QUICK NEWS, 7-26: SO. DAKOTA WIND WANTS INVESTORS; MAJOR PV MAKER QUITS THIN FILM; OFFSHORE WIND SLOWLY EMERGING; THE INHOFE FACTOR

SO. DAKOTA WIND WANTS INVESTORS
Wind Farm Looking for South Dakota Investors; 7-turbine Jerauld County wind farm looking for South Dakota investors
Dirk Lammers, July 23, 2010 (AP via ABC News)

"A $23 million, seven-turbine wind farm to be built next to a larger 101-turbine project near White Lake is opening up investment opportunities for South Dakota residents.

"The South Dakota Wind Partners farm will be built, operated and maintained by North Dakota-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, and Basin will buy the 10.5 megawatts of electricity it will produce."

Some states in the Midwest have already discovered the opportunity in wind. (click to enlarge)

"The smaller farm will be built next to Basin's $363 million PrairieWinds SD1 project, which will encompass 37,000 acres…South Dakota residents can invest in the side project with a minimum of $15,000…[T]he goal is to raise $16 million…The federal government will cover the remaining 30 percent of the project's cost under a provision in the stimulus package. To qualify for the federal assistance, 5 percent of the project's construction must be completed by the end of the year.

"The East River Electric Power Cooperative, the South Dakota Corn Growers, the South Dakota Farmers Union and the South Dakota Farm Bureau each contributed $20,000 to the effort and each is contributing three members to the board…Mike Held, chief executive of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, said wind projects have been great for the state because its wind-rich areas are often in communities that struggle with rural economic development…"

The others will. (click to enlarge)

"Basin will send the power to other cooperatives in the Upper Great Plains through Western Area Power Administration transmission lines…The 1.5-megawatt GE turbines are expect to start spinning by the second or third quarter of 2011…

"South Dakota Public Utilities commissioners [recently] granted a permit for the full Basin Electric project…"


MAJOR PV MAKER QUITS THIN FILM
Applied Materials To Restructure Solar Business
Melissa Korn (w/Tess Stynes), July 21, 2010 (Wall Street Journal)

"Applied Materials Inc…plans to restructure its energy and environmental business, a move expected to cost up to $425 million and affect 500 jobs, as the company shifts…back to profitability in fiscal 2011.

"The restructuring is an admission that Applied Materials' previous effort to focus on cheaper but less efficient thin-film solar panel products was misplaced. Instead…it will focus on crystalline silicon solar and advanced energy, including light emitting diode technology…"

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"Applied Materials, whose traditional business is focused on making tools used by semiconductor manufacturers, entered thin-film solar panels in an attempt to take share away from devoted crystalline silicon panel makers. The business suffered mightily, though, as silicon costs plummeted and Applied Materials' core customer base of start-up companies needing full-service assistance dried up in the economic downturn…[T]here are other successful thin-film solar companies, such as First Solar Inc..."

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"Applied Materials, which recently had about 13,000 employees globally, plans to discontinue sales to new customers for some thin-film solar panel equipment. It also intends to sell its low-emissivity architectural-glass coatings line…[and] while continuing development in emerging technologies in "smart" electrochromic glass…

"[T]he company now believes the Energy and Environmental Solutions unit's break-even point will be at or slightly below $700 million, with the company planning to cut annual operating expenses by $100 million over the next three quarters…Applied Materials will book restructuring-related charges of $375 million to $425 million, or 18 cents to 21 cents a share, including 14 cents a share in the fiscal third quarter ended June 30…"


OFFSHORE WIND SLOWLY EMERGING
Offshore winds blow fast, but farm development slow; The development of offshore wind farms would drive job creation and stimulate industries such as offshore shipping and installation work.
Kathleen Zip, June 9, 2010 (Windpower Engineering)

"…From 2009 through 2012, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) tax credits and loan guarantees could spur 40,400 MW in new wind generating capacity…The wind energy gold rush is on…

"But…large-scale wind U.S. power installations are land-based…Yet according to NREL, the best winds are not on land, but on the outer continental shelf (OCS) and the Great Lakes…Offshore wind development would drive job creation and elevate other industries such as offshore shipping and installation and development of marine-friendly equipment and operation and maintenance regimes."

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"Despite this, there has been little wind energy development in offshore areas. The closest an OCS wind program is to existence is Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound…[Its] 130 wind turbines [would] produce up to 468 MW…As for the Great Lakes, no offshore wind project has yet been developed…

"[There are plans for OCS projects in] Delaware…Maryland…New Jersey…Maine…[and] Rhode Island…[that] could generate…from 3,000 to 15,000 [jobs] per project, using federal figures of 15.6 jobs created for every $1 million in renewable energy investment…[doing] everything from fabricating wind turbine components, to building and operating the interconnection grid…"

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"…In December 2009 the New York Power Authority (NYPA) released a request for proposals (RFP) to develop…[utility scale, offshore wind power project totaling about 120 to 500 MW, to interconnect with transmission grids controlled by the New York Independent System Operator] anywhere in the New York State waters of Lake Erie, or Lake Ontario, or both…[It] is the most recent offshore wind effort under way in the Great Lakes, but…[t]he most advanced is [a 20 megawatt project on Lake Erie off Cleveland] in Ohio…Another project being tentatively discussed is a proposal by Scandia Wind Offshore LLC for a 1,000 MW wind farm on Lake Michigan…

"Many issues must still be resolved before commercial-scale wind energy projects begin operating on the OCS or in the Great Lakes… [But] the combination of government incentives, state and proposed federal renewable energy portfolio standards, and potential investment payoffs is moving offshore wind energy projects from low-profile possibilities to highly publicized opportunities..."


THE INHOFE FACTOR
Weather Bane
Timothy Egan, July 21, 2010 (NY Times)

"…During a stroll around the capital, I sweated through two shirts…The humidity stung…Around Capitol Hill, I could not find… the number one global warming denier, Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma. In February…during a record snowstorm, Inhofe’s family constructed a primitive igloo [to satirize the idea of climate change]…

"The snowy winter day was followed, all too quickly, by the hottest spring in Washington history… Last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide, and 2010 is on course to be the warmest year since record-keeping began…"

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"In Senator Inhofe’s home state of Oklahoma, the National Weather Service issued a warning this week of “dangerous heat index values” of up to 110 degrees. A report from AccuWeather.com last month stated that, this year, “no other region has seen the variety of extreme weather” as much as Oklahoma.

"…[Inhofe] won his senate seat in 1994 by using, as his slogan, the actual words of a cynical strategy to get people to think about anything but real issues: 'God, guns, and gays.' …[W]hen it snows, he makes fun of the consensus scientific view…But during this heat wave, nothing. On his Web site, he’s still been highlighting a winter week when 49 of the 50 states had snow on the ground. There’s another reference to his much-quoted remark that global warming 'is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.'"

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"And the official, taxpayer-funded site devoted to the Republican position on climate change — the minority page of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, where Inhofe is the ranking member — features a five-month-old video of Inhofe bloviating over the leaked emails of leading atmospheric scientists in England…Surely, there would be an update, based on the latest of the independent investigations…which found that “climategate” …[had] nothing to do about hard science…Inhofe did not post this update…[He] dismissed the recent heat records as a short-term phenomenon that should not be the basis for legislation.

"Senator Inhofe should be a harmless diversion…But he is one of the lead Republican senators on climate change, and he doesn’t even believe the climate is changing..I rely on the experts, those people who’ve devoted their lives to understanding changes in the earth’s temperature, to guide political leaders…If my doctor brought me biopsy results showing cancer, I would do something about it. Inhofe would likely call the doctor an idiot, say the biopsy was a hoax and have me skip merrily to an early death…"