village in India wants to turn manure and other waste into biogas and use that to power itself, that would work and the Bloom Energy Server would enable it. Also, the fact that the Bloom box works in reverse means you can hook up a wind mill or solar panel and have it generate storable hydrogen, which can be converted back into electricity by reversing the process again. It’s possible, one day, but a lot of things are possible — let’s stick with what’s practical, economical and likely.

Another reason the cell phone anology doesn’t work is because the compelling part of cell phones is that you can carry them wherever you go. Unless Sridhar has plans for a pocket-sized Bloom Energy Server that operates on the sweat from your body, this won’t have the same impact as wireless portable communications.

I think a more accurate comparison is the impact of the Internet and Internet protocol. Before IP the phone networks and the cable networks operated in their own worlds. With IP they now invade each other’s worlds. We’re seeing something similar unfolding in the energy market. We’re seeing energy convergence.

Visit the original post at: Energy News

Bosch coming to Ontario, but how committed will it be?

I reported Tuesday that Bosch Solar, a subsidiary of German conglomerate Bosch Group, had signed a deal with Calgary-based solar inverter maker Sustainable Energy Technologies that will see the firms integrate their respective products to create a kind of all-in-one solar package for the Ontario market. Sustainable Energy’s parallel inverter product, Paralex, would be integrated with Bosch’s micromorph thin film solar modules along with all necessary wiring. This would make it relatively easy for any contractor or home builder to install the systems without the need for specialized help. The companies hope this combination will distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market.

Sustainable Energy says it plans to move R&D and its inverter manufacturing to Ontario, where a feed-in-tariff program has lured many companies, including Korea’s Samsung, Chinese-focused Canadian Solar and India’s Solar Semiconductor. Denmark’s Vestas is also seriously eyeing Ontario’s offshore wind market.

If Sustainable Energy and Bosch follow through with these plans, it’s likely that Bosch will have to establish some sort of manufacturing footprint in Ontario. Not to produce the thin-film cells, but rather to do module encapsulation. Together, both companies could create several hundred direct jobs, but Bosch’s manufacturing presence would likely be minimal.

What’s unclear is whether Bosch sees Ontario as a launchpad to the United States. Sustainable Energy has indicated that it does, but Bosch has kept relatively quiet and, in all likelihood, if it was to pursue the California market it’s likely to set up assembly facilities there. And like most of the “deals” announced around manufacturing in Ontario, most of this is just talk so far. Samsung has a comprehensive framework agreement with the province, so it appears to be the real deal. The rest are just testing the waters, trying to get a sense of whether they can negotiate more from the Ontario government beyond the generous feed-in-tariffs being offered today. Whether the province is willing to step up with tax breaks and loan guarantees — that’s unclear. But until we get that clarity, most of what we’re hearing is nothing more than noise.

Visit the original post at: Energy News

Industrial efficiency plan for Ontario, finally

My story in today’s Toronto Star is about a new industrial efficiency program that will soon be unveiled by the Ontario Power Authority. Under the plan, the province will agree to pay up to 70 per cent of the cost of an industrial energy retrofit, making it possible for the industrial energy user to achieve up to 30 per cent energy savings and a one- to two-year payback on investment. The aim is to get 300 MW of savings initially. The province’s contribution to each project is capped at $10 million. While giving away millions to help industry use less energy would seem misguided, it’s in fact a very smart and effective strategy. The money being paid out will be much less than what it would cost to built a 300 megawatt power plant. Meanwhile, helping key industrial players become more efficient makes the Ontario economy more competitive and insulates these industrial operations — and the jobs they create — from economic downturns.

Roughly 50 to 60 big industrial players that connect directly to the province’s transmission system can participate in the program, which was spearheaded by international mining companies XStrata and Vale Inco, as well a steel giant ArcelorMittal Dofasco. The three companies, which formed a working committee that reported to the power authority, estimated that efficiency gains could “realistically” achieve 1,000 megawatts over five years.

Industrial efficiency might not be as sexy as solar and wind — actually, it’s definitely not as sexy — but the simple fact is that the greenest and cheapest megawatt is the one that isn’t used. This is a smart program. Oh yeah, and we shouldn’t forget the stimulus effect. These projects will create much-needed jobs over the next few years.

Visit the original post at: Energy News

Industrial efficiency plan for Ontario, finally

My story in today’s Toronto Star is about a new industrial efficiency program that will soon be unveiled by the Ontario Power Authority. Under the plan, the province will agree to pay up to 70 per cent of the cost of an industrial energy retrofit, making it possible for the industrial energy user to achieve up to 30 per cent energy savings and a one- to two-year payback on investment. The aim is to get 300 MW of savings initially. The province’s contribution to each project is capped at $10 million. While giving away millions to help industry use less energy would seem misguided, it’s in fact a very smart and effective strategy. The money being paid out will be much less than what it would cost to built a 300 megawatt power plant. Meanwhile, helping key industrial players become more efficient makes the Ontario economy more competitive and insulates these industrial operations — and the jobs they create — from economic downturns.

Roughly 50 to 60 big industrial players that connect directly to the province’s transmission system can participate in the program, which was spearheaded by international mining companies XStrata and Vale Inco, as well a steel giant ArcelorMittal Dofasco. The three companies, which formed a working committee that reported to the power authority, estimated that efficiency gains could “realistically” achieve 1,000 megawatts over five years.

Industrial efficiency might not be as sexy as solar and wind — actually, it’s definitely not as sexy — but the simple fact is that the greenest and cheapest megawatt is the one that isn’t used. This is a smart program. Oh yeah, and we shouldn’t forget the stimulus effect. These projects will create much-needed jobs over the next few years.

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Chicago’s New Distributed Solar Energy Pilot Project

Creating a revolution in the way energy is produced and shared, distributed solar energy is one of the top clean energy topics of the day.

Chicago utility company ComEd (an arm of the energy giant Exelon Corporation) has a new pilot project in this field that will outfit 100 Chicago-area homes with solar photovoltaic panels and “at least 50 of those with ‘smart’ meters, net metering, battery backup and a grid-tied status that enables them to send unused electricity from their solar energy systems back to the grid.”

ComEd Environmental and Marketing Vice President Val Jensen says that the aim is to turn each of these homes into a “mini-utility”. But the project goes far beyond that.

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