Green Tech

Southern California Edison is leading the way as utilities become the solar industry's largest customers, according to a report Wednesday by the Solar Electric Power Association, whose members include solar tech companies and more than 300 utilities.

The utility is ahead of its counterparts in both overall solar energy capacity per megawatt and per customer, the study found (PDF). Further north, Pacific Gas & Electric is in front in terms of overall solar capacity and megawatts per customer.

The nonprofit solar association compiled the rankings from data collected from 50 utilities this spring. It projected growth in U.S. solar electricity, particularly photovoltaics, to expand to 600 megawatts in 2012 from 150 megawatts last year.

Southern California Edison came out on top largely due to its interest in large, concentrating solar thermal projects, such as a 245 megawatt agreement with eSolar. And it's working to build 250 megawatts of solar panels across 65 million square feet of rooftops.

eSolar is among the companies working on large-scale installations with Southern California Edison.

(Credit: eSolar)

However, concentrating solar thermal projects underway by other electricity providers could dethrone the southern California utility from its top spot, the report predicted.

Golden State utilities may be the earliest solar adopters but others in the west, mid-west and mid-Atlantic regions are also increasingly embracing renewables, according to the study.

In its forecast, 4,600 megawatts of concentrating solar systems will be planned nationwide within the next eight years, at least 600 megawatts of which won't come from sprawling solar farms.

For instance, initiatives to encourage solar adoption by homeowners and businesses are coming from Duke Energy, Long Island Power Authority, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison.

State renewable energy portfolio standards will help to advance adoption of big solar installations, but progress will stall if federal tax credits, set to expire at the end of the year, aren't extended, said Mike Taylor, author of the report, said in a conference call.

"We're hitting some new momentum with new business models but this tax credit uncertainty is potentially holding things back and creating some friction in the system," added Taylor, the association's research director. "A lot of utilities are waiting in the wings to see what's happening. Some are jumping ahead of the game because they want to be the first movers."

By his group's estimation, other states making inroads with solar power include Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

The west may be the best place for utility-scale solar now, but other regions are catching up, according to the report.

(Credit: Solar Electric Power Association)

First Solar is teaming up with Sempra Generation to build in the Nevada desert what could become North America's largest thin-film photovoltaic plant. The 10-megawatt project would be located 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas, next to Sempra's natural gas plant in El Dorado.

"As a result, the impact to the immediate environment is minimal and the project completion timeline will be shorter," Mike Ahearn, CEO of First Solar, said in a statement.

Sempra will develop, own, and operate the plant, which First Solar will maintain and monitor. Construction began in July and is set to finish in the fourth quarter.

"We look forward to helping the region's utilities meet state requirements calling for them to include solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources in their power portfolios," Michael Allman, president and chief executive of Sempra Generation, said in a statement. The San Diego, Calif., company is a division of Sempra Energy.

First Solar uses cadmium telluride rather than silicon, which has been costlier and in short supply. Rival thin-film companies such as Global Solar use copper indium gallium selenide, or CIGS, to make solar cells.

First Solar said it installed 300 megawatts of modules in 2007 with thin-film photovoltaics that maximize available sunlight even in cloudy weather. The company was commissioned to provide systems for a 40-megawatt plant in Germany by 2009.

Its utility-scale U.S. installations include a 2-megawatt rooftop solar system in Fontana, Calif., for Southern California Edison. The project, announced on July 16, would be that utility's first system toward its goal of providing 250 solar megawatts on commercial buildings over the next five years.

The partners also aim to build, under a 20-year power purchase agreement through the California Public Utilities Commission, what could become the state's largest ground-based photovoltaic plant.

Other big-scale solar power plants planned for southwestern desert regions use a different mix of technologies, such as light-concentrating or solar thermal systems, as well as panels that pivot to face the shifting sun.

First Solar of Tempe, Ariz., whose soaring stock prices have earned it the reputation as the "Google of solar," has projected $1 billion in sales and the shipment of 460 megawatts of equipment for 2008. Its stock was trading at $263 per share at press time.

The company claims its plants produce no emissions and that it's the first company of its kind both to fully recycle materials used in manufacturing and to use mining byproducts in its semiconductors.

Plug-In 2008 brought together Detroit automakers, utilities, and green-tech start-ups in San Jose, Calif., this week. Organizers say it drew more than 600 people.

Here's a summary of CNET News' coverage related to the event:

• Video: Plug-In 2008: Plug-in electric cars generate buzz
  CNET News reporter Kara Tsuboi stops by the world's first showcase of its kind to see what's new with plug-in hybrids.
• Google philanthropy funds Aptera and ActaCell
• 'Smart' electric grids to ease zap from plug-ins?
• GM partners with utilities to advance plug-in hybrids
• Coulomb unveils electric-car charging stations
• Photos: Powering a future for plug-in hybrids

GM lent a model of its Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid, due for production in 2010, for display at Plug-In 2008. Click on the image to see a photo gallery of more technologies shown off at the conference.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

News from around the Web


• Electric car market could race for materials - Greentech Media
• Plug-In 2008: To sell plug-ins, make 'em sexy - Wired
• Electric cars are inevitable...and essential - Wired
• Andy Grove says your heap needs an extension cord - Wired
• San Francisco calls for electric car pitches - Earth2Tech

Lawmakers and homeowners continue to blame graffiti for defacing property and contributing to the overall decline of civil society. Old-school, permanent graffiti made with paint, markers, and stickers may still rule the streets, but nondestructive public messages enabled by the Internet, laptops, lasers, and mobile hardware are also on the rise.

Click on this image for a photo gallery of eco-friendly graffiti.

(Credit: Graffiti Research Lab)

Graffiti artists with a political bent are exploring digital technologies to make a nondestructive point in public, whether in the name of ego, whimsy, the environment, or free speech. Some of their underground, open-source efforts are going mainstream as corporate marketeers mimic the tactics of graffiti artists.

Click here for a gallery of cutting-edge graffiti that uses high and low technologies.

Marquiss Wind Power, which makes small, square wind turbines for commercial rooftops, announced its acquisition Tuesday of wind-energy company Cirrus Technologies under undisclosed terms.

"Together, we have a strong family of patents specific to small wind that will allow us to deploy better, more effective products than previously marketed in the wind energy sector," said Paul Misso, CEO of Marquiss Wind Power.

The Folsom, Calif., company makes 19-foot-tall Aeropoint wind turbines featuring a star-shape framework within a square frame. The Desert Research Institute of Nevada and an unnamed utility have reportedly tested turbines using some of the seven patents held by Cirrus.

Aeropoint wind turbines from Marquiss Wind Power pivot to get the best gush of wind.

(Credit: Marquiss Wind Power)

Relatively modest-size turbines with a more traditional shape include the Skystream from Southwest Windpower, which provides up to half the power used by a zero-net-energy home in San Francisco. Other small wind turbines come from AeroVironment and Mariah Power.

Marquiss Wind Power raised $1.3 million in series A funding in January through Velocity Venture Capital and Strategis Early Ventures.

Consulting firm Accenture released software on Wednesday built to help companies improve energy efficiency and reduce waste. The Accenture Green Technology Suite measures the "green" aspects of a corporation's information technology practices, data centers, and office operations.

Accenture's Web quiz provides a snapshot of a company's 'green' performance, followed by a report via e-mail.

(Credit: Accenture)

The company provides a Flash-based snapshot of the tools on its Web site.

"By implementing the specific, tailored green recommendations, organizations can achieve measurable environmental improvements that contribute to bottom line savings," said Steve Nunn, who heads Accenture's green IT programs.

Companies are increasingly fine-tuning software and Web-based tools to count carbons, to maximize energy efficiency, and to create greener supply chains, buildings, and consumer products.

Accenture partnered with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group on recent research that determined that retrofitting existing data centers can achieve energy efficiency close to that of new data centers.

GreenRoad Technologies announced it has received $3 million in series C funding from Amadeus Capital Partners, Virgin Green Fund, Benchmark Capital, and Balderton Capital on Monday.

The company's main product, the GreenRoad Safety Center, might be called a digital backseat driver. It features on-board sensors tracking some 120 moves made by the driver. Paired with Web applications, a dashboard display offers real-time suggestions about how to steer the car more safely.

GreenRoad claims that clients have found a 54 percent reduction in crashes and a 7 percent drop in fuel costs.

The company says its product is being picked up by commercial fleets, insurance companies, and governments in the United States, Europe, and Israel. With offices in Redwood Shores, Calif., and London, GreenRoad projects that its products could serve 77 million vehicles.

In January, the company raised $14.5 million led by Virgin Green Fund and Benchmark Capital.

Aptera's two-seater Type-1 is classified as a motorcycle on the road.

(Credit: Aptera)

Google.org is investing $2.75 million into electric-vehicle maker Aptera and battery start-up ActaCell. The announcement, which follows Google's request for proposals from companies with electric car technologies, came Tuesday during the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose, Calif.

Aptera of Carlsbad, Calif., makes street-legal three-wheelers with a unique, aerodynamic design. The company aims to sell its Typ-1 model for less than $30,000 by the end of year. It's marketing a pure electric as well as a gas electric plug-in hybrid achieving more than 200 miles per gallon. The vehicles are supposed to accelerate to 60 miles per hour within 10 seconds, drive 120 miles on a full charge, and recharge from a 110-volt outlet.

ActaCell of Austin, Tex., aims to develop long-lasting lithium-ion batteries. On Wednesday it announced $5.8 million in series A financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and including Google.org, Applied Ventures, and Good Energies. The company has not yet publicly disclosed details about its technology.

To help speed up the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric cars, the search giant's philanthropy launched the RechargeIt initiative in June 2007.

Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus offers plug-in hybrid Toyota Priuses for employees making short, work-related trips. The hybrids achieve 90 miles per gallon and were converted with kits from A123 Systems' Hymotion.

The California Clean Tech Open, dubbed the "start-up in a box" contest, named 44 finalists Tuesday. It awards $100,000 in cash, office space, and professional services to each of the six winners. Categories are air, water, and waste; energy efficiency; green building; renewables; smart power; and transportation.

The Google-sponsored contest, run by the nonprofit Acterra, touts success stories such as GreenVolts, which makes photovoltaic solar concentrating systems, and BuildFast, which sells eco-friendly house kits for developing regions. Contest organizers said that tech for the developing world has become an increasing area of focus.

Prizes are due to be announced November 6. Click here for a list of the finalists.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--The carbon footprint of the tech industry is estimated at 2 percent of the world's total emissions, or roughly the equivalent of the aviation industry's, according to data from McKinsey & Co.

Technology executives from Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems were here Tuesday talking about how to prevent it from growing to 3 percent by 2020.

The tech industry produces about 800 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalents, including the production of devices and their energy usage after they're sold, according to McKinsey partner James Manyika, who spoke here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. With a 6 percent annual growth rate, carbon emissions will hit 1.4 gigatons by 2020, or 3 percent of global emissions, Manyika said.

So what is the tech industry doing about it? Each of the tech executives had a slightly different take on the problem.

One of the biggest things companies can change is the way they work, according to Robert Lloyd, senior vice president of Cisco. "Anything connected to a network needs to be green. How we run our businesses, how we design our products, how we collaborate as industry players," Lloyd said.

Cisco, for example, is emphasizing video conferencing known as "telepresense" to cut down on the amount of travel among its workforce. Its efforts have resulted in a $90 million to $100 million reduction annually in airline travel, he said. It also has a potential rise in productivity.

Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's imaging and printing division, said that HP has worked on green innovation since 1987. For example, he said, HP has taken back 1.17 billion pounds of printers and cartridges in that time, and in a sign of the growth of waste, it expects to take back another billion pounds over the next three years. Joshi said HP's next focus is how to help consumers bring down their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

In the next three to four years, he said, HP will reduce energy consumption of PCs by 25 percent and laser jet printers by 40 percent. It's also working on smart-grid turn-off features for its printers. On the data center front, he said that HP Labs is committing to reduce its carbon footprint by as much as 80 percent in the coming years, he said.

McKinsey's Manyika said that much of the carbon-emissions growth is coming from China and the rest of the world--PCs and peripherals accounting for at least half of the energy consumption. The fastest-growing piece of that pie is from data centers, Manyika said. But he said, technology can also be used to improve the efficiency of the industry and other markets. A smart grid, for example, could help people understand how much energy they're consuming and turn off devices when not in use.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said that we're operating in an industry that doubles its efficiency every one or two years, but people end up consuming twice as much. He said data centers, for example, are social utilities, and people's demand drives that usage. So he said that much of the problem is about changing people's behaviors, and the focus should fall more on the price of inefficiency.

Sun itself has invested $2 billion on research and development targeting efficiency, Schwartz said. The company also publishes data on the efficiency of its systems.

"The shift will require changes in society (not just this industry)," he said.

"The more transparent we are as an industry and the more we guide consumers to be transparent, the better off we'll be," said Schwartz.