Berkeley solar financing now legal

Berkeley charted new territory with its innovative "sustainable energy financing district". However, questions about the legality of the program have hampered efforts to get other cities to adopt similar measures. That obstacle has been removed with the governor's signing of AB811

Berkeley and Palm Desert may be poles apart when it comes to politics. But the two cities are pioneering a new path to solar energy.

Pushed by these unlikely municipal bedfellows, California on Monday enacted a law that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, high-efficiency air conditioners and other energy-saving improvements.

Participants can pay back the loans over decades through property taxes. And if a property owner sells his home or business, the loan balance is transferred to the next owner, along with the improvements.

Spirit in the Skyline

Treehugger details the rise of solar energy job training. Organizations like Solar Energy International -- which offers courses on installation -- are finding it pleasantly challenging to provide enough instructors to meet demand for this line of work. It's yet another sign that "solar power is going mainstream" and that it will grow into a reliable job provider.

Skyline College in San Bruno is getting in on the action. It was recently awarded a grant from the system office of the California State Community Colleges to provide solar installation training to students. The school is currently developing its curriculum to train potential junior and senior installers. Other areas of green energy training are being considered. For more on Skyline's program, call the school's Center for International Trade Development at 650-738-7098.

This bodes well for those seeking work in such an affluent and progressive region as the peninsula. Last year, there were 246 solar PV installations in San Mateo County. More than half of all such installations have occurred since '06.

VC investors for Obama

VC investors are supporting Obama in a big way. Earth2Tech has the story.

Sunnyvale to hire full-time sustainability officer

Just in from Barb:

The budget, adopted in June, included funding for a part-time coordinator. We planned to put our part-time person togther with a part-time person from another city to create a position for one full-time sustainability officer. It was thought that this arrangement would attract an experienced person and create some efficiencies. (E.g. time spent researching grants, attending regional meetings, etc. could be applied to both cities. ) However, the deal fell through when the other city decided to hire their own full-time sustainability officer. Sunnyvale's ability to conduct a city- wide carbon inventory was in jeopardy.

Last night our city manager announced that staff had rearranged some funds to enable them to hire our own dedicated full-time sustainability coordinator. This means that our community audit will go forward and that Sunnyvale will be able to move with more speed and efficiency toward our vision of a truly sustainable city.

Tesla opens store and looks ahead

Tesla opened its Menlo Park store this week. The approach to selling reflects the target clienteles:

O'Leary said the Los Angeles store takes one reservation a day, and predicts the Menlo Park showroom will do about the same amount of business. Unlike typical showrooms, however, a Tesla test drive requires a $5,000 deposit, so he expects a lot of looky-loos.

But as noted before, Tesla's impacts are greater than the number of cars it sells. It's proving and disseminating critical technology advances. The company is showing its ambitions through its hires and also made its UK debut recently. In this video, Tesla rep discusses the UK launch, batteries and the upcoming sedan:

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Hat-tip AutoblogGreen

Google.org funds Aptera

Larry Brilliant and company invest in my favorite Jetsons vehicle. My wife says she would be embarrassed to drive it (though a proud greenie in every way imaginable). I think it's cool.

Plug-ins, SUVs, and Japanese automakers

Plug-in 2008 starts tomorrow and as the SJ Mercury reports, supporters are bullish on the prospects

Asked whether plug-in hybrids, also known as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, are inevitable as production vehicles, Mark Duvall of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto answered with cautious optimism that sounded more optimistic than guarded.

"I would never say 100 percent until I can kick the tires myself, but I'm as optimistic as I've even been in 15 or so years with this subject," Duvall said.

QUEST provides a wonderful short on plug-ins, including details on the technology and movers, focusing on local visionary and head of CalCars, Felix Kramer:



T. Boone Pickens and grease buses not withstanding, the momentum around plug-ins and electrics looks unstoppable. More leaders such as Intel's ex-chief Andy Grove pushing for them (though his plug for coal makes clear that climate is not part of his thinking). He's also talking up retrofits for conventional cars like the Poulsen Hybrid. It's all a question of how soon.

Demand for small cars and the Prius in particular is straining the automakers current ability to manufacture more efficient vehicles quickly. Japanese car makers at least are looking to respond aggressively (and has already begun pulling back on its trucks and SUV production).

From now through 2010 and beyond, they are pushing ahead with plans for hybrids, electric cars, cleaner diesels, and even, further down the road, fuel-cell vehicles (see "Japan's Green Drive"). The days when auto executives mocked the Prius as a loss-making fad seem long past. "Without focusing on measures to address global warming and energy issues, there can be no future for our auto business," Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota's president, said at an environmental forum in Tokyo on June 11.

In the short term, that means many more hybrids. By the early 2010s, Toyota aims to more than double hybrid sales, to 1 million a year, far more than all other automakers' combined hybrid sales so far.

To meet its targets, Toyota will roll out several new models. Next year, Toyota is expected to add two new cars that it will sell only as hybrids, one badged as a Toyota, the other a Lexus. A new version of the Prius, which promises to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than the current generation, should also appear in 2009, and a plug-in version, which like the Volt will use lithium-ion batteries, is due to arrive a year later. By 2010, Toyota is also believed to be planning two more dedicated hybrid models, including a new hybrid minivan.

In the mean time Toyota has resorted to feel good tweaks like solar panels on the cars.

And of course, SUV values are dropping.

As gasoline prices have soared this year, SUV values have plummeted - by 7 percent to 8 percent in most cases, according to the Kelley Blue Book car price service - while the prices of used small cars are holding strong or increasing, with some models like the Toyota Prius hybrid unavailable without long waits.

Though while increasingly even CEOs are acknowledging that gas prices are not expected to come down meaningfully at any point, Kelley Blue Book is suggesting people wait before trading in the SUV's. Not sure that's wise - gas prices may dip slightly in the near term but basically they are on a permanent upward track. That said, the price of hybrids and small cars may drop as car makers catch up.

New clean-tech VC record

Venture capital continues to be bullish even with Republican obstruction on renewables.

There was no slowdown for the surging clean tech sector, which includes such fields as alternative energy, energy efficiencies, recycling and water purification and conservation. Clean tech investments totaled $884 million, a new quarterly record. The amount was $340 million more than the year-ago period, a record high at the time. Rising energy prices are considered a prime factor in the sector's continuing growth.

The game is being changed even as the fossil fuel industry fights tooth and nail.

Flat Screen TVs - think about this

The Climate Progress Blog posted recently about Nitrogen triflouride (NF3), which is used in the production of flat screen TVs. There are no Kyoto regulations for NF3 and so no one knows how much is released into the atmosphere during production.

The blog (which is worth reading regularly) took its information from a Guardian news story, which relies on an article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters by Michael Prather, director of the environmental institute at UC Irvine. 

Here is the kicker - NF3 is 17,000 times more potent than CO2 in the atmosphere and stays there for 550 years! So a little bit released becomes a huge problem. And with the explosion of high definition TVs and people running out to buy new ones, this could become quite significant. At this time, the article states that 4,000 tonnes of NF3 were produced this year and we don't know how much of it ends up released in the process of making these flat screens. The researchers say that this year's production is equivalent to 67 million tonnes of CO2, which is

a potential greenhouse impact larger than that of the industrialized nations' emissions of PFCs or SF6 or even the world's largest coal-fire power plants. 

One positive - Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology has stopped using it because of these concerns, so there must be other options. Other companies say there is no release into the atmosphere... 

Guess I will keep this old TV a lot longer. 

Gore, semiconductor industry and storage

Reactions to Al Gore's ambitious and visionary call for 100% renewable electricity has been met with the expected wide range of responses - applauded to derided. Big visions always get that reaction. But for some companies the kind of vision Gore is talking about is already becoming part of the business plan.

One such company is Applied Materials, a company whose name is synonymous with enabling "Moore's Law" - doubling processor power every 18 months in high tech. Applied Materials not anticipates 20-30% of its revenues in just two years.

“Energy generation has been void of technological development for 50 years and that makes it ripe for change,” said Applied CEO Mike Splinter. “It’s all about engineering and the environment.”

For photovolatics, it’s all about getting the costs per watt down to compete against fossil fuels. Part of that involves improving the efficiency of solar cells, but it’s just as much about reducing manufacturing and installation costs.

Not to be outdone, Applied Material's smaller rival Cypress Semiconductor is already claiming over 60% of last quarter's revenues coming from it's solar division SunPower.

One of the interesting innovations that Applied Materials is driving is thin film solar that could double as windows. That would certainly drive down installation costs for distributed solar. Wind is already cost competitive with conventional electric generation and solar is getting close through thin film and concentrated solar. Hovering somewhere around $2/watt for photovoltaics, Google of course has its initiative to drive down the cost (RE<C) and there are others such as 1366 Technologies on the opposite coast which is focused on an array of seemingly small but collectively significant improvements expected to drop the cost to around $1.65/watt. 1366 Technologies steps are reported in Scientific American's August issue ($ub Req). Apply Moore's Law to solar and soon we should expect not just price parity to coal but price advantage.

Aside from cost, the other issue raised by nay-sayers is storage. The intermittency of solar and wind (but not geothermal, a key part of the renewable mix) is a challenge because when the power is available does not always match when the power is needed. Again here, innovative solutions are emerging. Google's initiative to use electric cars is one such case and a new one comes out of the Netherlands where researchers are testing the use of refrigerators as storage units - taking power when they need it but putting power back on the grid when the grid needs it. That's innovation.

Petroleum in paint: alternatives increasing

Something close to 70% of our petroleum consumption goes to transportation. But what about the other 30%? It's in a huge range of products from plastic to asphalt to paint. And it's toxic.

Luckily there are more and more options available on the market to the traditional paints with their toxic off-gassed volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The Mercury covers a review of several low-VOC and non-VOC brands including major paint manufacturers like Sherwin-Williams, Kelly Moore's Yolo and Benjamin Moore's Aura. Their findings:

Eco-friendly interior latex paints are those described as low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compounds). VOCs are chemicals that help cause the sharp smell of fresh paint. Mostly solvents, they can include formaldehyde, benzene and other compounds linked to ozone depletion. They can cause eye, nose and throat irritation; nausea and headaches; and trigger asthma attacks. Worse, some of the chemicals have been linked to cancer. And off-gassing — the emission of VOCs from paint — can continue even after it has dried.

• It's worthwhile to get samples from several brands before you invest in paint. Quality varies widely.
  
• Price isn't necessarily an indication of quality.
  
• A paint labeled no-VOC can compare with or exceed the quality of paint labeled low-VOC.
  
• When using any paint, even low-VOCs, be sure there is adequate ventilation.
  

The reviewers gave Bengamin Moore's low-VOC Aura the nod among those tested.

Earlier this year my wife and I painted our kitchen and downstairs bathroom off-white with SafeCoat which we purchased at the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City. SafeCoat wasn't reviewed in the article but it covered great and looks terrific.

And while traditionally these alternatives have been more expensive, that's likely to change with the soaring cost of petroleum.

Updated: Plug-ins: events and infrastucture

SVLG hosts Richard Lowenthal, CEO & Founder, Coulomb Technologies, talking about plug-in hybrids and the infrastructure for them:

Lowenthal emphasizes 2010 is the point at which the "tide turns" towards electric and plug-in vehicles with major manufacturers step in with real options for consumers.

SVLG is also co-sponsoring the Plug-in 2008 Conference next week, July 22-24, in San Jose. Check it out.

Updated: On a related note, among the companies planning plug-ins in 2010 is Toyota and Toyota is bringing its Prius production to the US and suspending truck and SUV production.

Toyota said it made the moves as U.S. demand for trucks and SUVs continues to decline. Toyota's U.S. sales fell 21 percent in June compared with the year before, an even steeper decline than the industrywide slump of 18 percent. Sales of the Tundra were down 54 percent while sales of the Prius fell 34 percent as Toyota failed to keep up with growing demand.

Updated: Gore's ambitious goal

Gore calls for 100% renewable energy in 10 years today in DC.

We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.

Excerpt:

...Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here's what's changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power - coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal - have radically changed the economics of energy.

When I first went to Congress 32 years ago, I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy would become competitive. Well, today, the price of oil is over $135 per barrel. And sure enough, billions of dollars of new investment are flowing into the development of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics, windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency and conserve presently wasted energy.

And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.

You know, the same thing happened with computer chips - also made out of silicon. The price paid for the same performance came down by 50 percent every 18 months - year after year, and that's what's happened for 40 years in a row...

High-speed rail: part of the solution

Anyone who has used a carbon calculator has likely noticed the enormous impact that air travel has on ones personal carbon footprint. Given that, it's good to see that High Speed Rail is one of the solutions identified by the Air Resources Board scoping plan.

The carbon benefits in the scoping plan may well be understated. Approximately 1/3 of air travel in and out of the SF Bay Area is made up of flights to southern California. In France, when the high speed rail was put in place virtually all the coast to coast air travel (a similar distance) switched to rail. Then add to that both local and long distance shift from cars and trucks to rail and the value is exceptional.

Here's an overview:


And now a key step is coming up in November. The Fresno Bee offers its thoughts.

The proposal to build an 800-mile system of 200-mph trains linking Southern and Northern California, by way of the Valley, has made a great deal of sense throughout its two-decade gestation. Proposition 1, the $9.95 billion bond measure, is the necessary first step.

High-speed rail will be an engine of economic development that we badly need in this state, creating tens of thousands of jobs in both its construction and its operation.

It will have a dramatic impact on our environment, removing thousands of cars from California's highways. Less congestion will make the remaining vehicles more efficient for those that remain on the road. Conservative estimates suggest millions of barrels of oil could be saved annually, and as much as 22 billion pounds of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere.

Imagine stepping onto the train in San Francisco or San Jose and being in LA in a little over two hours. Critics like to note that a air flight is shorter but omit the time spent waiting in the airport. Rail is inherently higher security so wait times and hassle will be lower - and more comfortable.

With oil soaring and the need to reduce emissions, high speed rail is a winner.

Schwarzenegger on Bush climate action

Bogus. Too true.

Clever climate video

The biggest problem in solving the climate crisis is not the technology or policy but helping people understand why it is relevant to them. That of course is what the Alliance for Climate Protection seeks to do.

Here are a couple other creative efforts.



And again here, my favorite, an ad from the UK:


It's not clear that polar bears really will make things personally tangible but it's well done. And you can't do a better job of explaining the problem than the UK ad.

Thoughts on climate change and fires

While driving eastbound on Highway 92 at 6 a.m. earlier this week, I was captivated by the rising sun, which looked like a frail red dot behind the haze. Climate change studies say the Western U.S. will get drier and have more wildfires as temperature rises and annual snow pack dwindles.

This week's scorching of 700,000 acres and dozens of homes in California raises a good question: When are mainstream media reporters going to explore the connection between global warming and these tragic infernos?

In Santa Barbara, where 10,000 acres burned, the local independent weekly took it on: is there a link between the two?

The answer is yes and no, say climate scientists. The current onslaught of wildfire "is what we've been projection to happen, both in short-term fire forecasts and the longer term patterns that can be linked to global climate change," said Ron Neilson, a professor at Oregon State University and bioclimatologist with the USDA Forest Services. Neilson, who for the last fifteen years has also worked for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), cautioned that "with any single event you can't say unequivocally that it's climate change, or that it's natural variability."

However, he said, "What I would tell people is that what they're experiencing is very consistent with global warming."

As fires become a fixture of our summer days, the media will have to figure out how to approach the connection between climate change and fire.

SunPower's big deal & Pickens' mixed message

SunPower landed the biggest solar contract in the US.

San Jose's SunPower said this morning that it will build the largest solar power system in the United States as part of a deal announced with Florida Power & Light.

The deal includes a 25-megawatt plan in DeSoto County, Fla., and a 10-megawatt plant at Kennedy Space Center. SunPower will build the facilities, which will be operated by the Florida utility.

That's great news but to get a sense of the opportunity out there, Pickens wants to build a 4,000 MW plant in Pampa Texas. That's right - 2 orders of magnitude larger than SunPower's plans. That's not a knock on SunPower, it just shows the scale of what could be done with the right leadership.

Pickens though mixed his message a bit by endorsing off-shore drilling on CNBC (at 3:40 minute mark).

Clearly Pickens is a mixed bag, however, his wind and smart-grid push could dramatically change the landscape for the better.

Pickens' plan

The world is changing when an arch conservative oil tycoon comes out for massive ramp-up of wind - shooting for 20% nationally. Pickens wants to displace natural gas with wind and then use the natural gas to replace gasoline in transportation. In California's case natural gas generates just over 45% of the state's electricity. From a CO2 standpoint there may be some modest benefit to the natural gas portion of the equation.

But the huge wins are staving off the ineffectual off-shore oil drilling proposals, driving wind, and very importantly, the smart grid technologies to enable massive renewables.

Pickens not only is planning on spending $10 billion on wind, he is also spending $100 million on his massive public education campaign which began today.

Worth noting: Republicans can't be too happy - drilling for oil is the centerpiece of McCain's election strategy

Game-changer hybrid

The problem with hybrids of course is that it's necessary to buy a whole new car to get the benefits. For most people, the financials of selling a car and buying a new one are problematic. Selling my venerable Honda would have meant only a couple thousand dollars and buying a new one would have meant $20k+ - not something to be done at the drop of a hat. And if you own a big new SUV the situation is even worse because the resale value has gone through the floor. Some 40 million Americans now own vehicles worth less than the debt carried by the owner - the 4 wheel equivalent of the mortgage crisis. That too could mean the loss of $20k or more.

That of course is partly what the X-Prize aims to fix. Incentivizing the development of the best and most marketable way to get 100 mpg. Of course, our beloved Tesla with its outsized sticker price threw its hat in the ring. It's driving terrific innovation. Wonderful car if you happen to be Sergei or Larry but not helpful in the near term for the rest of us.

But what if you could take your existing car, and for a modest retrofit, get 100 mpg? Ulrik Poulsen claims to have done just that:

Yes, that's what it looks like. An electric motor attached to the back wheel of a standard car for $3,300, complete with batteries that go in the trunk.

The Poulsen hybrid is a dark horse contender for the X-Prize. If it works as advertised it is a game-changer. Best thing is, it will be on the market this year. Read more.

Updated: Plug-ins & more discussed by Electric Power Research Institute

Interesting discussion of hybrid and plug-in hybrids from Steve Specker is president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) at the SVLG "CEO Show":



Notably, EPRI acknowledges the reality of human-caused climate change though it is an utility industry funded group. They are a big promoter of nuclear power. While some ongoing nuclear is inevitable, it's worth observing that nuclear is attracting no private funding. Already receiving more government subsidies than renewables, nuclear would need enormous additional government support to be viable. The costs and national security considerations put nuclear out of the realm of a major part of the solution.


Updated: Nuclear is acknowledged as high risk by the industry. Only massive government subsidies make it viable. Unlike wind or concentrated solar, nuclear plants take years to build and no private investors dare touch nuclear.

So risky and expensive, in fact, that building new ones won't happen without hefty government support. NRG Energy (NRG), Dominion (D), Duke Energy (DUK), and six other companies have already leaped to file applications to construct and operate new plants largely because of incentives Congress has put in place. The subsidies include a 1.8 cents tax credit for each kilowatt hour of electricity produced, which could be worth more than $140 million per reactor per year; a $500 million payout for each of the first two plants built (and $250 million each for the next four) if there are delays for reasons outside company control; and a total of $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. The latter is crucial, since it shifts the risk onto the federal government, making it possible to raise capital from skittish banks. "Without the loan guarantees, I think it would be very difficult for the first wave of plants to move forward," says David W. Crane, CEO of NRG.

BLM, Bush reverse course

Amid fallout over the announcement that the Bureau of Land Management placed a two-year moratorium on proposed solar energy projects on federal lands, the moratorium was called off today.

Solar down but clean-tech investment up

Solar's outlook remains murky in the very short run due to ongoing obstruction by the Bush Administration and oil interest control in Congress leading to significant volatility even in the face of huge deals being made.

This hasn't cooled the overall investment waters however. Here in the US venture capitalists continue to see big opportunity:

According to a recent Ernst & Young report based on data from Dow Jones VentureOne, venture capitalists invested $571.6 million in 34 cleantech* deals during the first quarter of 2008. This figure represented an 18% increase from the $483.9 million invested during Q1 2007.

The big winners?

• Alternative Fuels - $178 million
  
• Energy/Electricity Generation - $148.3 million
  
• Energy Efficiency - $116.4 million
  

Globally the investment picture is similar.

Global investors plowed $148 billion into new wind, solar and other alternative energy assets last year, in what the United Nations describes as a "green energy gold rush."

The spike in investment - 60 percent above the $92.6 billion spent on such projects in 2006 - reflects sharply rising concerns over climate change and energy prices, U.N. officials said in a report Tuesday.

It gets amazing

Jon Stewart on EPA email to Whitehouse:

Tesla stays close to home

New manufacturing plant to be in the Bay Area.