MORE NEWS, 3-25 (WITH HALF BIL $$ FED LOAN, SOLAR CO WILL BUILD; THUMB’S UP FOR WIND IN MICHIGAN; SAN DIEGO CHARGING UP FOR EV)

WITH HALF BIL $$ FED LOAN, SOLAR CO WILL BUILD
U.S. Offers $535 Million Loan Toward Solar Energy Plant
Steven Mufson, March 21, 2009 (Washington Post)

"Energy Secretary Steven Chu…offered a $535 million federal loan guarantee for Solyndra Inc. to support the construction of a manufacturing plant for the four-year-old company's photovoltaic panels made of tiny cylindrical collection tubes.

"Chu said the project would put 3,000 people to work. Kelly Truman, Solyndra's vice president of marketing, sales and business development, said that, when finished, the plant would directly employ more than 500 people while others would get work with firms doing installation."

click to enlarge

"The loan guarantee would be the first ever extended under a program approved by Congress in 2005. The program has been bogged down…[in the] appropriation and… approval process.

"The money for this guarantee came from money appropriated in the Obama stimulus package, which could finance as much as $60 billion in loan guarantees. There is another $38.5 billion in unused loan guarantees authorized during the Bush administration."

A Solyndra rooftop. (click to enlarge)

"Chu has vowed to streamline the approval process and reduce the amount of application materials required. Some applications have run more than 1,000 pages, but Chu has said they should not need to run more than 50…

"Solyndra's Truman said the company filed its initial loan proposal at the end of 2006 and a lengthier application more than a year later. The Energy Department said its loan guarantee could cover no more than 73 percent of the new plant's cost…Solyndra must provide the remaining 27 percent…This would be Solyndra's second plant and it would eventually produce solar panels capable of producing 500 megawatts a year."


THUMB’S UP FOR WIND IN MICHIGAN
DTE sees 280 wind turbines in Thumb's Huron County
March 22, 2009 (AP via Chicago Tribune)

"The skyline in Michigan's rural Thumb could look a bit like historic Holland a few years down the road under DTE Energy Co.'s announced plan to install 125 wind turbines in Huron County by 2015 -- and 280 within two decades.

"DTE Energy officials told Huron County commissioners the company must add 1,200 megawatts of green power to meet the state's new energy mandate. State rules require utilities to provide 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015.

"The Huron County wind turbines eventually could provide 4 percent to 4.5 percent of the company's total power…[Initial construction should create about 200 jobs and begin in 2011]..."

There's certainly wind in the thumb - but there's a lot more on the lakes. (click to enlarge)

"The Detroit-based utility now generates about 1 percent of its power from renewable energy sources…DTE's goal is to have about 3 percent of its electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2012…

"State law requires DTE to buy at least half of the remaining 9 percent of total power that has to come from renewable energy sources from a third party. DTE says it seeks to produce the other half of the renewable energy from its own projects… primarily through commercial-scale wind projects and some smaller solar projects…

"DTE has about 55,000 acres of land easements signed, with about 7,000 more acres under negotiations…DTE officials said the utility expects to cap the renewable portion of its generating capacity at 10 percent… because green power still costs more than power from coal and nuclear plants…"


SAN DIEGO CHARGING UP FOR EV
Nissan in electric car tie-up with San Diego utility
Soyoung Kim (w/Brian Moss), March 23, 2009 (Reuters)

"Nissan Motor Co…has formed a partnership with utility company San Diego Gas & Electric to develop an infrastructure that would provide charging stations for electric car owners.

"Nissan and its Japanese partner have teamed up with several U.S. states including Tennessee and Oregon as well as governments in Japan, Israel, Denmark and Portugal over the past year to study the infrastructure needed to support the roll-out of electric cars starting in 2010."

Charging stations can look like this...(click to enlarge)

"Such initiatives are considered critical for electric car drivers so they do not have to return home when their vehicles are low on power.

"Nissan, which trails Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corpand Honda Motor Co in hybrid technology, has made it a priority to become a leader in the still emerging market for fully electric vehicles."

...Or this...(click to enlarge)

"Under the latest tie-up, Nissan and San Diego Gas & Electric will develop plans to develop a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and work to implement and maintain a battery charging network…

"Nissan plans to launch zero emission vehicles powered by lithium-ion battery packs in the United States in 2010 and market the vehicles globally two years after the U.S. launch…[C]ruising range for[Nissan’s] first generation of electric cars could be 100 miles…[and] near 200 miles by the second generation of the battery pack."