The political climate generated by the collapse of Solyndra last year had a “profound impact” on the US pioneer in energy storage, the former chief executive said yesterday.
In exclusive comments to Breaking Energy at the Energy Storage Week Summit in San Jose, California, Bill Capp, the former CEO of Beacon Power, which filed for bankruptcy last October, said: Keep reading →
An 11th hour withdrawal from a long-anticipated initial public offering could be a potentially damaging blow for a cleantech startup trying to raise additional capital from the public markets.
But BrightSource, the concentrating solar power startup with 9 GW of projects in the pipeline, has not ruled out another attempt at a public launch. Keep reading →
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivers remarks on the state of energy February 28, 2012 during the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland near Washington, DC. Gates was joined by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees energy following cell phones and “going viral” worldwide if the costs of advanced batteries teamed with efficient solar panels can be reduced enough. Keep reading →
In a quiet shift from the past two years, President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget includes no new money for the Department of Energy loan guarantee program, the same program that House Republicans have scrutinized for losing more than $500 million in taxpayer dollars to the now-defunct solar power company, Solyndra. Obama has regularly included huge increases to the program’s loan guarantee authority in his budget, though Congress has not approved his proposals. He provided a $36 billion increase for nuclear reactors in his 2011 budget, and again in his 2012 budget. He also included $200 million in credit subsidies for renewable and energy efficiency projects in his 2012 budget. This year, he provided nothing.
Monitoring shale gas drilling has been a central technology question for oil and gas companies seeking to take advantage of huge potential reserves in the US.
“A technology to remotely monitor conditions at energy-rich Marcellus Shale gas wells to help insure compliance with environmental requirements has been developed through a research partnership funded by the US Department of Energy,” the department announced today. Keep reading →
It’s an all-too-familiar refrain in the United States these days: “Solar is too expensive.” Supporters of solar power have long had to face the argument that conventional energy sources are simply cheaper. This economic reality is a substantial portion of what underlies the sizable government subsidies to solar companies such as Solyndra in the U.S., and why the Chinese government is vigorously subsidizing its own solar industry. A poll conducted in the U.S. by clean-tech communications firm Tigercomm reflects this as well: The majority of respondents said solar power is too expensive, will remain an intermittent source of power, and can’t truly compete directly with coal or natural gas. A mere 41% believed solar was affordable, and only 34% believed it was reliable. But new solar cell technology–specifically improvements involving nanotechnology–may change minds with surprising speed.
(Fortune Tech) Back in 2007, solar energy was one of the hottest stock sectors around. Oil prices were soaring to record highs, solar IPOs were winning warm welcomes and some stocks were rising exponentially. First Solar (FSLR) and Ascent Solar Technologies (ASTI) both rose 800% throughout the year. Then in 2008, a few months after oil prices peaked at $145 a barrel, the credit crisis hit, leaving few banks willing to lend money to finance costly solar-manufacturing plants. Demand for solar panels softened as European governments began eliminating solar subsidies. At the same time, China invested aggressively to expand the production capacity of its solar companies. The result was a rapid decline in solar-module prices. In recent months, the lean times began to take their toll. Solyndra, famously, filed for bankruptcy in September. A few weeks earlier, Evergreen Solar This article is a linkout.
Shares in solar power company First Solar fell over 20% in early trading Wednesday after the firm lowered its sales forecast for 2011. The Arizona based company, which is a leading maker of thin-film solar panels and also a developer of solar power projects, predicted net sales in 2011 of $2.8 to $2.9 billion. That’s down from earlier projections of $3.0 to $3.3 billion. The company said the lower sales were due to delays in its projects caused by weather and “other factors,” but predicted a healthy 2012. “Our diverse business model and robust project pipeline will help First Solar generate a significant amount of cash in 2012 while improving operational efficiencies,” Mike Ahearn, Chairman and Interim CEO of First Solar, said in a statement Wednesday.
The solar industry is moving into a low-cost future overshadowed by technology changes, but is still growing quickly.
The solar industry weathered a somewhat cloudy year, rife with the political consequences of the Solyndra bankruptcy, rapidly falling prices for photovoltaic (PV) modules, and the impending expiration of the federal cash grant that has existed in lieu of a similarly lucrative but harder to obtain investment tax credit. Keep reading →
The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers. The past year was already grim. The Guggenheim Solar (TAN) exchange-traded fund is down 60% since January and sits even lower than it did following the crash in 2008. Two high profile companies have gone bankrupt in the United States — government-backed Solyndra and Evergreen — and analysts anticipate more failures ahead. “Solyndra was just the beginning,” said Jessie Pichel, head of clean energy research at the investment bank Jefferies & Co. “We’re going to see a lot of companies go bankrupt.” This article is a linkout.
