Solyndra: House committee grills officials over failed solar firm

A congressional investigative committee on Wednesday grilled officials from two agencies that backed a $535-million loan package to failed Northern California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said they want to know why the Energy Department approved the Solyndra loans in 2009 and then restructured the loan this February despite evidence that the company was struggling financially.

Solyndra, which was hailed by President Obama in 2010 as an innovative company that would use stimulus money to create jobs and lead the economic recovery, laid off most of its 1,100 workers Aug. 31 and announced it would cease operations. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sept. 6.

Two days later, agents with the FBI and Energy Department's inspector general served a search warrant at Solyndra's Fremont headquarters. The company's failure and the criminal investigation have raised questions about the administration's decision to pour billions of dollars into clean-energy programs.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the subcommittee's chairman, pressed Energy Department loans director Jonathan Silver on Wednesday to explain how the agency could approve more than half a billion dollars in loans despite questions about the company's financial health.

He also cited internal emails that he said show White House officials appeared to be pressuring Energy Department and the Office of Management and Budget to speed up approval of the Solyndra loans.

"You should have protected the taxpayers and made some forceful actions here," Stearns said.

Energy Department expects solar energy project to create 900 jobs

The U.S. Energy Department hopes that a new solar energy project will result in about 900 construction and permanent operations jobs.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said today that his department had finalized a $1.2-billion loan guarantee to Mojave Solar for the development of the Mojave Solar Project. When complete, the 250-megawatt solar generation project in San Bernardino County will increase the nation’s currently installed concentrating solar power capacity by approximately 50%. 

Abengoa Solar Inc., the project sponsor, is the source of the estimate on construction and permanent operations jobs. 

“Investments in solar generation facilities like the Mojave Solar Project are critical to our effort to create good, clean energy jobs in America and compete with countries like China in the global clean energy race,” Chu said. “This project will supply local utilities with energy, help drive down the cost of solar power and fund more than 900 American jobs, all at minimal risk to the taxpayer.”

The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office administers the Title XVII Section 1703 and Section 1705 loan guarantee programs, and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program.

The Energy Department said that the Title XVII loan guarantee programs "support the deployment of commercial technologies along with innovative technologies that avoid, reduce or sequester greenhouse gas emissions, while the ATVM loan program supports the development of advanced vehicle technologies."

The Department has issued loans, loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling nearly $40 billion to support more than 40 clean energy projects across the United States.

Not all of those investments pan out. Federal agents recently executed a search warrant at the Northern California headquarters of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week despite receiving $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees.

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SolarCity plans 160,000 solar energy systems on military bases

-- Ronald D. White

Image: Artist's rendering of the Mojave Solar Project. Source: California Energy Commission.

 

SolarCity to install solar on military homes, doubling residential solar

SolarCity, one of the country’s largest residential solar panel installers, plans to double the amount of rooftop solar systems across the country by setting them up on 160,000 private military homes and other buildings.

The $1-billion SolarStrong program announced Wednesday would span facilities at 124 military bases across 33 states. SolarCity has already lined up a conditional commitment for a $344-million loan guarantee from the federal government to execute the plan.

The multi-year effort would eventually leave 371 megawatts of photovoltaic systems atop family homes, community centers, administrative offices, maintenance buildings and storage warehouses, SolarCity said.

The first SolarStrong project is in full swing at Hickam Communities at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, set to provide electricity to 2,000 military homes, the company said.

SolarCity said it hopes to hire and train veterans and military family members to install and maintain the systems, boosting domestic jobs.

The San Mateo, Calif., company has had several ambitious moves this year, including getting involved in electric vehicle charging technology and expanding to the East Coast.

In June, Google Inc., in its largest green investment yet, created a $280-million fund to help SolarCity pay for installations and maintenance costs in exchange for a cut of customer payments.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: SolarCity workers install solar panels on rooftops at Hickam Communities at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where developer Lend Lease and SolarCity have partnered on the first SolarStrong-eligible project. Credit: Business Wire

California solar panel manufacturer ceases operations

The California solar panel manufacturer that received a high profile $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee announced today that it was ceasing operations, laying off 1,100 workers and will file for bankruptcy in the coming days.

Fremont-based Solyndra said that it had been rocked by stifling global economic conditions and a slow recovery from the great recession. It had also faced heavy competition from Chinese firms that were undercutting it on costs.

The company's website had not been updated to reflect the development. A terse voice mail announcement on one of Solyndra's contact information telephones said only the following: "Solyndra announced today in a press release that it has ceased operations and intends to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection," advising customers on how to contact the company for further information.

It was quite a fall from late May 2010, when the company hosted the president on a factory tour. Company officials announced then that they expected to be adding new employees. But in July of this year, the company was being grilled on Capitol Hill by House Republicans who said that there were indications that the company was in a weak financial condition and wasn't a good choice for the loan program.

Solyndra would become the third such company to file for bankruptcy in recent days. Spectrawatt Inc. of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 19. Evergreen Solar Inc. of Marlboro, Mass., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 15.

Oakland solar firm Sungevity expands east, woos customers with free ice pops

On the East Coast, does a free ice pop translate into new solar panel customers?

Sungevity is about to find out. The Oakland-based residential solar company is sending a bright orange truck stocked with the icy treats around the five Northeastern states where it is expanding its business.

The truck, powered by biodiesel and the sun, is also equipped with iPads where ice pop munchers can multitask by getting a free quote on solar panel installations.

The sweet setup will hit music festivals, farmers markets, minor league baseball games and other events in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts and Delaware. Last month, Sungevity bought up all the advertising space on an Amtrak line running through the states.

The company is hoping its unconventional advertising will help endear its solar offerings to the promising East Coast market. Like competitors and fellow Bay Area companies SunRun and SolarCity, which have already made headway in the area, Sungevity has a solar lease program designed to cut back the heavy upfront costs of installation.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Sungevity's biodiesel, solar-powered ice pop truck tours the Northeast. Photo: PRNewsFoto/Sungevity

Gov. Brown pushes renewable energy goal at UCLA conference

Gov. Jerry Brown wants a major chunk of California’s renewable energy to come from urban rooftops and backyards, rather than just the massive solar and wind installations scattered around the outskirts of the state.

How that’ll come to pass, though, is still up in the air.

So Brown called a conference to figure out how to execute his plan, which calls for rooftop solar panels, small wind turbines, fuel cells and other clean-power technologies across California generating 12 gigawatts of electricity by 2020. That’s enough to power roughly 3 million homes.

More than 200 energy experts convened Monday at UCLA to create a preliminary roadmap to help diversify the state’s renewable energy portfolio, which is currently laden with large wind and solar farms sprawling over remote sites.

So-called distributed generation, usually involving smaller renewable-energy projects placed on and around local buildings, avoid many of the disadvantages of utility-scale installations, supporters said.

Distributed generation cuts out the expensive transmission infrastructure needed by desert and mountain-bound projects to deliver electricity to urban customers, supporters said. Smaller projects are also built faster and usually not on land that is environmentally or culturally sensitive, they said.

But implementation of the 12-gigawatt goal won’t be without hurdles. The permitting process for local clean electricity projects varies by city and county and will need to be streamlined. Many property owners are still skeptical about the cost and efficiency of renewable energy technologies and may hesitate to adopt them.

“This is tens of thousands of little decisions,” Brown said. “The distribution is its strength and also its challenge.”

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Wind turbines growing taller and more powerful

-- Tiffany Hsu [follow]

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown in Sacramento last month. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo

California rooftop solar installations surge; renewable energy approaches oil output, reports say

Renewable sources in the U.S. are starting to produce enough energy to rival oil output, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Biomass and biofuels along with geothermal, solar, water and wind-power generation were responsible for nearly 12% of the country’s energy production during the first quarter of the year. That’s nearly 6% more than nuclear’s output and 77% of the amount coming from domestic crude oil, the agency said.

Electricity from wind sources is up 40% from the same period last year, according to the agency. Solar output more than doubled.

The boom is especially evident in California, where the rate of installations for rooftop solar energy systems is on a tear, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Homes, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies in the state put in a record 194 megawatts of new solar capacity last year -- 47% more than the amount installed in 2009.

The setups provided power directly to 19,877 sites. Californians have installed a total of 924 megawatts of capacity at nearly 95,000 individual sites through the first quarter of this year.

And with dropping prices, 2011 is expected to be another record year, with 110 megawatts of solar already put in place through mid-June.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: At the Solar Power International 2010 Conference and Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

First Solar wins $4.5 billion in federal support for California sun-power projects

Sun-power developer First Solar scored big Thursday as three of its projects landed nearly $4.5 billion in long-anticipated conditional loan guarantees from the federal Department of Energy.

The awards for the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1, Desert Sunlight and Topaz Solar thin-film photovoltaic facilities –- all in California -– cap a blockbuster month for solar installations seeking financing. 

The government doled out $680 million in conditional commitments to the 230-megawatt Antelope Valley installation, which is to produce enough power at its western Mojave Desert site to power 54,000 homes.

The 550-megawatt Topaz plant, based in eastern San Luis Obispo County, is expected to generate enough electricity for 110,000 homes. Desert Sunlight in eastern Riverside County, which is to be the same size as Topaz, got a partial commitment $1.88 billion. 

The projects, which all are to use cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic modules made mostly at First Solar’s U.S. factories, will create 1,400 jobs at the peak of construction, the company said.

First Solar, an Arizona-based panel maker that earlier this week was embroiled in a tussle with Riverside County supervisors concerning potential fees on the Desert Sunlight project, had anxiously awaited news of the loan guarantees. Without financing, executives said, the projects could have been indefinitely delayed. 

So far, the Energy Department's loan programs have handed out $16 billion in conditional commitments for 15 solar projects and are also involved in geothermal, wind and nuclear efforts. The renewable-energy industry, still heavily dependent on subsidies, is dreading the programs' expiration later this year.

More sun power for Southern California Edison

Southern California Edison has signed contracts with two firms for the construction and operation of seven solar power plants in the state, including one that the utility said would be among the largest single solar photovoltaic installations in the U.S.

The facilities, scheduled to be completed by 2016, would add a total of 831 megawatts of capacity, enough to power 540,000 homes, the Rosemead-based utility. That represents a significant increase in Edison’s ability to deliver power from the sun and other renewable sources.

“This is an unprecedented time for solar photovoltaic,” said Marc Ulrich, vice president for renewable and alternative power for Southern California Edison, a unit of Rosemead-based Edison International. “We’re seeing growth in technological advances and manufacturing efficiencies that result in competitive prices for green, emission-free energy for our customers.”

In 2009, Edison sent its customers 13.6 billion kilowatt-hours of power from renewable sources, about 17% of its overall power generation. That renewable electricity was generated by 3,296 megawatts of wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and small hydropower facilities, with solar representing only 382 megawatts of capacity, according to the utility’s website. Edison spokeswoman Vanessa McGrady said the megawatt total for solar and overall renewable power had increased since then, but was unable to be more specific.

The bigger of the two deals involves San Jose-based SunPower Corp., which will build and operate three
installations totaling about 711 megawatts, including a 325-megawatt facility in Rosamond, Calif., north of Lancaster. That installation, to be completed in 2016, will be one of the nation’s largest.

SunPower also will build a 276-megawatt photovoltaic operation in Rosamond, scheduled to open in 2016, and a 110-megawatt facility in Los Banos, south of Modesto, which is set to open in 2014.

Howard Wenger, president of SunPower's utility and power plants business group, said the contracts reflect “the growing value of solar photovoltaic technology as a reliable, cost-effective energy resource delivered across rooftops or as a central-station power plant.”

The second Edison deal involves Fotowatio Renewable Ventures Inc., which has headquarters in Madrid, but also has an office in San Francisco.

The utility’s contract with Fotowatio Renewable calls for four smaller installations in Lamont, Arvin, Mojave and Lancaster, that will range from 20 megawatts to 60 megawatts in capacity and are supposed to be operational by the end of 2013.

Find out more about SunPower here, and Fotowatio Renewable here.

--Ronald D. White

Photo: Solar image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Credit: HO/AFP/Getty Images

Clean energy gets fewer subsidies, less investment than fossil fuels, report says

Energy from fossil fuel gets 12 times more in subsidies worldwide than sustainable energy, says a new report from the USC Marshall School of Business.

That discrepancy, as well as other barriers including high clean-tech start-up costs and low prices for products, keep green investment from booming, according to a group of MBA students from the school.

Without clear global policies on how to regulate and incentivize green business and technology, investors aren’t making any long-term bets on the industry, which is also less lucrative than the fossil fuel market.

And without ways to store the energy created by renewable sources such as solar or wind, companies may avoid innovating new generation technologies at all, the students found. 

“Inertia in the form of myopia, misperception, and dulled motivation, at the economy, firm, and consumer levels creates resistance to change and constrains solution-seeking to incremental improvements of known technologies rather than disruptive breakthrough innovations needed,” they wrote in their executive summary.

The team presented their findings recently in Yokohama, Japan, to an advisory council of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, a 21-nation group known as APEC. The researchers made their conclusions based on nearly 200 interviews with business leaders in 14 countries.

They encouraged governments to help make renewable energy attractive to consumers and to support clean-tech research efforts.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: The Solar Micro Generating Facility at Victor Valley College in Victorville. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

CalPERS to invest $500 million in green portfolio

CalPERS, the country’s largest public pension fund, is looking to turn over a new, green leaf by investing $500 million in environmentally friendly companies.

The new green portfolio will be managed in-house by the $219-billion California Public Employees'  Retirement System. The money will go into firms that work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, produce renewable energy, create clean water and waste options or support carbon trading efforts.

It’s a “more robust, quantitative strategy” that focuses on large-scale support of “positive change by top performers that have improved share value and also done good for the environment,” CalPERS board President Rob Feckner said in a statement.

Since 2006, the Sacramento-based pension system has invested $500 million through externally managed funds that explicitly avoid companies not considered eco-friendly.

The new strategy will use the HSBC Holdings Global Climate Change Benchmark Index -– which includes 380 securities –- as a model.

Through its Environmental Technology program, CalPERS has also fed $1.5 billion into private equity firms focusing on clean-tech companies.

The fund administers retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million public employees and their families. On Tuesday, it announced that its return on investments jumped 13.3% for the year ending in June.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Windmills in Maine. Wind power companies could soon see a piece of CalPERS' $500 million investment in the green market. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty /Associated Press