Saudi Arabia Going Solar With $109 Billion Investment

Posted on May 21, 2012 by quest

If you thought solar energy was just a passing fad and not really a serious contender for supplying power for an energy starved world, think again. The revelation that Saudi Arabia has announced a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that will generate a third of the nation’s electricity within two decades, could silence many skeptics. When the world’s largest source of oil goes solar that should wake everybody up! The Saudi Arabian Market would provide significant opportunities for the Solar Industry. “We are not only looking for building solar plants,” Maher al-Odan, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, said in a recent interview. “We want to run a sustainable solar energy sector that will become a driver for domestic energy for years to come.” Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, hopes to have 41,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2032 said al-Odan. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance the nation trails Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates with only 3 megawatts of solar installations.

Five Star Equities releases regular market updates on the Solar Industry so investors can stay ahead of the crowd and make the best investment decisions to maximize their returns. Five Star Equities examines the outlook for companies in the Solar Industry and provides equity research on Trina Solar Limited TSL +1.93% and JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd.Trina Solar Limited is a leading manufacturer of high quality modules and has a long history as a solar PV pioneer since it was founded in 1997 as a system installation company.

JA Solar Holdings is a leading manufacturer of high-performance solar power products. The company sells its products to solar manufacturers worldwide, who assemble and integrate solar cells into modules and systems that convert sunlight into electricity for residential, commercial, and utility-scale power generation. Five Star Equities provides Market Research focused on equities that offer growth opportunities, value, and strong potential return.

End Polluter Welfare Invest In Solar

Posted on May 10, 2012 by quest

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont along with Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota and others at his side said, “I am proud to be here today with Congressman Ellison, with my good friend and fellow Vermonter Bill McKibben, with Brent Blackwelder from Friends of the Earth and Ryan Alexander from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

We are here today not just to announce new legislation, but to send a message – and that message is that it is time to end the absurdity of taxpayers providing massive subsidies to hugely profitable fossil fuel corporations. In these difficult economic times, it is imperative that we support the taxpayers of this country and not the fossil fuel industry – one of the most powerful special interests in the world.”

Our federal government is set to give away over $110 billion in taxpayer dollars to the oil, gas, and coal industries over the next 10 years. That is totally absurd. When we have a $15.6 trillion national debt, we cannot afford it. When the five largest oil companies have made over $1 trillion in profits in the last decade, they don’t need it. When some of these same polluters have, in a given year, paid zero in federal income taxes and actually received IRS rebate checks worth millions, they don’t deserve it. When fossil fuels are the number one source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, creating a planetary crisis of global warming that is already causing devastating extreme weather disturbances, we can’t ignore it. As people throughout our country are demanding that we invest in energy efficiency and sustainable energy, and when Congress has instead allowed key sustainable energy incentives to expire even as Big Oil reaps billions in subsidies, it is time to change our national energy priorities. So today, Congressman Ellison and I are introducing the End Polluter Welfare Act in the House and the Senate. Continue reading

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Hi Tech Rooftop Mapping For Solar Power Potential

Posted on April 20, 2012 by quest

GeoEye, a leading provider of geospatial information and insight, today announced a strategic relationship with Geostellar, an innovative technology company that is transforming the solar energy industry. Under the terms of the agreement, GeoEye will supply high-quality Earth imagery, digital surface models and other mapping data to help Geostellar dramatically expand its service. GeoEye also intends to take a small equity position in the company.

Geostellar has built a breakthrough analytics platform that automatically determines how quickly a given property owner can recoup an investment in solar energy. The company’s platform models roof slope, shadows, weather patterns, local utility rates and solar energy subsidies to automate what has historically been a highly manual process. Geostellar has built solar maps in Washington D.C., Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey, where government agencies have made aerial imagery freely available. Geostellar needed a strategic partner to help collect and process massive amounts of Earth imagery data to catalog the solar power potential of every commercial and residential property in the United States. GeoEye will become Geostellar’s Earth imagery vendor of choice and apply image processing capabilities developed by GeoEye Analytics to provide the data required to develop solar maps for every key metropolitan market in the United States.

“High quality, digital surface models and mapping data provide critical fuel to our engine,” said David Levine, founder and CEO of Geostellar. “Our strategic relationship with GeoEye will help millions of residential and commercial property owners understand how quickly they can generate a return on investment by going solar.”

Solar Eclipse Live From Mt. Fuji Using Solar Power

Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic

Solar Installs Push PG&E To Top Spot

Posted on April 18, 2012 by quest

“PG&E is pleased to support our customers’ choice to go solar so they can realize the benefits of solar energy for their homes and businesses,” said Helen Burt, Senior Vice President of Customer Care for PG&E. “We remain committed to providing our customers with clean, reliable, and affordable energy, including an increasing amount of power from large utility-driven solar projects.”A new survey by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) ranks Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) as the nation’s top electric utility in the amount of solar power added to its system in 2011. PG&E is first in the Annual Solar Megawatts category of the more than 240 utilities that participated in SEPA’s 2011 Utility Solar Rankings survey.

“We congratulate PG&E for being a solar power leader in the electric utility sector,” said Julia Hamm, President and CEO of SEPA. “PG&E successfully adapted its business models and operations to allow for a significant amount of solar energy to be integrated into the grid last year, delivering the many benefits of clean solar energy to its customers. The impressive gains solar energy made in the U.S. in 2011 can be largely attributed to PG&E’s leadership.”

PG&E delivers some of the nation’s cleanest electric power to its customers, thanks in part to solar energy. On average, more than half the electricity the utility delivers comes from sources that are renewable and/or carbon free. PG&E helped more than 12,000 customers in Northern and Central California connect 162 megawatts (MW) of solar at their homes and business in 2011, bringing the total number of customer solar installations to more than 63,000. It also connected 135 MW of new large solar projects for the benefit of all customers. This includes PG&E’s own expanding solar facilities, which when completed will deliver 250 MW of clean energy — enough to power about 150,000 average customer homes.

Electric Vehicle Technology Driving Through

The Roof The Roof The Roof Is All Solar

Posted on April 9, 2012 by quest

U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., recently presented Gloucester Marine Terminal officials with an award letter announcing an $11 million federal tax credit rebate for the recently-completed groundbreaking new rooftop solar power plant project, the largest of its kind in North America. Known as Riverside Renewable Energy, LLC, the $42 million project consists of 27,526 photovoltaic rooftop solar panels covering 1.1 million square foot of rooftop at the Gloucester Marine Terminal, which is owned by the Holt family. It has the capacity to produce 9.0 MW of electricity – enough to power more than 1,500 homes. “The Riverside project is an outstanding example of how we can create jobs that move us towards cleaner, more efficient and cost-saving energy that doesn’t come from overseas,” said Congressman Andrews. “By partnering with the federal government, private industry is able to make strides that are good for job creation and the economy right now, and also for a cleaner, healthier and more energy efficient future here in South Jersey and the country.”

“A lot of things had to happen to make this project come together, and we enjoyed great teamwork from conceptualization through installation and onto completion,” said Leo Holt, President of Gloucester Terminals, LLC. “This project positions Gloucester Terminals for future success in an incredibly competitive field and helps ensure plenty of activity for the Delaware River port community.” The Riverside project sits atop the roof of the Terminal’s refrigerated warehouse near the Walt Whitman Bridge on the Delaware River. Operating on a “24/7″ basis to service food importers, the Terminal is the largest on-dock refrigerated warehouse on the East Coast and a very large user of electricity. Construction on the solar project began in June 2011 and was completed on budget and ahead of schedule last fall.

Riverside will generate the equivalent of up to 80 percent of the Terminal’s power demand. The system is expected to offset more than 8,100 tons of carbon dioxide, approximately the same amount that would be offset by planting 400,000 trees or removing 1,200 cars from the road. In addition to the Holt family, the Riverside project is a partnership involving SunPower, a global solar technology company that designs, manufactures and delivers the highest efficiency, highest reliability solar panels and systems available today; Rabobank, a leading global bank and financier of renewable energy.

Governor Brown Announces $120 Million Settlement to Fund

Electric Car Charging Stations Across California

U. S. Issues Findings On Solar Trade With China

Posted on March 21, 2012 by quest

The U.S. Department of Commerce has just issued a preliminary finding that Chinese state sponsorship of its solar industry is anti-competitive under U.S. and international trade law and ordered preliminary duties on the industry’s U.S. exports of crystalline silicon solar cells and panels to offset the effects of China’s illegal subsidies. Commerce will require importers of record to post deposits or bonds toward anti-subsidy margins of 2.9 percent for cells and panels made by Suntech, 4.73 percent Trina Solar and 3.59 percent for all other Chinese manufacturers.“We commend the Department of Commerce for its preliminary decision today, which is the first step in a process that will roll out over the next several months,” said Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc., member of the seven-manufacturer Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) and petitioner in anti-subsidy and anti-dumping cases against the Chinese industry. “We need both the domestic manufacturing and installation businesses to participate in fair competition to advance our solar industry’s reach for greater national energy, economic and environmental security.”

“If fair international trade can be re-established, the solar-pioneering U.S. industry will once again compete on legitimate market factors such as product performance, production efficiency and unsubsidized pricing,” Brinser said. “We need both the domestic manufacturing and installation businesses to participate in fair competition to advance our solar industry’s reach for greater national energy, economic and environmental security.”CASM contends that China’s broad portfolio of subsidies spurred its producers to build huge excesses of manufacturing capacity, export more than 95 percent of production and sell product at artificially low prices to unfairly seize U.S. market share at the expense of domestic producers. At least 12 U.S. manufacturers of crystalline silicon solar cells and panels have closed plants, gone bankrupt or staged significant layoffs since 2010.

On Dec. 2, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) made a unanimous preliminary determination that China’s trade practices were harming the domestic industry. On Jan. 30, Commerce found that Chinese importers had mounted a massive, evasive surge ahead of the preliminary determination. As a result, today’s ruling on duties applies to Chinese solar imports not just hereafter but also retroactively 90 days. Commerce is expected to issue a preliminary ruling on anti-dumping duties on May 16 (announced May 17). Final determinations on the duties would take place in the summer. To close the case in the fall, the ITC would need to make a second, final ruling on whether Chinese trade practices have harmed the domestic industry.