Archive for May, 2009

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Alternative Energy Store Provides Affordable Resources

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Has anyone ever asked where to find an alternative energy store? Well, I was able to find one called www.altpowerenergy.com. This alternative energy store is devoted to providing quality solar information and alternative energy information.

This alternative energy store specializes in research of solar products, wind generation systems, and geothermal appliances. The store provides affiliates located across the United States to help with the environment. They advocate that it is the time to begin focusing on the effects of reducing our dependence on foreign fossil fuel.

This alternative energy store has made technological advancements in providing alternative energy sources that are both affordable and appropriate in size. The individual consumer can look to take advantage of renewable energy sources.

This energy store wants to develop an informational source because it is very important in the new world we live in. This alternative energy store becomes especially important to us because oil prices continue to increase while in the possession of hostile countries. We need to reduce our dependency on a foreign substance of alternative energy.

AltPowerEnergy store has a site on the internet which explains all the products in the store as well as their uses. This is a very useful tool for people who are interested in the environment and how to be part of the cause. The alternative energy store and site keep you informed of what is going on.

This alternative energy store has products you can use to conserve energy. It also gives you tips on what can be done around your house to help with energy causes and consumption. So, visit the store and site to become more educated in terms of helping our environment.

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Biodiesel Energy Products

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Executives at venture-capital backed Greenline Industries Inc., a Larkspur, California, biodiesel energy products production equipment, believe the Obama administration will create a huge demand for biodiesel energy products and other advanced biofuels. The president-elect has said he’ll require that 60 billion gallons of advanced biodiesel energy products are produced by 2030, spurred by tax incentives and government spending. The appointment of former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary makes increased demand even more likely, Greenline executives say, because of his commitment to ethanol production in his state.

Greenline, which has 35 employees, declines to offer specific projections but plans to triple its sales staff in the coming weeks. “It’s a reaction to the administration change and to changes we expect as a result of the people [Mr. Obama] has picked — the policies that will be happening and the growth in demand we expect,” says Donn Tice, Greenline’s chief executive. The company’s latest round of venture-capital financing was in March, for $20 million.

In December, Mesilla Valley Transportation signed a deal with Greenline for a 10 million-gallon processing plant, part of a multistage, $25 million project of a company offshoot called Global Alternative Fuels. The election “expedited things,” says Dean Rigg, chief financial officer of the transportation company in Las Cruces, N.M., which started processing biodiesel energy products with Greenline equipment about 2½ years ago. “We’re all betting” that a push toward new biofuels will come quickly from Washington, he says.

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Biodiesel Power Efficiency

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Cosan is a Brazilian company that is on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CZZ. They are the largest ethanol producer in Brazil. Sugar-cane-produced ethanol, unlike the corn-based ethanol we produce in the US, has a much more favorable output to input ratio. Corn-based ethanol produces 1.3-1.4 gallons of ethanol for every gallon of diesel. With sugar-cane based ethanol, that ratio is 8 to 1. With such a higher yield, the production costs are much lower and efficiency is much higher.

A new way to create cellulosic ethanol, which is one of the more promising biodiesel power fuels for reducing harmful greenhouse emissions, has been developed in California. It reduces the amount of corn and other valuable sources needed for it. It recently left the lab-testing stage, and each of the individual steps of the process have been adequately tested, so that the company saw a testing plant in 2008 and delivery to market in 2009. However, no company has reached full production phase. Iogen in Canada is furthest along; it is building a 40 million gallon plant.

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Renewable Solar Energy Projects Run Afoul of California Senator

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

The Mojave Desert is 22,000 square miles of parched land with summer temperatures that can reach 130 Fahrenheit, making it a perfect location for solar energy installations. But on March 23, 2009 Senator Diane Feinstein has expressed opposition to widespread solar energy development in the area. Senator Feinstein “intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.”

There are 19 companies that have submitted applications to build solar energy or wind facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Senator Diane Feinstein announced she would introduce a bill setting 600,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management holdings in the Mojave Desert off-limits to solar energy projects. “Such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public,” she said. “It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem,” added David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy, which originally dedicated some of the land to the BLM.

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Wind Energy Companies Showing Promise

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

In March of this year, Western Wind Energy Corporation was pleased to announce a 20% increase in revenues to $5,116,652 for fiscal year 2008. This is compared to $4,264,759 for the fiscal year 2007. For the three months ended December 31, 2008 revenues were up 144% to $687,666 from $282,053 for the two months ended December 31, 2007. This is a substantial increase compared to many wind energy companies and is largely credited to the current administration’s emphasis on renewable energy development, including wind energy.

Western Wind Energy Corporation’s financial position as of December 31, 2008 was significantly stronger than the prior year as liquid capital increased from $449,493 on December 31, 2007 to $1,817,371 on December 31, 2008. Working capital improved from a deficiency of $15,419,200 last year to a positive working capital of $1,388,165 on December 31, 2008 and shareholders’ equity jumped from $2.8 million to $22.4 million.

Congress recently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which extends the megawatt-hour production tax credits through 2012 for alternative energy and wind energy companies, and provides an option to elect a 30% investment tax credit or equivalent cash grant from the US Department of Energy. This is expected to have a positive impact for wind energy companies, including wind energy. Western Wind has seen an increase in the number of parties that have expressed an interest in financing its operations and future projects, though initial evaluations of most of these proposals are highly positive.

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Solar Energy Companies Working With State

Monday, May 25th, 2009

In January 2009, three leading solar energy researchers writing in Scientific American, proposed that by 2050 the United States could get all its electricity from solar panels in the Southwestern desert. Solar energy companies would require 46,000 square miles — about one-third of New Mexico, America’s fifth largest state. Al Gore repeated this proposal before the Senate Energy Committee in February, although he made the claim that only 10,000 square miles were needed, based on a questionable analysis of a California-based company.

All this may seem like doublespeak, but it’s being put into effect in California right now. The state has adopted a “renewable portfolio mandate,” which says that it must get 20 percent of its electricity from so-called “renewables” by 2020. This leaves solar energy companies in a position of buying anything some budding entrepreneur offers them. Thinly funded companies are furiously drawing up plans to fill California deserts with solar installations, knowing the utilities will have to buy anything they generate.

PG&E signed a large deal with Cleantech America, also based in San Francisco. As part of their agreement, Cleantech America will build a 5-megawatt solar plant near Fresno, California. The company said that when the facility is finished in 2009, it will be California’s largest solar power plant.

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Posted in Solar Energy, Solar Energy Companies | 2 Comments »

Wind Power Home Incentives

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

After the Arab oil embargo of the late 1970s, incentives created by the Federal government helped drive large-scale wind power homes for both commercial and residential customers. These incentives dwindled until eventually a tax credit for residential-scale wind energy was no longer offered.

A number of states, however, have incentive programs. According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, a homeowner in that state could expect to get approximately $4,000 per electric meter for a wind power home turbine. That would cover about 30 to 40 percent of the project cost. Some states have also enacted net metering laws that require utilities to purchase excess power generated by a residential wind power home at retail rather than wholesale prices.

Environmental concerns, more than cost savings, largely drive many new residential turbine installations. Even with state incentives, it can take 20 years to pay back the installation cost.

This could all change with the current administration’s economic stimulus package and budget allocations. On February 17, 2009 President Obama signed the American Recovery and Re-investment Act of 2009 into law. With a significant emphasis on wind power home technology deployment and job expansion, the bill improved upon the 2008 tax credit, by removing “cost caps.” This change allows consumers and small businesses to take a 30% tax credit off the installed cost of a wind turbine. To a consumer or business purchasing a single 2.4KW residential wind power home turbine, it will double their credit. Additionally, businesses will also have the option of receiving their credit in the form of a cash grant.

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Renewable Wind Energy

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

The United States has a number of advantages that will play out in the next few years. We have one of the best renewable wind energy corridors in the world in the area east of the Rockies from the Dakotas all the way down to Texas. At 60-80 meters, which is the height of modern-day wind turbines, the gusts of wind are powerful and consistent. However, the development of renewable wind energy is expensive, land-intensive, and risky for venture-capital firms to finance – particularly in the currently unstable economy. That is why a significant injection of capital from the federal government would go a long way in helping states to develop renewable wind energy sources best fit for their geographic location. The American southwest, for example, is best suited for solar. The Midwest, however, is best suited for renewable wind energy.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) grant programs, international programs, infrastructure development activities, and other supporting activities have received considerable funding increases under a new appropriations act and budget settlement. The Weatherization Assistance Program received $200 million, while the State Energy Program received $50 million, adding to the $8 billion directed through these programs by the economic stimulus act. For facilities and infrastructure, the act provides $76 million, most of which will go to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, including $41 million to complete construction of the Energy Systems Integration Facility. Combining that economic stimulus funding with the regular 2009 budget generates a total budget of $18.73 billion for EERE, 11 times more than the funding from 2008.

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Alternative Power Resource Management

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Though venture-capitalism has a long history of seeking out innovative business models, some small alternative power companies are counting on the government itself for new business. Verdiem Corp. sells software that provides centralized control over power consumption, such as remotely turning off computer monitors left on overnight to conserve electricity. Most of the Seattle-based company’s growth has come from corporate customers, where energy expenditures can be prohibitively expensive and wasteful. But with President Obama’s declarations that he plans to improve the government’s own power efficiency, Verdiem Chief Executive Jeremy Jaech sees the possibility of growth and expansion.

The 60-employee company is planning on expanding its 20-person sales staff in the weeks ahead to focus specifically on federal operations in Washington, D.C. The alternative power company is planning to tap the information-technology companies that manage government buildings that have enormous staff numbers. Mr. Jaech sees the opportunity to assist in reducing energy consumption on the federal government’s estimated 6.5 million personal computers.

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Alternative Power Companies Revolutionizing Geothermal Energy

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Alternative Power Companies That Show Promise

Ormat Technologies is one of the alternative power companies that are revolutionizing the field of geothermal energy. Though partially owned by American business interests, 60 percent of it is owned by an Israeli holding company called Ormat Industries. It is the leading geothermal alternative power companies primarily in places like California and Nevada where geothermal resources are high. They are set to expand their capacity by two-thirds in the next two years.

Furthermore, California Alternative Power Companies added 500 megawatts of green power in 2008 – a 60% increase. The most difficult challenges lie not in the generation of the power, but rather the power transmission. This aspect will be have to be handled federally, which appears to be happening as the current administration is responsible for a total budget of $18.73 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), 11 times more than the funding from 2008.

This huge influx of money bodes well for First Solar. This alternative power company trades on Nasdaq as FSLR, Energy Conversion Devices, which trades on Nasdaq as ENER, and FPL Group, which trades on NYSE as FPL. FPL group is a utility with big plans for solar and renewable energy. These alternative power companies, though beset by periodic setbacks in the current unstable economy, are poised to continue growing and generating profits.

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