Renewable Energy

Copenhagen/White River Jct., Vt. – When most people take vacation the idea is to escape, not to make a difference. Jeff and Dori Wolfe of White River Jct. are not "most people".

A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. has signed agreements with Pakistan Amraas International Private Limited (Amraas) for the build out of two separate renewable energy projects in Pakistan.

Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. has begun taking orders for its Sunergy line of inverters, that will be manufactured in the Province of Ontario. The company's products meet the Ontario "domestic content" requirements and the company expects to produce 40 megawatts (MW) of inverters in Q1 2010 with an expansion to 240 MW to follow

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has contracted with Iberdrola Renewables, Inc., to purchase and operate a major wind farm that is set to be built in Southern California. The proposed Manzana Wind Project, with a power capacity of up to 246 megawatts (MW), would be the first wind project owned by PG&E.

Solarfun Power Holdings Co. Ltd. announced that Jiangsu Linyang Solarfun Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Solarfun, has signed an agreement with the government of Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, under which Solarfun will build a 100-megawatt (MW) solar power plant. To support this project, Solarfun agreed to construct a module production facility in Jiayuguan City.

Hudson Clean Energy Partners has closed its debut fund, Hudson Clean Energy Partners L.P., with commitments of US $1.024 billion. Hudson plans to deploy this capital with co-investment commitments to expand the firm's investment portfolio in the renewable energy markets.

NV Energy and CC Landfill Energy LLC announced that the two companies have entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the sale of energy produced from an 11-megawatt landfill gas-powered project to be located at Republic Services' Apex Regional Landfill north of Las Vegas.

ULVAC, Inc. (President & CEO: Hidenori Suwa; headquarters: 2500 Hagizono, Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan), a supplier of the amorphous-silicon (a-Si) thin-film photovoltaic modules production turnkey line, announces it has developed a new PE-CVD system for microcrystal (µc)-Si, model CIM-1400, which can achieve a 30% increase of the conversion efficiency and a 10% reduction of the manufacturing cost per watt (Wp) compared with the a-Si photovoltaic modules. This new system will be utilized to the tandem type thin-film silicon photovoltaic modules production turnkey line

OutBack Power Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of reliable and durable power electronics products for renewable energy applications worldwide, today announced that Bob Maynard was appointed to OutBack Power System's Board of Directors. Maynard has previously served as board member and President for the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association and the Josephine County Renewable Energy Task Force.

As the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen take center stage this month – bringing what I fear will be much media nattering about perceived failures of those talks – I'm going to be thinking about people like Rachel Barge of San Francisco and the team of Gerard ter Beek and Trudy Veldhof of Oldenzaal, The Netherlands. These are innovators who I've met in the past month that give me great hope for the future of the clean-tech revolution, regardless of what the world's leaders do or don't do on the global stage in Denmark.

Little over a year after Siemens erected its first 3.6-MW direct-drive "Proof of Concept" wind turbine, this November the company presented a new rather different 3-MW direct-drive concept. RenewableEnergyWorld.com was exclusively invited to the Brande HQ in Denmark to view the prototype and discuss the new turbine with Siemens CTO Henrik Stiesdal. A prototype was erected near Brande during the first week of December.

Northland Power Income Fund announced that the 127.5-megawatt (MW) Jardin d'Eole wind farm project near Matane, Quebec, will begin commercial operations under the terms of its power purchase agreement with Hydro-Quebec this week. The project employs 85 General Electric 1.5-MW wind turbines.

This week, the first solar thermal plant for warm water and central heating on Palestinian territory has gone into operation. The solar plant was built by MAN Ferrostaal AG and the Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena) within the framework of the "dena Solar Roofs Programme for Foreign Market Development."

Shanghai Electric Wind-power Equipment Co. Ltd. (SEWIND) and Germanischer Lloyd (GL) have signed a contract for type certification of a 3.6 MW offshore wind turbine. GL's services under the contract include Development Accompanying Assessment (DAA) and Design Assessment.

Intertek has issued the first electrical safety certification of a large wind turbine gearbox in North America, for GE Drivetrain Technologies, a unit of GE Transportation. The ETL Listed Mark will ensure that GE's equipment will be accepted by safety inspectors throughout North America.

Trina Solar Limited announced this week that it has made PV module sales in the Chinese domestic photovoltaic (PV) market. In the current fourth quarter of 2009, Trina Solar has entered into a new sales agreement to supply approximately 8 megawatts (MW) of PV modules at predetermined prices to the Chinese domestic market.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this week announced that National Grid and Cape Wind have agreed to enter into negotiations for a long-term contract under which the utility would purchase the electricity generated by Cape Wind. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is expected to be a critical requirement for financing the proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The PPA still has to go through state regulatory review.

Last month, in what New York legislators called an "extraordinary" session, lawmakers voted to authorize municipal finance programs for clean energy improvements on homes and businesses. Called PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing, these popular municipal programs allow homeowners to go solar and make efficiency improvements without any upfront cost. Just how popular is PACE? There was not one single "no" vote in either house. New York's PACE legislation passed by a resounding 192 – 0.