News This Week In Solar

Renewable energy is still a good investment for private equity, but high corn prices have taken investors' eyes off ethanol, said Scott Brown, chief executive of New Energy Capital.

New Energy Capital is a holding company that acquires minority or majority stakes in renewable energy companies.

"Any kind of renewable that generates energy, especially wind and solar power, are experiencing billions of dollars in new investments," Brown told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview.

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Southern California Edison (SCE) launched a project that will place 250 megawatts of advanced photovoltaic generating technology on 65 million square feet of roofs of Southern California commercial buildings. "This project will turn two square miles of unused commercial rooftops into advanced solar generating stations," said John E. Bryson, Edison International chairman and CEO. "We hope to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The sunlight power will be available to meet our largest challenge – peak load demands on the hottest days." MORE

Executives from the world's top oil companies, in a congressional hearing today, told U.S. lawmakers that competition and high costs justify the industry's opposition to higher taxes.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, called on chief executive officers from the oil industry to testify on record profits and gasoline prices before his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
The House passed a measure in February over oil-industry objections that would impose $18 billion in new taxes on oil and gas companies to pay for wind and solar projects and energy conservation measures. The industry argues that the money should go toward exploring for and producing more fossil fuels, which executives say could help bring down prices.
``In general, the United States tends to resist the need to develop new domestic energy supplies,'' John Hofmeister, president of The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc's U.S. unit, said in written testimony. ``Can we afford to continue this approach while energy demand and costs are rising?'' `MORE

Southern California Edison said it would spend $875 million to put solar cells on 65 million square feet of commercial buildings, enough to generate 250 megawatts of electricity.

The FPL Group, a subsidiary of Florida Power & Light, said it would build a 250-megawatt Beacon Solar Energy Project on 2,000 acres in Kern County and have it running by 2011.

The Dine Wind Project, a partnership between the Navajo Nation and Boston's Citizens Energy, would put hundreds of 400-foot-tall windmills in the Gray Mountain area, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff, Ariz.

Pacific Gas & Electric today (April 1) will announce the largest series of solar-power contracts in the utility's history. The deal, to buy as much as 900 megawatts of electricity - or enough to power 540,000 California homes each year - involves five plants to be built during the next decade.

Top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies were pressed today to explain the soaring fuel prices amid huge industry profits and why they weren't investing more to develop renewable energy source such as wind and solar.

An acre of solar panels and converter boxes sits atop a Target store in Manteca, installed just two weeks ago as part of a corporate plan to control energy costs by harvesting the power of the sun.

On Thursday morning, U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney toured the store — one of just 18 solar-equipped stores in California — guided by several Target officials from Minneapolis. The panels provide about 20 percent of the store's energy, said Raj Maheshwari, senior group manager of engineering property development for Target, who oversees the solar program. In the summer, when the days are longer, the percentage climbs to 60 percent.

A solar-powered hydrogen fueling station is officially open, just days after the state gutted rules designed to increase the number of hydrogen-powered cars on the road. The station uses solar energy to separate hydrogen from water to power clean-fuel vehicles. Its solar panels produce 80 kilowatts of electricity, roughly enough to power 40 homes, or about 14 fuel-cell vehicles. The station opened Tuesday as a joint venture between the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, British Petroleum, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy. It will power SMUD's fleet of seven fuel cell vehicles. A solar-powered hydrogen fueling station is officially open, just days after the state gutted rules designed to increase the number of hydrogen-powered cars on the road.

MTI Instruments Inc., a developer of precision measurement instruments, has made a new product focused on the solar cell production industry. The product, called the PV1000, will be on display at the Photovoltaic Technology Show in Munich, Germany, on April 2. MTI Instruments, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTY), based in Albany, N.Y., said the product would be incorporated into solar cell production lines. Robert Kot, MTI Instruments' vice president and general manager, said the product was developed with input from solar equipment suppliers and solar cell manufacturers.