NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, 2-8: WIND GIANT RE-EMERGING; WAVE-TIDE EXPANSION COMING; SHAMEFUL NEW ENERGY SHAKEDOWN; GE, MISUBISHI IN WIND LAWSUITS/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

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  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Tuesday, February 08, 2011

    QUICK NEWS, 2-8: WIND GIANT RE-EMERGING; WAVE-TIDE EXPANSION COMING; SHAMEFUL NEW ENERGY SHAKEDOWN; GE, MISUBISHI IN WIND LAWSUITS

    WIND GIANT RE-EMERGING
    Suzlon Says Orders `Absolutely Sufficient' to Repay $2.2 Billion in Loans
    Natalie Obiko Pearson, February 7, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

    "Suzlon Energy Ltd., the world’s third-biggest maker of wind turbines, said it’s booking orders fast enough to resume making payments on 100 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) in borrowings in April next year.

    "…[The India-based second-most indebted clean- energy company through syndicated loans] reported that cumulative orders rose 35 percent from October to a record $7.3 billion, equal to about 5,000 megawatts of power capacity…Suzlon, under pressure to ramp up sales before a 2-year grace period on principal repayments ends, rose as much as 4.6 percent in Mumbai trading even after the company reported its fourth straight quarterly loss…"


    From Bloomberg - click to enlarge

    "…Suzlon last April had to refinance 100 billion rupees in loans taken from banks including Citibank Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Plc and ICICI Bank Ltd. after the global recession dried up orders for wind farms and squeezed margins for turbine sales…Suzlon’s shares have lost about 32 percent in the last 12 months. The Bloomberg Wind Energy Index rose about 1.6 percent in the period. The index tracks 64 wind power generators and suppliers globally, including Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Siemens AG, and Alstom SA."

    From Bloomberg - click to enlarge

    "Suzlon carries $2.3 billion in syndicated loans, the most among global renewable-energy companies except for Suntech Power Holdings Co., which has $7.8 billion in such loans…Loan repayments in the first two years [of the eight-year repayment period] will only amount to about 5 percent of the money owed…with subsequent payments increasing…

    "…1.72 billion rupees of Suzlon’s third- quarter loss of 2.54 billion rupees [can be attributed] to a weaker euro that devalued overseas assets…While Suzlon is seeing ‘significant improvement’ in orders in India, sales in terms of megawatt capacity for the fiscal year ending March 31 are still expected to be 36 percent below their all-time high of 2,790 megawatts in 2009…"



    WAVE-TIDE EXPANSION COMING
    Ocean energy: development over the next five years
    February 7, 2011 (Regulacion Eolica con Vehiculos Electricos)

    "Although ocean energy technologies or marine energy are still in the demonstration phase... their [2011-2015] turnover is expected to exceed $1.2 billion, and at least 150 new MW should be installed.

    "...[D]ozens of projects and technology proposals are being assessed...[but] ocean (wave energy and tidal power) energy is still not widely harnessed...[P]rojects have not yet passed the demonstration phase...[but] over the next few years this renewable industry could...be launched...[in] areas with the wealthiest [ocean] resources..."


    click to enlarge

    "According to The Wave World & Tidal Market Report 2011-2015, compiled by financial analyst Douglas-Westwood, investment in this sector is expected to increase tenfold over the next 5 years, rising from $52 million in 2010 to $500 million in 2015..."

    click to enlarge

    "The report notes that facilities that will become operational this year double those that were put into service in 2010...Currently, the UK is the first market, followed at a distance by Canada and the United States.

    "...[A]t present, ocean energy projects imply high costs throughout the supply and production chain...[so] development is closely linked to the trends that will be registered in financial markets over the next two years and to what degree investors will believe in technologies which will mature in the long term...[I]t is therefore essential that the sector should receive strong public support, which will probably depend on the visibility that this technology will gain..."



    SHAMEFUL NEW ENERGY SHAKEDOWN
    Renewable Energy: Labor coalition’s tactics draw heat
    Margot Roosevelt, February 6, 2011 (LA Times)

    "Do California construction unions raise concerns about building massive solar plants in the Mojave Desert because they care about wildlife, water shortages and delicate vegetation? Or is it, as some fellow labor unions charge, a way to extort expensive contracts from renewable-energy builders?

    "In the last decade, a coalition calling itself California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), organized by the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, has filed more than 1,300 requests for information about endangered species, air pollution and groundwater effects as a part of government permit proceedings for all 12 renewable energy projects planned for the Southern California desert."


    Are THESE guys slowing solar growth or...(click to enlarge)

    "But when the developers of eight of those projects -- one geothermal plant and seven solar plants -- agreed to sign expensive contracts with the building trades unions to supply workers, CURE dropped its objections to those plants.

    "The contracts give CURE unions -- which represent plumbers, pipe-fitters, electrical workers and boilermakers -- control over work rules, including hiring. CURE also taps developers for payments as high as $400,000 to a CURE fund promoting the industry."


    ...are THESE guys slowing solar growth?(click to enlarge)

    "Three California unions that represent carpenters, laborers and operating engineers -- and are not CURE members -- say the coalition's threats of lawsuits against renewable-energy projects are ‘shameful’ tactics that could drive projects out-of-state at a time when California unemployment is more than 12%…

    "The struggle over labor costs and permits for solar plants comes at a time when Gov. Jerry Brown has vowed to streamline the licensing of renewable-energy facilities. A law to require utilities to buy a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 is expected to be adopted in the Legislature this year."



    GE, MISUBISHI IN WIND LAWSUITS
    Giants Gird for Wind-Energy Battle
    Bob Sechler, February 7, 2011 (Wall Street Journal)

    "A closely watched patent dispute in the estimated $12 billion annual U.S. market for wind-energy gear takes center stage Thursday, when General Electric Co. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. face off in a federal appeals court.

    "Attorneys for GE aim to persuade the three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., to reverse a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission a year ago that Mitsubishi didn't infringe upon GE patents for technology used in variable-speed wind turbines…Mitsubishi, which has been trying to become a bigger player in the U.S. wind-energy market, may have more riding on what has become a multifaceted legal battle than GE, the market leader."


    click to enlarge

    "Mitsubishi has contended in a separate antitrust lawsuit against GE that its U.S. sales of variable-speed wind turbines went from about $2 billion annually to zero once GE first started mounting ‘sham’ patent litigation against it in 2008 to monopolize the market…[T]he appeals court ruling in the ITC case—which isn't expected before late spring—could have significant bearing on the three years of tangled legal wrangling between the two companies.

    "Mitsubishi's antitrust suit, for one, has been stayed partly to await the outcome of the ITC case. The trade commission's ruling against GE came after an administrative law judge had initially sided with the conglomerate…The judge who stayed Mitsubishi's antitrust suit said a successful outcome for GE in its appeal of the ITC decision, or in patent-infringement suits against Mitsubishi that GE filed in Texas, ‘could render [Mitsubishi's antitrust suit] moot or narrow the issues considerably.’"


    click to enlarge

    "But a favorable decision by the appeals court for either side in the ITC case is unlikely to end the many-sided battle immediately. A number of lawsuits spawned by the broad dispute remain pending, with one of the Texas cases scheduled for trial in November, and both companies have indicated they'll have legal avenues left to pursue…[B]oth also hope the appeals court bolsters their hands…

    "GE contends the overall dispute boils down to protecting intellectual property rights, a principle it says is essential to a healthy wind-energy sector…"

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