“We’re thankful for the Commission’s approval of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, and for the thorough review it has received from state and federal agencies,” said John Woolard, president and CEO of BrightSource Energy. “With the PG&E and Southern California Edison contracts, a conditional US Department of Energy loan guarantee and CEC permit, the Ivanpah project is uniquely positioned to make a meaningful contribution to the world-leading renewable energy standards Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have established for the state, and to bring good jobs to the California’s High Desert community. We look forward to commencing construction on Ivanpah and setting a model for environmentally-responsible utility-scale solar projects.”
The Ivanpah project is also being reviewed by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is expected to issue its final Record of Decision in the coming weeks. BrightSource expects to have all of the necessary permits to commence construction in fall 2010.

In February 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded BrightSource Energy $1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees to support the financing of the Ivanpah project.”

Source: Press Release

Aptera 2e

According to the Remy Press Release, “Today, Remy International, Inc. joined Aptera Motors for a press conference in Carlsbad, California where Remy was announced as the electric motor supplier for the Aptera 2e. Remy will supply HVH250™ electric motors for the new Aptera 2e all-electric vehicle. Remy is already supplying a High Voltage Hairpin (HVH™) electric motor for Aptera’s entry in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, where the 2e has successfully reached fourth phase of competition and will undergo extensive testing and judging over the next several months.

The all-electric, three-wheel Aptera 2e looks like no other vehicle on the market. Aptera’s founders understood aerodynamics and vehicular dynamics enough to know that almost every car on the road today spends more than fifty percent of its energy pushing wind out of the way. In an attempt to correct what they saw as a major design flaw, Aptera looked for alternative solutions in nature which led to a vehicle design that emulates the aerodynamics of a bird in flight.

The Aptera 2e has a unique light-weight design weighing approximately 1,800 pounds. It goes 0-60 mph in ten seconds and has a top speed of 90 mph with a range of nearly 200 miles.

Aptera said they chose the Remy HVH250 electric motor for the superior technology, reliability and speed to market the motor offers. Specifically, the HVH250 motor provides the high power density and torque Aptera was seeking; and the motor is compact and light which helps keep down the overall weight of the vehicle, contributing to the driving range. Additionally, Remy’s patented technology provides cooling efficiency that permits the Aptera 2e to run at higher speeds longer than other motors, an important feature in today’s freeway-heavy transportation system.

Aptera CEO Paul Wilbur said, “Remy’s HVH250 was an ideal choice for our electric motor. It can integrate into our drivetrain quite easily, and the support we have received from Remy’s engineering team has been nothing less than first rate. Not only have we selected a great motor, but we have also tapped in to a highly qualified team of professionals that are actively concerned about our success and future growth. We are excited about this partnership.”

Remy CEO John Weber said, “Remy is proud to supply Aptera our HVH electric motors which enhance the Aptera 2e’s performance. Remy motors are backed by over a billion miles of proven reliability. This partnership is another great example of our HVH standardized platform at work. Remy can easily support Aptera’s growth with existing production capacity of 100,000 motors. The leading edge, proven technology and track record of the Remy HVH electric motor enable companies like Aptera Motors to confidently choose Remy. This choice provides the luxury of reducing the design, R&D and tooling costs often associated with the development of an electric drive system.”"

Source: Remy Press Release

According to the Press Release, “SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SunRay Renewable Energy, a leading European solar power plant developer with offices in Europe and the Middle East, including a principal project office in Rome. SunPower will acquire SunRay from its shareholders, which includes its management and Denham Capital. Upon closing the transaction, SunPower will acquire a project pipeline of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totaling more than 1,200 megawatts (MW) in Italy, France, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greece. The pipeline consists of projects in various stages of development. SunRay’s power plant development and project finance team consists of approximately 70 employees.

“SunRay has a proven track record of developing bankable solar power plants in a complex environment,” said Howard Wenger, president of SunPower’s utilities and power plants business group. “This acquisition is consistent with our long-term company strategy to develop a strong brand and complementary channels to market. SunRay’s exceptional team and pipeline will add to our significant internal investment in North American power plant development. It also complements our European engineering, procurement and construction business that serves a broad range of development partners.”

“SunRay has developed an impressive pipeline of utility scale projects throughout Europe,” continued Wenger. “We congratulate SunRay on receiving the European Solar Deal of the Year award today from Project Finance magazine for the largest solar PV power plant financed in 2009, the 24 MW Montalto power plant in Italy, which launched SunPower’s relationship with SunRay. This acquisition further demonstrates our confidence in the Italian market and regulatory environment, and will accelerate the growth of our European and Middle Eastern power plant business.”

“Our experience working with SunPower on Montalto and several other power plants in Italy convinced us that SunRay will be joining the global solar technology, performance and quality leader for solar power plants,” said Yoram Amiga, CEO of SunRay Group. “Our combined experience globally will allow us to offer our customers reliable energy delivery at competitive prices. Denham has been a great partner, providing both capital and advice at an important stage in our company’s development. We are pleased to have worked with them.”

“The SunRay Renewables team has proven itself unparalleled in its ability to develop, finance and construct world class solar projects,” said Scott Mackin, partner in Denham Capital. “The marriage of that team with the superior technology of SunPower will create a formidable platform of new, socially and environmentally responsible and highly efficient solar PV projects in many countries around the world. We are delighted to have supported the initial development of SunRay’s portfolio, including the initial phase of the award-winning Montalto project, the largest in Italy. This project was completed in partnership with SunPower, and we are confident that the two firms will continue to expand on their success together.”

“SunRay has a strong pipeline in Italy, with several power plants already permitted for delivery in 2010,” said Gian Maria Ferrero, vice president of SunPower’s Europe, Middle East and Africa utilities and power plants business unit. “Italy has demonstrated sustainable, strong growth in both rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems, bringing new jobs to the market and private investment into new power resources without the need for major new transmission investment. The growth of the Italian market has validated our prior acquisition of Solar Solutions, now SunPower Italia. SunPower and SunRay will seek to build on our success throughout Southern Europe and into the Middle East and Africa as demand for new power resources increases.”

The total consideration for the acquisition is approximately $277 million, including $235 million in cash and $42 million in a letter of credit and promissory notes. SunPower has sufficient cash to close the transaction and does not intend to raise equity capital to finance the acquisition. The company will provide specific financial guidance regarding the positive impacts of the transaction during its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009 earnings conference call in March. The parties anticipate closing the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, in the first half of 2010.

J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. is acting as exclusive financial advisor to SunPower with regard to this transaction and provided a fairness opinion regarding the acquisition to its board of directors.”

Source: SunPower Press Release

Zapcar - 2008 Xebra

According to the press release, “US electric vehicle pioneer ZAP (OTCBB: ZAAP) and China auto manufacturer Zhejiang Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. announced a commercial agreement to produce electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs), cars and other electric vehicles in China for domestic and global distribution.

ZAP and Jonway partnered on the production of the 5-door Jonway A380 SUV, integrating the latest AC propulsion and lithium battery system technologies to produce a high performance mid-range electric vehicle (EV) that ZAP intends to offer to the fleet market in China. Jonway currently manufactures several thousand units per month of its A380 compact SUV in 3- and 5-door models and is expanding its product line with new model sedans and other automobiles.

The agreement with Jonway is part of a multi-phase business plan ZAP is implementing to target the China electric vehicle market. ZAP chose the Jonway partnership in part because last year Jonway produced one of the first vehicles made in China to meet international standards of quality, including ISO 9000, China Compulsory Certification (CCC) and most recently passing certification for import to the European Union. The Taizhou-based automaker markets and sells vehicles in China through a network of over 600 auto dealerships. Jonway has the capacity to produce up to 50,000 vehicles per year currently at its facilities in Taizhou with capacity and support from the government to expand as the business scales.

ZAP and Jonway believe the partnership will leverage ZAP’s long-standing history in electric vehicles, experience in systems integration and worldwide sales for a broad range of EVs. Under the exclusive agreement, ZAP and Jonway take the electric drive systems designed by ZAP and integrate them into the reengineered EV SUV that will be produced by Jonway. ZAP will perform research and development of the core technology in Santa Rosa, California and license the technology for this partnership. ZAP and Jonway will jointly market and sell electric vehicles in China, North America and Europe to broaden market reach.

In 2009, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest automobile market with sales increasing 46 percent from 2008 to 13.6 million vehicles in 2009, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

ZAP hopes to leverage a stimulus from the government for plug-in forms of transportation. The Chinese State Council General Office announced that it intends to raise its annual production capacity to 500,000 all-electric cars, hybrids and buses by the end of 2011. To stimulate the growth, China’s Economic Construction Department has put in place a 60,000 RMB, approximately US$8,800, manufacturers subsidy per electric vehicle produced and sold in China. ”

Source: Press Release

The ever-expanding solar industry has tackled land-based projects and is now looking to the skies for their latest innovations. Although space-based solar technology has been around for decades, it has never really been a viable option in terms of cost-efficiency. Nevertheless, last Thursday California regulators approved a project to beam solar energy from a satellite in space.

The one significant advantage of a space-based solar project over one on land is its ability to continuously produce energy since there is no day or night in space. The obvious drawbacks would be its relatively high risk in not only deploying, but maintaining such a project.

Solaren is a private manufacturing, project development and consulting company stationed in southern California. For 35 years they have developed clean energy technology and are now heading an ambitious project to harness energy from space. Their engineers have previously designed a Mylar mirror 1 km in diameter focus light onto solar panels essentially increasing its electricity output.

If the project is successful it will open opportunities for other space-based energy projects expanding the possibilities of a greener future. The target completion date is June, 2016 after which PG&E has agreed under contract to purchase 1,700 gigawatt hours per year for 15 years. A representative from PG&E said Thursday that they will only pay if Solaren delivers as promised. The representative intimated that the price for Solaren’s electricity is competitive with regular, land-based solar power.

The region of Northern California is synonymous with a particular product that is harvested, much to the delight of people the world round. Wine finds a home in this region, in places such as Monterey, Sonoma and Napa. The grapes that are harvested produce wines that are well known, and now the city of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is playing host to the second annual Green Wine Summit on December 1st and 2nd.

This is the foremost event on the green wine industry, and by green wine we aren’t talking about an off-colored sauvignon-blanc. This summit offers its guests a wide variety of different green-related presentations. Held at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek hotel, registration is currently open for both days of the summit.

On the 1st of December, information about the rules and regulations of a green economy are discussed, in tandem with sustainable business practices. This, as well as how to “green” an organization, information on how to get it up to codes and standards to gain certification through different assessment programs. To round out the first day; comes information about resources and services that will help expand healthy business practices.

The 2nd of December is the main focus of the event, with activities and sessions too numerous to name lasting from the morning hours until the evening. Gil Friend, the President and CEO of Natural Logic, Inc., will deliver the keynote address during the luncheon. In addition, there will be additional speakers who represent various aspects of the wine industry. From winery owners, marketing people, to executive heads of business development firms, many points of view regarding the green wine industry will be discussed in length.

The rest of the U.S. took notice of California’s’ problem, and took matters into their own hands. Except that instead of having consumers pay their utility company for electricity and gas, it is now the utility companies that are beginning to pay the consumer. In several Atlantic states, the abundance of energy has caused prices of electricity to drop into the negative. This means that the utility company actually pays their consumers to use their product.

This is thanks due in part to a lack of serious technological breakthrough, and the advent of renewable energy, green energy. There has not yet been a device which can correctly store electricity in large amounts, besides batteries which are expensive to maintain and eventually harmful to the environment. Due to this, there is no way to store excess energy that is created by power plants. Usually there is a downtime in electrical use, mainly during the night hours. However, several green power sources such as wind power and those that utilize power from the movement of water continue to function during those hours. Thus, while there is less demand there is still a considerable amount of energy being generated which is not used, and is consequently sold in the negative.

In states without large populations, this has certainly been a gift to those who use utilities. For the especially tech-savvy, they can plug in their electric cars during the time when the power is paid for by their utility provider and not pay a dime to get around the next day.

In states like California, with its ever increasing population and changing demographics, this would be a blessing and certainly create a flourish of activity in the electric motor marketplace. The addition of solar/wind/water power to the California grid would create considerably less strain on the grid, as well as greatly reduce carbon emissions due to the burning of oil and coal at power stations.

Southbay Train

Researchers at the UK Energy Research Center have recently completed a study indicating that Peak Oil – the point of highest production of oil worldwide, after which oil production will decline sharply – will be reached by the year 2030 at the very latest. On the alarmist side the report’s chief author Steve Sorrell warns that we could already be in or have passed the period of peak oil production.

Given that two thirds of the petroleum used in the United States goes towards transportation and that most transportation in this country involves single occupancy vehicles; this decline in production poses an obvious threat to the utility of our infrastructure. Without available fuel for automobiles, the current highway system makes little sense.

Of course, in some places steps are already being taken to increase capacity for efficient mass transit systems. For instance, the state of California put in its bid for $4.75 billion dollars of the 8 billion dollars in federal stimulus money earmarked for high speed rail transportation projects. While this is over half of the available funding and it might seem unfair for one state to receive so much of it.   It is worth noting that the projects are estimated to cost over $10 billion dollars. The balance of the money will come from state, local and private financing.

The projects themselves include a high speed rail from Los Angeles to Anaheim (twenty four miles by current highway routes), a leg from San Francisco to Los Angeles and a section from San Francisco to San Jose, amongst others. Travel time from LA to San Francisco would be reduced to two and a half hours (half the time it takes rail from Washington DC to New York) if all goes as planned.

Overall, estimates are of an additional 600,000 construction related jobs lasting from eight to eleven years, 450,000 permanent transportation related jobs, over 40 billion dollars spent and a top train speed of 220 mph. This is coupled with an environmental savings of up to twelve billion pounds of greenhouse gases annually and 12.7 million barrels of oil if ridership goals are met.

Those are the official figures, in any case. The Reason Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association commissioned a report that arrives at substantially different figures at each step of the way, estimating a three hour and forty minute trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles just as one example.

Whether the State of California or the Reason Foundation’s estimates are more accurate, the plan seems to be moving ahead and construction should be underway before 2012.

According to the AP, “Administration officials say Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving ahead with plans to sign an executive order establishing the most aggressive renewable energy standard in the nation.

The governor plans to sign the order Tuesday. It would require utilities to generate one-third of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar or geothermal plants by 2020.

His office says the governor will veto a similar bill passed by lawmakers last week.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the state Air Resources Board, says that bill actually could hurt California’s efforts to increase the use of green energy because it limits how much renewable power could be imported from other states.

Sen. Joe Simitian, who authored the Democratic bill, says the governor’s order will lack the force and effect of his bill had it been signed into law.”

Source: AP