MORE NEWS, 7-6 (EFFICIENCY CUTS TAXES; FED FUNDS 20 MW FLYWHEEL; CHINA NEW ENERGY PROPHET)

EFFICIENCY CUTS TAXES
Energy efficiency can also mean lower tax bills
Pamela Brust, July 5, 2009 (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)

"Replacing old doors and windows, installing insulation, remodeling and building with an eye toward energy efficiency could do more than help save on utility bills down the line, it may also translate into savings on your tax bill as well.

"According to the U.S. Department of Energy, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extends, expands, and simplifies federal income tax credits for homeowners who make energy efficiency home improvements. The law extends consumer tax benefits through 2010; triples the total available tax credit from $500 to $1,500, and increases the tax credit to 30 percent of the cost of each qualified energy efficiency improvement. It also removes the cap on geothermal heat pumps and solar water heaters through 2016."

Efficiency saves in so many ways. (click to enlarge)

"Consumers who purchase and install specific products, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment in existing homes can receive a tax credit for 30 percent of the cost, up to $1,500, for improvements placed in service starting Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2010."

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"Consumers who install solar energy systems (including solar water heating and solar electric systems), small wind systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel cell and microturbine systems can receive a 30 percent tax credit for systems placed in service before Dec. 31, 2016…[I]nformation about the stimulus package is just circulating and most consumers probably are just now becoming aware of the possibilities…

"…[T]he building industry overall is up about 17 percent over the last couple of months…If a person is building a new home, according to the Department of Energy, they can qualify for the tax credit for geothermal heat pumps, photovoltaics, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells…More information is available on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act including specific projects and equipment it covers, go to [Alliance to Save Energy]…and click on [Energy-Efficiency Home and Vehicle Tax Credits]…and the U.S. Department of Energy's Web site..."


FED FUNDS 20 MW FLYWHEEL
DOE Backs Energy Storage: Beacon Power Scores $43M Loan Guarantee
Josie Garthwaite, July 2, 2009 (Earth2Tech via Reuters)

"A series of setbacks for flywheel energy storage last year made us wonder if the technology was just spinning its wheels. But… the Department of Energy…has awarded a conditional $43 million loan guarantee to Beacon Power to help with construction of a 20 MW flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. — the first full-scale commercial deployment of the company’s technology.

"The Obama administration also announced a $16 million guarantee today for Nordic Windpower to build an assembly plant…bringing the number of awards under a much-delayed DOE program to three in the last four months…In late March, cylindrical solar panel maker Solyndra snagged the first guarantee — for a whopping $535 million — to finance a new factory…While Beacon’s guarantee is small relative to the one offered to Solyndra, it could help boost momentum for flywheel tech as well as the company, which has scored a few key deals in recent months after a rocky end to 2008."

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"…Beacon uses large spinning discs contained in a vacuum to keep electricity flowing over the power grid at a steady frequency — basically helping to stabilize the grid and allowing it to run more efficiently. Flywheels, which need little maintenance over their 20-year-plus life span and don’t have some of the toxic chemicals found in many batteries, are sometimes used as backup power for emergency power systems — what’s called uninterrupted power supply, or UPS…"

"Beacon had planned to raise capital and add 4 MW of capacity to a project in Tyngsboro by the end of last year, but announced in November that it would delay fund raising and slow down the expansion…But by February, Beacon landed a $3 million contract with U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command to look at flywheels for shipboard applications, and just a few weeks ago, it scored a $2 million contract with a New York state utility operator to get started on the 20 MW Stephentown project… [T]oday’s loan guarantee will…[provide] 62.5 percent of total financing for the estimated $69 million buildout...

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"…[T]he Stephentown energy storage plant will absorb and discharge energy to the electric grid, making it possible to use more variable renewable energy sources…[E]nergy storage represents a pivotal component of the smart grid, but until recently, it has largely played second fiddle to digital intelligence for the power grid in the eyes of Congress, investors, utilities and entrepreneurs. With one of the first three guarantees from the DOE, it’s getting attention that’s long overdue."


CHINA NEW ENERGY PROPHET
Atonement in a Drive for Wind Power
Keith Bradsher, July 2, 2009 (NY Times)

"A guilty conscience turned Min Deqing into northwestern China’s unlikely prophet of wind and solar energy…Mr. Min worked [from 1973] at the main coal-fired power plant in Lanzhou, the capital of impoverished Gansu province…[He] pushed himself up the ranks [from laborer] to operations director by 1996, partly by inventing new industrial techniques that caught on elsewhere in the Chinese power and steel industries.

"Shortly after he assumed the top job, officials from the local environmental protection bureau came to him and asked that he install modern pollution-control equipment to help improve the city’s soot-filled air…[He] knew just how bad the pollution was…But he stalled for three years before finally installing the equipment, because it was costly and he did not want to dent the plant’s profit margins. The state-owned operation was being run mainly for the benefit of its 2,800 workers, and he wanted to spend money on the workers, whom he had known his entire adult life, rather than on filters to remove soot and smog-causing gases…"

Mr. Min and...(pic from the NY Times - click to enlarge)

"…[W]hen he turned 55 in 2000 and was automatically forced to step aside from the plant’s leadership…He promptly bought a digital wind gauge at his own expense for $360 and began crisscrossing the province’s wind-swept plateaus to assess their potential for wind farms. (He wore out three wind gauges, all bought with his own money, and is now on his fourth.)…[He] documented that Gansu had some of the strongest, most reliable winds in all of China, and found the location near Dunhuang where Beijing officials have now decided to build one of the world’s largest wind farms.

"Mr. Min, a slender man who wears only the black cotton pants and simple buttoned shirts of a Chinese laborer, began proselytizing about wind and solar energy — first to Gansu officials and then to power officials across the country. He had spent three decades building connections in the Chinese power industry and he began calling his contacts, meeting them and attending conferences to lobby for renewable energy. It did not hurt that his father had been a successful power engineer in Mr. Min’s hometown of Wuhan, while his older brother helped build the Three Gorges hydroelectric dam."

...what Min hath wrought. (click to enlarge)

"…[M]ost are still skeptical…But pressure on the power industry to embrace new energy technologies is clearly increasing…[T]he Asian Development Bank…bankrolled early feasibility studies and renewable energy projects in Gansu in 2002 and 2003, long before Beijing officials forced state-owned power companies to become interested in renewable energy by setting mandatory targets for them in 2007…

"Mr. Min is an example of a phenomenon that is common in China but little studied by academics: the semiretired official who becomes a policy activist while staying behind the scenes. Having never spoken to the Chinese or foreign media before, he agreed to be interviewed in the belief that Gansu’s renewable energy industry would benefit from more attention…[He] wants to keep going at least until China completes its first 100-megawatt solar power plant — a contract for the construction of one was signed on June 16…"