QUICK NEWS, September 13: FRENCH NUKE PLANT BLOWS, KILLS; GOOGLE GOES TO 30% NEW ENERGY; FEDS BACK OCEAN WIND W/$43 MI; FEDS BACK NEW SOLAR W/$90 MIL

FRENCH NUKE PLANT BLOWS, KILLS
1 dead after fire at French nuclear waste site; No radiation was discharged, company says
Tara Patel, September 13, 2011 (Bloomberg News via Boston Globe)

"An explosion and fire [August 12] at a French nuclear-waste processing site killed one person and injured four, heightening concern about safety risks from atomic energy after the disaster in Japan six months ago."

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"There was no chemical or radioactive discharge from the Centraco plant in the town of Codolet in southern France…[according to] Electricite de France…Europe’s biggest power producer, which also operates France’s 58 nuclear reactors, treats low-level radioactive waste at the plant about 80 miles northwest of Marseille, the country’s second-biggest city. France depends on nuclear reactors for about three-quarters of its power needs, the most of any country…"


GOOGLE GOES TO 30% NEW ENERGY
Google says its energy use is ‘an obsession’
Steven E.F. Brown, September 8, 2011 (San Francisco Business Times)

"Search and advertising giant Google Inc. published data on its annual energy use and pollution this week…[calling energy use ‘an obsession’]…In 2010, Google says it got 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar. It guesses that will rise to 30 percent this year and aims to hit 35 percent in 2012. Google tries to buy electricity directly from wind farms near its datacenters."

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"Google encourages its many workers to suggest ways to cut pollution, whether by installing solar panels on company buildings or setting up bike-to-work programs. The company then helps expand those programs to other facilities…And the company tries to put its money where its mouth is by investing in big wind projects and rooftop solar power initiatives…"


FEDS BACK OCEAN WIND W/$43 MIL
US government to fund offshore wind development projects
Steven Mather, 9 September 2011 (Windpower Monthly)

"The US government is to invest $43 million in improving technology and infrastructure in the offshore wind-power sector…[by financing] 41 projects focused on research, wind-turbine design and manufacture and infrastructure development."

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"Department of Energy said the investment would aim to improve technological and infrastructure development, increase competitiveness in the turbine market and improve information for potential investors…"


FEDS BACK NEW SOLAR W/$90 MIL
Department of Energy Finalizes $90.6 Million Loan Guarantee to Cogentrix of Alamosa, LLC to Support Colorado Solar Project
September 9, 2011 (U.S. Department of Energy)

"…[T]he Department of Energy finalized a $90.6 million loan guarantee to Cogentrix of Alamosa, LLC (Cogentrix)…[to] support the Alamosa Solar Generating Project, a 30 megawatt (MW) High Concentration Photovoltaic (HCPV) power generation facility…in Colorado. The project, located in south-central Colorado near the city of Alamosa, represents one of the first utility-scale, high concentration photovoltaic energy generation facilities in the nation and, when completed, the largest of its kind in the world. Cogentrix estimates the project will support up to 100 construction jobs…"

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"The proposed facility will use innovative HCPV systems consisting of concentrating optics and multi-junction solar cell panels that are controlled by a dual-axis tracking system…[that] rotates and tilts the cells throughout the day so the surface of the solar panel maintains an optimal angle with respect to the sun…The facility is expected to produce enough clean renewable energy per year to power more than 6,500 homes…The Alamosa Solar Generating Project is supported by…a long-term agreement to sell the power it will generate. Under the project’s PPA, the Public Service Company of Colorado will buy the power generated by the solar facility for the next 20 years. The project is also expected to source more than 80 percent of its components from the United States..."