QUICK NEWS, 2-10: THE MARKET TO PRONOUNCE ON NEW ENERGY; NUCLEAR GIANT ON SOLAR POWER; SARAH PALIN ON CLIMATE CHANGE; OBAMA ON BIOFUELS

THE MARKET TO PRONOUNCE ON NEW ENERGY
Greentech IPO Scorecard: Tesla, Solyndra, Codexis; For better or for worse, 2010 looks to be the year of the greentech IPO.
Eric Wesoff, February 8, 2010 (Greentech Media)

"…53 companies filed paperwork to hold initial public offerings in Q4 2009 -- the highest number of new registrants in a single quarter since 2007…[T]here are more deals in the IPO pipeline than there have been for more than two years…And a number of those IPOs happen to be high-profile offerings in the greentech sector…2010 [looks like] the year of the Greentech IPO…[Among the most interesting are Solyndra, Tesla Motors, Codexis and Jinko Solar Holdings]…

"Solyndra's innovative photovoltaic glass cylinders are…full of vacuum, silicone and thin-film CIGS in a relatively low-efficiency configuration…Solyndra's VC investors…[say] the real value for Solyndra is in the cost savings in the Balance of System. Will the institutional investors who drive the success of an IPO buy the Solyndra BoS story? …[T]he cost per watt of c-Si and FSLR CdTe continues to fall…[and] the cost of Solyndra's product seems somewhat bloated…A lot rests on the shoulders of Solyndra: the perception of the viability of CIGS technology, the perception of the viability of VC investment in solar manufacturing, and the skill of the DOE in picking technology winners…"

A Solyndra rolled solar rooftop power plant. (click to enlarge)

"Like Solyndra…Tesla is a "story stock" …[and] anticipates "continuing losses for at least the foreseeable future." … Tesla stand[s] as proxy for the EV vison, Solyndra for the promise of new solar technologies…Tesla reports having sold 937 cars through December 2009 to customers in 18 countries…[It] has booked 2,000 reservations for the $57,400 Model S, the all-electric sedan that enters volume production in 2012…[It] will offer a variety of range options, from 160 miles to 300 miles on a single charge…Major investors [includes] Elon Musk, Al Wahada Capital, a fund owned by the power and water authority of Abu Dhabi and Blackstar Investco, an investment arm of Daimler…Will institutional investors back a lossy luxury car vendor with an unhealthy dependence on government loan guarantees?

"…Codexis is funded by CMEA, Shell and CTTV, the investment arm of Chevron…The firm's biocatalysts are used in the pharmaceutical industry, but the greentech angle is the deal that Codexis has with Shell to produce commercially viable biofuels from cellulosic biomass. Other green applications for their product include carbon management, water treatment and "green" chemicals…Their advanced biofuels program focuses on: (1) developing biocatalysts to convert cellulosic biomass into sugars; and (2) converting these sugars into two advanced biofuels, cellulosic ethanol and biohydrocarbon diesel...Codexis has the advantage of looking at several target markets and the luxury of some very large and important customers…"

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"[Jinko Solar Holding Co. Ltd.] is a fast-growing, vertically integrated solar supplier with more than 400 customers and a deep relationship with troubled solar aspirant Hoku. Jinko Solar Holdings is first out of the gate and expected to begin trading on the NYSE on February 10.

"Other greentech firms that have a chance at the public market in 2010 and 2011 are LED maker Bridgelux, biofuel producer Amyris, PV micro-inverter firm Enphase Energy, CIGS thin-film producer Nanosolar, and stealthy natural gas-powered fuel cell firm Bloom Energy…It will be an interesting year."


NUCLEAR GIANT ON SOLAR POWER
Areva Says Solar Thermal Market May Increase 30-Fold by 2020
Mark Chediak and Alex Morales (w/Francois de Beaupuy,Todd White and Benedikt Kammel), February 9, 2010 (Bloomberg News via BusinessWeek)

"Areva SA of France predicts the global use of solar-thermal power will grow by about 30-fold this decade, a forecast that spurred the world’s largest maker of nuclear reactors to buy a California-based equipment maker.

"[Areva may have paid more than $200 million to acquire Ausra though terms of the deal were not disclosed]. The technology, which typically uses curved mirrors to focus sunlight to generate electricity, will be installed on plants with 20,000 megawatts of power potential by 2020…That compares with about 625 megawatts today…"

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"The deal was similar to recent purchases in the industry and indicate how traditional energy companies are branching into green power by acquiring competitors and using subsidies.

"Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, agreed last year to a $418 million purchase of Beit Shemesh, Israel- based Solel Solar Ltd. Abengoa SA, also an engineering company, is building 13 solar-thermal plants in Spain that will benefit from consumer subsidies for clean energy…"

Ausra's first U.S. installation. (click to enlarge)

"The technology provided by Ausra involves focusing sunlight to heat liquids to generate heat and steam used to drive a turbine. Areva wants to use Ausra’s solar-thermal equipment to build projects for independent power producers, utilities and industrial customers…[and] will target markets including southwestern U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

"The U.S. Department of Energy is ramping up research into what´s also called “concentrated solar power,” funding almost 30 projects and working with companies including New York-based Alcoa Inc. and Spain’s Abengoa with the aim of making the technology competitive in the baseload power market by 2020…Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast the installed base to grow to as much as 34,000 megawatts worldwide by 2020, exceeding [Areva’s] estimate…"


SARAH PALIN ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Palin likens global warming studies to 'snake oil'
Judy Lin, February 8, 2010 (San Jose Mercury Times)

"… [Speaking before a logging conference in Redding, California, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin] said California's heavy regulatory environment makes it difficult for businesses to succeed…[and] criticized what she said were heavy-handed environmental laws. As Alaska governor…she sued the federal government to overturn the listing of polar bears as a threatened species…because it could thwart [oil and gas] explorations… [Palin disagrees] with the science the government used to support the listing."

[Palin on environmental laws and climate change:] "We knew the bottom line ... was ultimately to shut down a lot of our development…And it didn't make any sense because it was based on these global warming studies that now we're seeing (is) a bunch of snake oil science."

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"Palin urged the federal government to allow states to make such decisions…Palin made her appearance in a state that often has led the nation on environmental regulations…[California’s] Global Warming Solutions Act, which passed in 2006 and has been championed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires greenhouse gas emissions statewide to be cut to 1990 levels by 2020.

"But that and other state environmental laws have come under increasing attack from Republican state lawmakers…Last week, the secretary of state cleared the sponsors of a ballot petition seeking to suspend the 2006 law until the state unemployment rate falls to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year. Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has criticized the law as being too much of an economic burden while businesses are trying to recover from the recession."

2008 presidential campaign historians and Steve Schmidt, John McCain's campaign manager, talk about Palin. From AmyBLUF via YouTube

Palin on the international climate change treaty and environmental protections:] "Yeah, I don't think much of it…The weather will not change with the proposals…California is tough in this respect…Man, it is expensive to do business here and to get anything done ... I do think there's hope though, because more Americans are becoming aware of the absurdity of such a situation. Maybe California is just a little behind the times."

[Palin on forest protections:] "We sought to protect the diversity of our forests and our wildlife while sustaining jobs and subsistence for residents of our state…We really do love our trees…I named my daughter Willow. Isn't that granola enough for them?”


OBAMA ON BIOFUELS
Obama urges greater use of biofuels; The EPA gives corn ethanol a larger share of the renewable-fuels markets, and the administration moves to speed the development of technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants.
Jim Tankersley, February 3, 2010 (LA Times)

"The Obama administration gave a boost to the corn and coal industries…[with] a series of moves to accelerate biofuel use and deploy so-called clean-coal technology on power plants.

"Unveiling the actions in a meeting with energy-state governors at the White House, President Obama said the steps would create jobs in rural areas, reduce foreign energy dependence and curb the emissions that scientists blame for global warming."

The problem: GAO found that ethanol IS a GhG problem. (click to enlarge)

[President Obama:] "It's important for us to understand that in order for us to move forward with a robust energy policy…we've got to have not an either/or philosophy but a both/and philosophy -- a philosophy that says traditional sources of energy are going to continue to be important for a while, so we've got to just use technologies to make them cleaner and more efficient."

"Most notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made final a regulation that could give corn ethanol a much larger share of the renewable-fuel market mandated by Congress in 2007…[after recalculating a controversial calculation] that would have minimized corn ethanol's role because of concerns about the fuel's overall pollution-fighting credentials…[The EPA rule will] lead to a $41.5-billion reduction in oil imports and take the equivalent of 27 million vehicles off the road."

The problem: Subsidies to ethanol reduce subsidies to better solutions. (click to enlarge)

"Administration officials also announced a revamped strategy to put the nation on track to meet the congressional mandate of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, in hopes of fixing a government effort that officials admit has fallen short in its attempts to wean cars and trucks away from fossil fuels and move toward ethanol, biodiesel and other crop-based fuels. The nation currently produces about 12 billion gallons of biofuel, mostly corn ethanol, and the federal government projects the country will not meet the 2022 goal.

"And Obama issued a presidential memorandum to speed the development of technologies that capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, with a goal of bringing five to 10 commercial-scale projects on line by 2016…"