Exporting Renewable Clean Energy

Washington, D.C., United States – When it comes to exporting green energy, talk tends to centre on whether or not the US can compete with China. But that has little bearing on the international business activity of California-based Greenhouse Holdings, which builds eco-friendly infrastructure.

As a first order of business, the export initiative intends to make sense of the vast amounts of information available about renewable energy development worldwide and to identify countries that offer a high potential return for U.S. technologies. The research will move beyond pinpointing hot markets, and instead try to define exactly where U.S. products can succeed.

With employees that are military and security experts, the company brings solar and other forms of sustainable energy to denied areas, places where little or no energy infrastructure now exists. 'We have found a need ,' said Ken Boyle, Solar Fusion’s executive vice president. 'For us it is not China, but more like Africa, where they need rapidly deployable energy alternatives.'

It is such niches, both large and small, that the Obama administration hopes to ferret out as part of a new strategy to increase U.S. exports of renewable energy. Released in December, the plan includes 23 commitments from eight government agencies to help U.S. companies find opportunities and overcome trade barriers. It is part of a broader Obama goal to double U.S. exports in five years.

'This policy is going to help companies like ours that have a different segment of the market.' Says Boyle

The Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), an interagency group chaired by the US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, pegs U.S. renewable energy product exports at US$2 billion in 2009, up from $1.3 billion two years earlier. These are conservative estimates based only on scant data now available on U.S. clean energy exports. Still, the numbers indicate US renewable energy exports account for only a tiny fraction of the $6 trillion global energy market, of which clean energy is the fastest growing segment. Many U.S. clean energy companies do not export, according to the report by TPCC's working group on renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE).

Those companies that do tend to focus on only one or two markets. The report blames the low export levels on several factors: a lack available market research, a shortage of manufacturing capacity, unfamiliarity with export logistics, risk aversion to foreign markets, lack of links to foreign partners or buyers, currency fluctuations, and financing snags abroad.

Still, export opportunities appear to be considerable. Together with efficiency, renewable energy received $162 billion in private sector investment globally in 2009, a figure that U..S officials expect to climb as economic conditions improve. Stimulus bills accounted for another $183 billion investment worldwide in the same year.

To help U.S. companies capture rich green energy markets, the government plans to offer new trade missions, financing products, market research and other services. (See sidebar, below) 'We will identify markets that need to be developed, where demand needs to be created for the technologies that U.S. companies can provide,' said Adam O'Malley, the director of the Office of Energy and Environment in the International Trade Administration (ITA).

The export initiative creates no new programmers or policies, but instead coordinates and ramps up existing agencies that offer assistance. Therefore, the programmer does not require action by Congress, a definite plus given the legislative body's typically slow pace on energy policy.

“We at Solar Fusion have positioned ourselves to meet the need” aligning ourselves with great organizations that have a strong presence within the Countries we have identified. For more information about our initiatives pertaining to international renewable energy contact Ken Boyle ken.boyle@solarfusioncorp.com

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

Solar Carports - money maker

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, February 19, 2011 12:00 am

Sunshine that can quickly turn a parked car into a solar oven will soon be put to more beneficial use at Southern Arizona's main veterans' hospital.

The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System is busy building a 2.9-megawatt photovoltaic power system on carports covering about 1,100 of the 1,700 parking spaces on its sprawling, 116-acre campus on Tucson's south side.

When finished this spring, the system will be one of the biggest carport-mounted photovoltaic systems in the U.S., and the second-largest commercial-size solar power array connected to Tucson Electric Power Co.'s grid. The VA hospital already boasts the sixth-largest solar system on TEP's system, a 302-kilowatt, ground-mounted array installed last year.

The $14 million carport system is being built with federal stimulus funds by California-based REC Solar, which built the local VA hospital's smaller system, with others at VA sites in California and Nevada.

It's part of a broader effort by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies to boost the use of renewable energy.

The silicon photovoltaic system is expected to provide 18 percent of the VA campus' power needs and save about $319,000 annually, said Martin Sjursen, chief of facilities management for the local VA hospital.

"We're increasing our use of renewable energy, which offsets our need to go to the electrical grid," said Sjursen, who has been the hospital's facilities chief for 19 years.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

Obama seeks to pull the plug on fossil fuel kickbacks to fund renewables

Washington D.C., United States --- ESI-AFRICA.COM --- 14 January 2011 - The Obama administration will seek to repeal US$46.2 billion in subsidies for oil, natural gas and coal companies in the next 10 years, in order to increase government funding of renewable energy spending, says American energy secretary Steven Chu.

The plan is part of President Barack Obama’s commitment to lower dependence on fossil fuels and to increase to 80% the share of U.S. electricity from “clean” sources by 2035. Cutting the subsidies will help pay for US$8 billion in “clean energy” investments, Chu wrote on his blog.

Announcing the intention to cut fossil fuel funding to increase spending on renewable energy, Chu wrote: “fiscal responsibility demands shared sacrifice.”

“The reduction in subsidies, which will cost energy companies US$3.6 billion in 2012, can be easily absorbed by the profit-rich oil industry,” Obama said last month in his State of the Union address.

Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corporation â€' the world’s largest company â€' increased profit to the highest level in more than two years in the fourth quarter of 2010. “We do not seek and do not ask for any subsidies,” said Exxon vice president for corporate strategic planning Bill Colton in a recent conference call with reporters. “If somebody wants to take away incentives from us, we think they should be taken away from everyone.”

The Energy Department will also seek to cut the budget for fossil-fuel research by 45%, or US$418 million, according to the posting.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

Florida Biofuel development! Why not?

If any state should be leading the way in biofuels development, it’s Florida.

With abundant sunshine, a long growing season, and plentiful waste from agriculture and from a big human population, the possibilities are obvious for refining biological materials, including algae, into clean liquid fuel. That could reduce Florida’s reliance on imported fuel and cut greenhouse emissions — and produce cheaper gasoline as well. After years of subsidies and promises, however, biofuels are a small component of the fuel mix, and are not expected to get much larger anytime soon.

The new Indian River County BioEnergy Center that broke ground last week with great fanfare — and $125 million in federal subsidies and loan guarantees — is designed to produce 8 million gallons of bioethanol per year. Florida consumes about 25 million gallons a day of liquid fuel. But despite slow development, biofuel facilities in Florida are moving ahead, including Algenol’s much-hyped laboratory and planned refinery in Lee County.  Algenol’s evangelistic CEO Paul Woods and his supporters such as Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah believe the company’s process is so promising that it could help make the county a magnet for renewable technology, with a big payoff in jobs and economic diversification.

What’s needed now is a state energy policy with renewable energy targets and concrete incentives for the development of biofuels and other alternative technology. Wanted, depending on who’s doing the asking: loan guarantees, grants and greater freedom for utilities to recover the costs of alternative fuel development, such as the kind Algenol hopes to do with FPL. That’s going to be a tough sell, with Tallahassee considering deep budget cuts. Subsidies are under attack as money-wasting distortions of the market, which should dictate winners and losers, not government. Years of subsidies or incentives have not produced a biofuels industry that can stand on its own feet. Corn ethanol is the most widely used biofuel, but it needs a 45-cent-per-gallon federal price subsidy.

Algenol received $10 million from Lee County to locate here, and has won a $25 million federal grant. “That’s very costly, and unrealistic if allowed to perpetuate,” says David Mica, of the Florida Petroleum Council. 

Boost needed

But without a boost from government, we could miss the opportunity to reduce Florida’s energy imports, now estimated at $60 billion annually for transportation and electricity fuel, and keep some of that money here to generate jobs. Jobs. That’s the magic word that could turn conservative dominated Tallahassee in favor of a policy to encourage biofuels.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature are intent on sweeping spending cuts. But Scott is equally committed to creating jobs. State Sen. Mike Bennett, whose District 21 includes part of Lee County, says “(Scott)’s going to be looking at what can create jobs in Florida quickly, and at the same time bring the cost of government down, for example by using bio-diesel in state trucks or school buses.” There is already a federal mandate that fuel companies use 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2022. With criticism growing of corn ethanol’s energy inefficiency, environmental impacts and controversial effects on engine parts, Florida should be trying to grab a part of that mandate with cleaner, more efficient biofuels. But there is a bigger issue. The costs of fossil fuels in terms of human disease; poisoned air, water and soil; or an altered climate are hard to calculate, but are real and inevitable, and fall ultimately on the taxpayer. They are a power ful argument in favor of aggressively encouraging clean, safe, renewable alternative energy, including Florida biofuels. Urge our leaders in Tallahassee to seize the opportunity to make Florida a world leader in biofuels.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

Solar on Schools? Is a No Brainer

Schools build solar to educate students about clean energy, but also to cut energy costs.  But the structure of federal solar tax incentives means that owning solar is not an option for schools. 

Take the Milpitas School District’s 14 distributed solar PV arrays.  According to a news story, the district anticipates savings of $12 million over 25 years from the projects, which were financed by a power purchase agreement with Chevron Energy Solutions. Could the district have been better off owning their solar PV arrays rather than signing a power purchase agreement? 

The answer is inextricably tied to the federal incentives for solar.

First, a little background on the district’s power purchase agreement with Chevron.  The total cost of the 3.4 megawatt solar arrays was $30 million, for a cost of $8.82 per Watt (DC).  Chevron paid for the entire installation and presumably used both the federal Investment Tax Credit and accelerated depreciation.  Chevron also applied for and received the 5-year California Solar Initiative of 22 cents per kWh. 

Since the school paid no money upfront, their contract with Chevron requires them to make annual payments for the solar power over 23 years.  The first payment in 2009 was $856,000 and includes a guaranteed output of approximately 4 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year.  In 2009, the difference between the district’s annual power payment to Chevron and its prior electric bill resulted in a savings of $51,000.  The following chart from a district presentation illustrates the District's anticipated savings (in green) over 25 years.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

Power-One to open in the USA

Power-One Opens Solar Inverter Plant In Arizona

by Energy Matters

Earlier today, wind and solar inverter manufacturer Power-One, makers of Aurora inverters, officially opened its first manufacturing facility in the USA.
 
The Phoenix, Arizona plant will achieve an output capacity of 1 gigawatt by the end of 2011 and can be expanded to reach 4 gigawatt wind and solar inverter production - enough to service up to two million homes.
 
A PV inverter is a device that sits between solar panels and a building's mains electrical supply. It converts the DC voltage generated by the solar modules into AC, suitable for use by appliances.
 
Power-One is the inverter industry's quiet achiever, having grown significantly in the last year to become the second largest manufacturer of solar inverters in the world, behind SMA. The brand has been gaining traction in Austral ia's solar power market through its range of Aurora inverters.
 
Governor Jan Brewer,  who presided over the opening ceremony, stated that Arizona now ranks number one in the USA for solar industry and manufacturing . Greater Phoenix Economic Council President and CEO Barry Broome said Phoenix's renewable energy industry is in a very strong position and he expects to see continued growth of the supply chain during 2011.
 
The 11,334 square metre facility is expected to employ around 350 people once operating at it full capacity.
 
Power-One also makes power management products for routers, data storage and servers, wireless communications, optical networking and semiconductor test equipment.
 
The global solar inverter market is predicted to reach $8.5 billion by 201 4. 7 million inverters are expected to be solar that year; up from less than 1 million units in 2009.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp

What Happens when you Sell your Home?

Posted by Nicholas Mukhar in Monday, January 31st 2011

A rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system is a long-term investment in your property: that the typical warranty on a solar PV panels is 20 to 25 years. One can do a lot over the course of two decades, including change your address. So what happens to that solar home energy system when you sell your house?

The short answer is that it stays with the house. And, depending on the market, your solar home may well sell at a premium compared to non-solar homes. In October of last year, for instance, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a study showing that solar homes in San Diego typically sell for 15 percent to 20 percent more than homes without rooftop solar systems.

Why the premium for solar? Well, the monthly cost of owning a solar home is lower than owning a non-solar home. This means more money is available for things like, oh, your mortgage payment. Plus, if electricity prices increase, the solar panel owner’s savings increase, too. This is because a portion of their electricity usage will be locked into a fixed power rate.

If you’re in the market to buy a home, don’t let the higher price of a home with a rooftop solar system discourage you. You’re getting all of the aforementioned benefits and you can apply for an energy efficient mortgage, a program made possible by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The mortgage can be as much as 20,000 more than a mortgage for a home without a solar PV energy system.

Learn More about Solar Fusion Corp

Posted via email from SolarFusionCorp