| Holy Shiholy Batman! |
[Aug. 11th, 2006|07:38 pm] |
SunEdison Acquires Team Solar; Serious Legion of Superheroes Shihizzle
Wow. this is a match made in heaven. I swear. SunEd + TeamSolar TL4Eva...
Together they have installed enough solar panels to power 15,000 homes (and that's energy pig homes, not back-to-the-earth one-LED-christmas-light-is-fine-for-my-
reading-light hippy homes).
And while they come from radically different places, this is going to be a symbiotic powerforce. Nobody is talking about how much it sold for, but the Sun bought the Team! And it looks like Baltimore's brilliant SunEdison krewe is poised for even greater stature in the energy biz (and West Coast presence) now that they've bought TS... And they were already pretty amazing, known to provide competitively priced solar energy at or below local utility rates with various financing schemes (sometimes they lease big box's rooftops, put solar there and then sell the juice to the stores, other times they lease the PV to the stores, and do the the installations and maintenance...) And SunEd's CEO Jigar Shah is a solid leader, building a team with some insanely impresisve playere (it's like he raided the halls from BP S0lar --duh, they're in Maryland-- to Bechtel).
And TeamSolar is no slouch ...born under the close tutelage of Sacramento's highly evolved SMUD, Angela and Rick Lavezzo's tiny company has grown to be California's largest solar installer. No job too small or too large.
Now we know what they did with some of that twenny six point one $M they just raised with Gold Man Sachs. But this is awesome, this is grassroots California meets business2.0 east coast new green stylee. With balance and harmony for all, I expect SunEd will spred....
[source Sun Edison, LLC press release |
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| SHEClabs free-form private-placement memorandum |
[May. 27th, 2006|05:06 am] |
...remember that part in Forest Gump when his shrimp partner told him he invested their money into 'some fruit company'? this LJ post might be one of those...
I've mentioned SHEClabs, the Saskatchewan solar hydrogen energy corporation a few times before, and since then, dozens or even hundreds of websites have talked about it. even a nice treehugger piece by good 'ol jacob gordon in lalaland..
WHY? Because SHEC-Labs Hydrogen Generator uses a 'proprietary catalyst', new solar collection technologies, solar tracking and process software developed in-house to produce hydrogen from methane gas ((actually from landfill gas)), or by disassociation of water at temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius. The SHEClabs technology allows for pollution free manufacturing of hydrogen. And yes it's been marginally covered that the City of Regina unanimously passes ordinations not only allowing them to build the their commercial plant (a commercial hydrogen makin' fillin' station), not only that but that they signed up to be the first clients, planning to run as many city vehicles on hydrogen as SHEClabs can fill.. ((ok, seriously the name... Guys, an 'R' would be great! (Renewable? solar hydrogen renewable energy corporation? come on! it rolls off the tongue).. I mean who wouldn't want to fill up with Hydrogen at their corner Shrec?)). Anyway, the news don't stop in Saskatchewan! They also recently got Pierre Rivard, Hydrogenics CEO to take a seat on their board! They kick ass!
But now here's something that hasn't been widely publicized: and you ought to be among the first to know.. even though the news has been around for over 20 days... They are raising funds to build this, the worlds first solar/hydrogen gas-station. And you too can get in on it. Just request an Official Offer of memorandum and have the right to invest through this Private Placement. So, for as little as $2,500 you can get in on the ground floor of the world's first solar hydrogen fillin' station! When there's 5500 SHrEC Station dotting the globe, and you're ensconced and early-retired, don't forget where you heard it from. |
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| the Daystar plan... |
[May. 22nd, 2006|08:53 am] |
CEO John Tuttle points the way forward
Wow. Two of my favorite companies in the news back to back = ) yay.
"We strongly believe that the global demand for non-fossil fuel energy solutions, the continued shortage of Silicon solar cells, the progress and experience we have achieved to date, and the support and encouragement from our stakeholders have converged to create a window of opportunity that has driven us to accelerate the deployment of our manufacturing capabilities. To accomplish this we have developed an execution plan that includes a number of near term achievable milestones. The purpose of releasing this plan to our Stakeholders is to provide a framework for monitoring our progress in the coming months and years." And the plan has been working out for them, as they are one of the newest shining stars of the solar world. So click and read up on the plan for the next phase of DayStar taking over! |
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| daily plug... |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|06:28 am] |
OK It's an article about Troy New York and their new Tech Valley. But who are the two examples of the turnaround and rebirth?? None other than DayStar and Plug Power! ...and if you've been reading this for anytime now, you know just how much i love these two companies!! So you can imagine how happy I was to read an article in the Troy Record, talking about both of these companies! Hmmm will there be a daystar solar powered electolyzer on the horizon? That would just be too kewl. |
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| July 8-13: join the mile-high sun club! |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|05:58 pm] |
...more PV than you can shake a stick at!
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| hats off to all the kids ....you're all winners in my book! |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|07:35 pm] |
Big Meet this weekend!
Several hundred students representing 21 schools from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Florida will race against each other in Raleigh NC Friday and Saturday for the 11th annual EV Challenge Final Event Weekend.
The EV Challenge is the country’s premier alternative fuel education program, unique because of its integration of several disciplines, including math, science, engineering, language arts and more. It's a year-long program designed to teach 6th-12th graders the importance of alternative fuels. In the program, the student design and construct of a street-legal electric vehicle(!) which will be entered into several competitions during the weekend. Go speed racers go! |
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| Suncones: inexpensive solar thermal with very high efficiency |
[Mar. 30th, 2006|12:09 pm] |
aluminized mylar air-pressured solar collectors rock
So, it's true that parabolic solar thermal collectors are cool. And look like fun. But it's also true that they aren't perfect. In fact often, one has to manually re-focus the mirrors, you can get blinded by the intense light and they do start fires (think of an ant & magnifying glass to the power of 100).
In comes Barabus Energy who's new SunCone not only allays those aforementioned issues, but also makes a 90% efficient solar thermal collector that costs under $6,000. This is where the story gets interesting! |
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| Second helpings for Konarka (the solar plastic guys) |
[Feb. 18th, 2006|10:43 am] |
OK, in the non-Solar-Grade-Silicon solar world, Konarka is a hottie. Not only do they make the PV for solar tents, ski jackets and other non-traditional solar applications, but they are smart. They managed to take over Siemens' organic photovoltaic research activities, as well as its renowned scientific team. They've really carved a niche for themselves with their funky solar ribbons,
and now it seems, for the second time in but a few years, they have made nice friends in the investment community. With the help of 3i, a world leading venture capital and private equity firm, and existing investors, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New Enterprise Associates, Good Energies, Vanguard Ventures, Partech International and Chevron Technology Ventures, they just raised $20 Million dollars. I mean it's not a huge shock, they have unique technologies, are way forward moving, and of course have already gone through about $40M, so hey, they're on a roll..... |
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| Green Power Labs, something fresh from the East |
[Feb. 17th, 2006|08:12 pm] |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) somerled, the poet warrior of the Educational IT world sent me a link to something I find truley inspiring. It's a company out east called Green Power Labs. Boy is it great... ok, to begin with, they are a solar company. They have created some softwares that will tell you if your place is in any way a good place to set up PV power. But then they also sell turnkey solar solutions to run your whole home on PV and batteries and/or grid intertie. Sounds fairly run-of-the-mill (aside from the software) so far, but get this, they have a brilliant entry level rout for the average homeowner that I haven't seen yet before, and on top of it, they have financing for solar, which in my opinion is the one thing that has been SORELY needed in the green world. And now finally happening!!
( Read more... ) |
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| Rich Diver for President! |
[Feb. 16th, 2006|01:15 pm] |
Sandia Does it Again: Solar/Stirling/Hydrogen manufacturing
It seems like these days I have a Sandia story a week! And they do kinda deserve it, looking at all the milestones pass, regularly.... And today it has been announced that Sandia researcher Rich Diver (6218) has invented a whole new way to make hydrogen to power automobiles and homes!! Way To Go!!
His invention, the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5, for short), splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, using a simple, two-step thermochemical process (it acutaly sounds a lot like a stirling engine version of that Rothman Technique i gushed over last year) It's a stack of rings made of a reactive ferrite iron oxide materials. Every other ring rotates in opposite directions. Concentrated solar heat is reflected through a small hole onto one side of the stack of rings. The side of the rings in the sunlit area is hot, while the other side is relatively cold. As the rotating rings pass each other in between these regions, the hot rings heat up the cooler rings, and the colder rings cool down the hot rings. This arrangement results in a conservation of heat entering the system, limiting the energy input required from the sunlight. Steam runs by the rings on the cooler side causing a chemical reaction to take place, allowing the ferrite material to grab oxygen out of the water, leaving the hydrogen. The hydrogen is then pumped out and compressed for use. Rich Diver says: “We are combining a mechanical engine with a chemical producing device — something not done before to produce hydrogen.” This is still in early stages.. They talk about high yields of hydrogen but the testing has just begun... Expect to only see this come online over the next couple of years, still a major step has been taken!!
[source:the always amazing FuelCellWorks] |
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| geektoys and nanoporn |
[Jan. 26th, 2006|10:01 am] |
WARNING: Severe Geek Alert:
OK So all you nanosolar fetishist who can't make it to Silicon Valley this week for the annual "Photonics West 2006 conference and trade show" do not be alarmed. If you, like me, have a penchant for being an Expo Brat, collecting any and everything that isn't nailed down (info not schwag, please). The good folks over at Photonics.com have created a virtual expo for us!! So without further ado, may I present the Photonics West New Product Showcase!
Yes! Here is the latest on a wide variety of tools needed for nanosolar (and other) aplication, including (but not limited to) Collimated Holes, The new Intellium H1000 instantaneous phase-shifting Fizeau interferometer, High-Power Diode Laser Modules, the X4 light analyzer, a 2-DInGaAs focal plane (FPA) camera with sensitivity up to 1.7 µm, High-Resolution Echelle Spectrograph, SQL Series Piezo Motors, Infrared Wave Plates, Optical Power Meters. Every product has direct links to the company websites as well as a brief explanation by the photonics team. Hours of fun!! Enjoy! |
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