US And China Solar Companies Continue Chess Game

Posted on November 28, 2011 by quest

December 2 marks the next step in the preliminary determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission on whether subsidized Chinese exports have injured the US solar domestic industry. If it finds in favor of CASM, the first possible determination on “critical circumstances” could come as soon as Jan. 12, meaning importers of record could later be required to deposit estimated duties on imports back to this past Oct. 14. CASM (Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing) is a coalition includes dozens of solar suppliers and installers from across the country, many of whom have issued impassioned pleas to preserve fair trade and U.S. jobs. The Commerce Department initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of the Chinese industry on Nov. 9. The global solar industry is growing at an alarming rate with China producing 55 percent of the world’s PVs in 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

As the green economy continues to spread, federal, state and city agencies are helping to drive demand for solar products. Recently Charlotte, North Carolina Mayor Anthony Foxx completed a trade mission to China with the goal of spurring more trade with Chinese solar manufacturers. Jetion Solar USA held its grand opening in Charlotte in July of this year, amid great expectations and the tantalizing prospect and promise of jobs. But even as this is unfolding now China is planning it’s own probe. Now comes an announcement by the Commerce Ministry that China‘s solar industry association and Chinese solar companies may ask Beijing to launch an anti-dumping and subsidy probe into imports of U.S. polysilicon, the raw material used to make solar cells. Now China to probe U.S. renewable energy support… I know it gets confusing.

Ben Santarris, U.S. head of corporate communications for CASM “We are gratified, but not surprised, to see this showing of support from such a broad cross-section of the American solar industry.” “We know that support for domestic manufacturing is deep and pervasive. It’s great to see that it’s also resolute enough to stand up and be counted and heard.”The numbers include seven U.S. solar manufacturers that have joined to stop what CASM calls China’s state-sponsored solar industry from allegedly using export-oriented subsidies to dump exports into the U.S. market and harm American manufacturers and workers. Without a production cost advantage, China is deploying a staggering volume and array of subsidies to underwrite its production largely for export at dumped prices, according to CASM. The campaign has triggered trade petition drives to hold China accountable not just in the United States but also in Australia and Europe.

COP 17 climate change opens, Africa “victim and actor

Hollywood Spotlights Green Sustainability

World’s Tallest Solar Tower Set To Rise In Arizona

Posted on November 27, 2011 by quest

There are big scale solar projects that simply dazzle the imagination. Take for example the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which is a $2.2 billion solar thermal power project currently under construction in the California Mojave Desert. The The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, is 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, and will generate 392 megawatts of power. Google which recently pulled out of the deal after investing $168 million was one of the first investors along with the Department of Energy which has over a billion dollars in the deal. It’s massive in scope. It will produce for 1400 jobs at it’s peak and cut 13.5 million tons of carbon dioxide from the sky over it’s thirty year life expectancy.

Then there’s Desertec, an ambitious solar power project, that is to start building its first power plant next year, a 500 megawatt facility in Morocco costing up to 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion), the project lead told a German newspaper.”Construction is to start in 2012,” Ernst Rauch of Munich Re (MUVGn.DE), initiator of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), told Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview.

Founded by mostly German companies in 2009, the 400 billion euro Desertec project will use mirrors to harness the sun’s rays to produce steam and drive turbines for electricity generation in the Sahara region within the next decade and then transmit the power to energy starved Europe. The first phase of the 12-square-kilometre Moroccan complex will be a 150 MW facility costing up to 600 million euros that will take two to four years to build.

But while these two utility scale projects go wide; EnviroMission a developer of solar tower systems is working in La Paz Arizona will build the tallest solar building in the world. It is the first of two such towers to be completed in 2015. Read more

Survival of the Fittest” Mentality at UN Climate Talks

UN Climate Conference Opening In Durban South Africa

Posted on November 27, 2011 by quest

The streets of Duran are buzzing as delegates from nearly 200 countries gather to cop17 icc banner 533 20111 300x112 UN Climate Conference Opening In Durban South Africa meet in Durban, South Africa from 28 November 2011 to 9 December 2011 at COP 17, for major talks on climate change and other related issues. Advocate Leslie Sedibe, CEO of Proudly South African said.”Many countries, rich and poor, are also taking steps to curb gas emissions as part of a global fight against climate change. These range from carbon trading schemes, policies that support renewable energy investment, to tougher energy efficiency and car fuel standards and carbon intensity targets. COP 17 holds the future of our nations on their shoulders and would lay the foundation for Proudly South African businesses to tackle the issue of Environmental Responsibility within South Africa going forward.”

Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres-Press Briefing

“Environmental Responsibility is one of Proudly South African’s guiding member principles for promoting “adherence to environmental standards through energy efficiency, management of carbon emissions, waste management, effluent management, water safety, recycling, reduce and re-use in South Africa, along with the principles of job creation, fair labour practises and a support for local procurement,”says Sedibe. “We all need to change the way we live and how we conduct business on a daily basis. We need to ensure that jobs that are created are sustainable and not detrimental to the environment around the globe and in South Africa. If not displayed the seriousness of the climate change and global warming problem in its entirety, we know that scientists have warned that it is impossible to find the solution that requires a 360degree turnaround. COP 17 is fundamental to every person, business and country.”

But all who attend the COP 17 event do not support it. Senator James Inhofe recently met with Representatives of CFACT and invited CFACT to co-sponsor a press conference at COP17, tentatively scheduled for Monday, December 5th. Senator Inhofe has for years questioned the direction of U.S. and world global warming policy in the Senate. CFACT’s delegation to Durban will also feature Lord Christopher Monckton, Dr. Kelvin Kemm, Dr. Leon Louwe, CFACT Executive Director Craig Rucker and staff.

Solar Energy Turned To Ice

Environmentalist RFK Jr Calls Out Sock Puppets

Posted on November 26, 2011 by quest

Robert F Kennedy Jr has been on the vanguard of the environmental movement long before it began moving toward the mainstream. In his weekly radio show Ring of Fire he along with Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder have been chronicling the exploits of coal, oil and nuclear polluters for years. Robert has a reputation as a resolute defender of the environment which stems from a litany of successful legal actions. He was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group’s achievement helped spawn more than 130 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe.

In his just published article in the Huffington Post,”Big Carbon’s Sock Puppets Declare War on America and the Planet” Robert Kennedy lays out an incredibly accurate analysis of Americas environmental, energy and business based challenges. He begins the article, “It’s now become de rigueur among the radical right wing rhetoricians to characterize any government support of America’s green energy sector as wasteful, fruitless, and scandalous. They greeted with glee the collapse of the government supported solar company, Solyndra, America’s first major casualty in our race with China to dominate the “new energy” economy. With Solyndra dying on the battlefield — its marketplace choking on inexpensive Chinese solar panels — the right wing’s response was to hoist the white flag and declare defeat in the war for global cleantech leadership. That brand of “Can’t Do” cowardice is a boon to the carbon and nuclear power incumbents who fund so much of the right wing’s activities — but it’s bad for America.”

Speaking at Solar Power International in 2009 as keynote speaker his address was called, A vision for Energy Independence, Jobs and National Wealth. It’s interesting to look at his talk now through the lens of some history thats paseed and the what’s been going on most recently in the multi billion global solar industry. His article is quite timely as some 60,000 protesters from across Japan including a Nobel-prize-wnning author Kenzaburo Oe, gathered in central Tokyo for an anti-nuclear rally recently, urging the Japanese government to cut reliance on atomic power. So far Germany is one of the few countries that has agreed to stop building nuclear power plants.

News & Community: Green News Wall

More Environmental Legal Woes for JinkoSolar

Posted on November 26, 2011 by quest

It had to be within days of announcing it’s sponsorship of the San Francisco 49ers in September that JinkoSolar was feeling some environmental heat. The Huffington Post reported in mid September,“Police detained at least 20 people after hundreds of villagers protested last week, some storming the factory compound and overturning vehicles. Authorities said the factory had failed to address earlier environmental complaints and that the protests followed mass fish deaths in late August due to runoff from heavy rains.” Then in early October the company reported it was in the process of completion of its phase I environment safety upgrade at its facility in Haining City west of Shanghai in the Zhejiang Province of China.

Since then Los Angeles based law firm Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP has just filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Jinko stock on the open market between May 13, 2010 and September 21, 2011. The securities fraud class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Complaint alleges that in the Prospectus and Registration Statement issued in connection with the Company’s IPO, and in subsequent filings with Securities and Exchange Commission, JinkoSolar represented that the Company was in full compliance will all environmental regulations in the People’s Republic of China. The Complaint further alleges that last month, after a massive die-off of fish in a river adjacent to JinkoSolar’s primary manufacturing facility in Haining, China, hundreds of local residents protested and eventually ransacked the facility, 31 people were detained by police, and the facility was shut for several weeks.

Solar Megawatt Step

Chevy Volt Being Fed Checked

Electric Vehicles Hitting The Road In South Africa

Posted on November 25, 2011 by quest

South Africa has been responding to the need for clean energy. Recently a mobile solar school was introduced. Now for the first time ever, a fleet of mass-produced, zero-emission vehicles will take to the streets of Africa. A dozen electric cars from the Renault-Nissan Alliance will highlight the benefits of green transportation and will provide zero-emission* shuttle services for delegates at the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, Nov. 28-Dec. 9. The 17th annual Conference of Parties (better known as COP17) aims to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.”

Nissan has already sold more than 20,000 LEAFs on three continents, making it the most popular EV in the world. Renault just began selling Kangoo Z.E., a light commercial vehicle. The Fluence Z.E. family sedan will go on sale shortly followed by Twizy, an urban 2-seater, and ZOE, a compact hatchback, next year. Electric vehicles, which can be charged from purely renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, will play a critical role in achieving COP17‘s goals and reducing the impact of climate change.

Solar technology is particularly useful throughout the African continent both in urban and rural areas. In September The SunPower Foundation, announced the donation of high efficiency SunPower photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to Greenpeace Africa. The panels were installed by 30 local youth during a two week solar training course in Durban, South Africa, led by Greenpeace. Students learned more about solar PV and other renewable energy technologies as well as completed course modules covering social entrepreneurship and Greenpeace’s Energy (R)evolution report. The Greenpeace Africa solar powered headquarters will be showcased at the upcoming UN climate talks in Durban.