QUICK NEWS, 7-19: NEW JERSEY BETTING ON NEW ENERGY; SOLAR COMING ON IN OHIO; CONNECTICUT & THE EV; RADIOACTIVE IN WASHINGTON STATE

NEW JERSEY BETTING ON NEW ENERGY
N.J. firms pouring billions into wind, solar ventures
Abby Gruen, July 18, 2010 (Star-Ledger)

"Investors chasing high returns…[in] pioneering firms in New Jersey…are committing their own capital, or that of large investors, to building wind and solar farms and developing other types of renewable power, as well as smart-grid and energy-storage technologies.

"…[T]otal venture capital and private equity investment in clean energy went up 24 percent in the first quarter of 2010…In the past nine years, venture capital investment has grown from $350 million to more than $2 billion…Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a billion-dollar private-equity firm based in Teaneck, exclusively invests in clean energy. Energy Capital Partners, a Short Hills private-equity firm focused on fossil fuel and renewable power, has a $2.25 billion fund with significant clean energy investments. Denham Capital Management, another Short Hills-based private-equity firm, has $4.3 billion under management, with more than 20 percent of its two most recent funds dedicated to clean and renewable energy. Ridgewood Capital, a $2.6 billion energy-focused private-equity firm with offices in Montvale, also has a dedicated renewable-energy subsidiary…"

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"In addition to private-equity funds, billions have been dedicated to growing a global green economy by Jersey-based money managers and energy companies including Prudential Financial and Public Service Enterprise Group in Newark; Lord Abbett in Jersey City; Siemens Financial in Iselin and NRG Energy in Princeton.

"Returns on these investments are still highly uncertain…The Cleantech Index, the first stock index for the market, outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 4 percent in 2007; underperformed it by 39 percent in 2008 and outperformed it by 27 percent in 2009…Despite the appeal of doing good for the environment and society, making money is the first priority for clean-energy financial firms…[It is vital to take] a long view on clean energy investments, particularly because of their dependence on government subsidies."

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"For companies like Siemens Finance, part of a German multinational conglomerate that also manufactures clean-energy equipment, they can participate in the market by providing credit lines for projects using their equipment…Public Service Enterprise Group, the unregulated public energy firm, has $650 million invested in solar, wind and compressed air energy storage and wind projects…PSEG Energy Holdings said it had invested $100 million on solar projects in several states, including its first project, a 2 megawatt solar farm in Hackettstown.

"NRG Energy, a Fortune 500 energy firm that owns power plants nationwide and a utility in Texas, their clean energy portfolio includes four big wind farms in Texas. They also have the largest solar farm in California, and are farthest along on a billion dollar Mid-Atlantic offshore wind project, off the Delaware coast, of any developer…"


SOLAR COMING ON IN OHIO
Solar energy is rising star in Ohio
Dan Gearino, July 18, 2010 (Columbus Dispatch)

"…[An 80 acre 12 megawatt solar] project was completed last month in Wyandot County…[I]t is by far the largest of its kind in Ohio history…Solar power is on the rise in Ohio, as utilities work to meet the benchmarks of a 2008 state energy law…[ American Municipal Power (AMP)] will build capacity of 300 megawatts in a series of projects across several states and over several years, with plans to break ground on the first segment this year…Marc Gerken, AMP's chief executive…sees solar power as "peak" capacity…when power demand is at its highest and the sun is shining brightest….

"…[The U.S.] had 429 megawatts of solar power installed last year…85 percent was from small systems installed on homes and businesses. Only 15 percent, or 66 megawatts, was from utility companies…[A] series of big projects…[is] scheduled…The largest is a 550-megawatt project being developed in California for use by Pacific Gas and Electric Co…to be done by 2014…Three other projects would be 300 megawatts each: two in California and one in New Mexico…to be complete by 2015…They are all photovoltaic projects, meaning they use solar panels…"

From WCQEDvideos via YouTube

"One of the most important variables is the cost of solar panels. Lately, those costs have dropped because of an oversupply. Prices might rise in the short term, but developers of solar projects expect costs to fall in the long term…[Ohio] is already a leader in manufacturing the components. Companies such as First Solar and Xunlight, both in the Toledo area, produce thin-film photovoltaic panels…

"Senate Bill 221… requires utilities to produce 25 percent of their electricity from so-called advanced sources by 2025…[It] applies only to investor-owned utilities, a group that includes American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, Duke Energy and Dayton Power and Light. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities, such as AMP's clients, are exempt…So far, AEP has made the largest investment…[Besides] the Wyandot project…AEP now has enough solar capacity to meet the benchmarks for 2010 through 2012…AEP plans to commission a series of solar arrays that would produce about 12 megawatts each…"

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"The top reason for [other utilities’] inaction is cost. On a per-megawatt basis, a solar array costs up to six times as much as a coal-fired power plant to develop…[O]nce the plants are built, solar-power output varies…There is also an issue of scale. AEP's smallest coal-fired plant…has more than 10 times the capacity of the Wyandot solar array…

"Ohio's weather is not an asset for solar power…[T]he sun shines more than 50 percent brighter in the southwestern United States than in the Great Lakes region and the Northeast…Solar advocates like to rebut that with one word: Germany. That country has the most solar development in the world, even though it gets less sunlight than Ohio…"


CONNECTICUT & THE EV
State’s Utilities Eager To Power Electric Cars
Brad Kane, July 18, 2010 (Hartford Business Journal)

"As Connecticut’s status as one of the leading electric car states revs up…the ultimate winners will be…Northeast Utilities and United Illuminating, who have worked hand-in-hand with the governors’s office to make the state appealing to electric car makers…The utilities will bank nearly $40 per month for every electric car charged…

"The biggest win for the utilities and Gov. M. Jodi Rell came when GM announced the state will be among the first markets to receive its inaugural electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, in 2011…[T]he state continues to grow the number of electric vehicle charging stations…"

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"The Volt operates on a 16-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that takes about eight hours to charge from a 120-volt outlet. The battery gives the car a range of 40 miles before the gas-powered engine generator takes over…Charging the car every day will use roughly 250 kilowatt hours per month. At 15 cents per kilowatt hour, an electric car driver will pay $37.50 every month…[This] is much cheaper than [the]…$150 [for gas] to drive the same distance each month…

"GM choose Connecticut as one of the first four electric car markets — Texas, New York and New Jersey are the other three — because the state had a distinguished interest in the Volt…Connecticut also will be an excellent proving ground to showcase the Volt’s capabilities in cold weather…Even if 100,000 electric cars are introduced tomorrow — equal to 5 percent of the state’s 2 million registered vehicles — the increase on the power grid will be 1 percent…[which] happens fairly frequently…when people flick on their air conditioners upon returning home in the evening…"

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"Power companies’ push for electric vehicles goes beyond dollars and cents…Northeast Utilities ratepayers want new technology focusing more on renewable energy producing fewer carbon dioxide emissions, and the company wants to accommodate its customers…[And] customers’ fuel source will shift from oil to whatever generates the electricity on the power grid…In Connecticut, 57 percent of electricity comes from cleaner energies — natural gas, nuclear power and hydro…The state also is launching initiatives to rely more on renewable energy sources…

"The role of the governor’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Council is to ensure the state had the infrastructure and contingencies in place…The Electric Drive Transportation Association…is launching a Web site in September to educate consumers…GM still hasn’t identified the dealers in Connecticut that will carry the Volt in 2011, although dealer training already has begun on how to service the vehicle. The cost hasn’t been announced either, although the Volt will be priced competitively with the electric Nissan Leaf, which is tagged at $33,000…"


RADIOACTIVE IN WASHINGTON STATE
Analysis Triples U.S. Plutonium Waste Figures
Matthew L. Wald, July 10, 2010 (NY Times)

"…Plutonium waste is much more prevalent around nuclear weapons sites nationwide than the Energy Department’s official accounting indicates, said Robert Alvarez, a former department official who in recent months reanalyzed studies conducted by the department in the last 15 years for [the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State]; the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory; the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C.; and elsewhere.

"…[T]he problem is most severe at Hanford…[in] south-central Washington that was taken over by the federal government as part of the Manhattan Project. By the time production stopped in the 1980s, Hanford had made most of the nation’s plutonium…[It] does not pose a major radiation hazard now, largely because it is [guarded and controlled]…But government scientists say that even in minute particles, plutonium can cause cancer, and because it takes 24,000 years to lose half its radioactivity, it is certain to last longer than the controls…[and, in a few hundred years, the plutonium could reach…the Columbia River…"

Hanford today. (click to enlarge)

"The finding on the extent of plutonium waste signals that the cleanup, still in its early stages, will be more complex, perhaps requiring technologies that do not yet exist. But more than 20 years after the Energy Department vowed to embark on a cleanup…[it] has been weighing whether to try to clean up 90 percent, 99 percent or 99.9 percent of the waste…

"Government officials recognize that they still have a weak grasp of how much plutonium is contaminating the environment…In 1996, the department released an official inventory of plutonium production and disposal. But Mr. Alvarez analyzed later Energy Department reports and concluded that there was substantially more plutonium in waste tanks and in the environment…The biggest issue is the amount of plutonium that has leaked from the tanks, was intentionally dumped in the dirt or was pumped into the ground…"

Plutonium tanks at Hanford. (click to enlarge)

"Plutonium was first manufactured in World War II for use in bombs. (The one that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945 originated with plutonium made at Hanford.) For decades, the government produced it in military reactors by bombarding a natural element, uranium, with subatomic particles called neutrons, converting uranium to plutonium, and then using chemical processes to harvest the plutonium.

"The new analysis indicates that the chemical separation process was not nearly as efficient as the government claimed and that a lot of the plutonium was left behind in various stages…It also suggests that estimates of plutonium production by the Energy Department and its predecessors, including the Atomic Energy Commission and the Manhattan Project, were not nearly as accurate as scientists and bureaucrats said they were…Mr. Alvarez’s analysis, based entirely on Energy Department documents, shows that the amount discarded as waste was actually…nearly three times [what was previously believed]…"