Energy Conversion Devices files for bankruptcy as solar energy lags
In the latest setback for the solar energy industry, Auburn Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices said today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intends to sell its assets, including its main subsidiary United Solar Ovonic.
h/t Revnant Dream
The U.S. military, suddenly faced with a shrinking budget and the need to lower costs over the long term, turned to an old, reliable partner — solar power. In October 2010, the U.S. Navy set a goal to produce 50 per cent of its onshore energy needs from renewables by 2020.
The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) complex in San Diego, California, has just completed installation of 1.3 megawatts of solar panels, at the Navy’s headquarters for high-tech military command, communications and surveillance.
SPAWAR now has the U.S. Navy’s largest contiguous rooftop solar array with 5,376 high-performance SolarWorld photo-voltaic solar panels providing electricity for the site and is part of a military-wide effort to conserve energy, lower costs and reduce reliance on imported fuels. Any surplus electricity generated on-site, is sold to the San Diego grid.
For another example, U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS China Lake), California, is installing a photo-voltaic solar power plant financed through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between SunPower and the U.S Navy.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Navy has no upfront costs. The plant is expected to produce 13.78 megawatts of power for the California electrical grid and cover 30 per cent of NAWS China Lake’s energy needs.
With zero capital investment and giving up only otherwise unusable land, the Navy will reduce costs by saving an estimated $13 million (over the next 20 years) on their NAWS China Lake electricity bill by paying a discounted rate for electricity.
Beginning in 1999, the U.S. military has installed solar power systems at many bases, including Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, Pearl Harbor, Fort Dix, Coronado Island, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado — among others.
The vast United States military often sets tone and precedent for the rest of the country. This is certainly becoming the case with solar energy. Cities and utility companies have taken careful note of the PPA model used by the Navy and the Air Force in their dealings with utility companies.
Ho hum. So the U.S. Navy, which subsists entirely off the government teat, “invests” in solar electric generation? Big deal. Their down-side risk is zero. Uncle Sam will make good any shortfall should the solar system fail to deliver the goods.
Get back to us when a large, well-managed corporation, accountable to its shareholders makes a similar investment in renewable power.
Full disclosure: I have a solar panel charging the battery on my tractor.
Here’s another eco company that’s doing it with mirrors,apparently:
http://jalopnik.com/5884551/tesla-losses-ford-blows-off-jltv-bid-and-siri-helps-cars-find-escorts
Key snip:
“Bloomberg reports this morning that Tesla may have seen its loss widen in 2011’s final quarter. We can’t imagine why. Well, other than the Model S sedan isn’t expected to go into production until mid-2012 — and that they’ve killed the $109,000 Roadster and a replacement isn’t coming until 2015 — and Tesla’s main revenue source right now is supplying battery packs to Toyota and Daimler. Oh, and taking deposits from people on the Tesla Model X crossover unveiled last week. ”
they were likely directed to purchase the solar gear…and who to buy it from…and did as directed.
when in doubt, follow the money…
Federal funds flow to clean-energy firms with Obama administration ties
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/venture-capitalists-play-key-role-in-obamas-energy-department/2011/12/30/gIQA05raER_story.html
(WaPo) — Sanjay Wagle was a venture capitalist and Barack Obama fundraiser in 2008, rallying support through a group he headed known as Clean Tech for Obama.
Shortly after Obama’s election, he left his California firm to join the Energy Department, just as the administration embarked on a massive program to stimulate the economy with federal investments in clean-technology firms.
Following an enduring Washington tradition, Wagle shifted from the private sector, where his firm hoped to profit from federal investments, to an insider’s seat in the administration’s $80 billion clean-energy investment program.
He was one of several players in venture capital, which was providing financial backing to start-up clean-tech companies, who moved into the Energy Department at a time when the agency was seeking outside expertise in the field. At the same time, their industry had a huge stake in decisions about which companies would receive government loans, grants and support.
During the next three years, the department provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean-energy companies in which Wagle’s former firm, Vantage Point Venture Partners, had invested, a Washington Post analysis found. Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.
The solar technology is viable, North American solar companies are failing because the Chinese can produce solar panels much cheaper for a variety of reasons. Don’t confuse economics with science.
I’m curious to know who the major shareholders in that company are, and which elected officials have been trading in it over the last three years.
The MSM laughed at star-wars by Ronald Reagan which was doable. Always saying how expensive & redicioulious the project was. Now Obama wants to reduce nukes to a third of Chinas.
IN EVERY instance solar power or windmills have failed in Europe , here or anywhere else on Planet Earth . Yet the MSM supports it because their Messiah demands it. Makes you want to puke. There is no other sane observation a rational human being come come to, that Obama wants to destroy America.
Energy & health care being his preferred vehicles of destruction.
IN EVERY instance solar power or windmills have failed in Europe , here or anywhere else on Planet Earth
Wrong. Solar power is working quite well at many places all over the planet. Wind power isn’t.
Don’t confuse the two.
“Solar power is working quite well at many places all over the planet.” Why, in Spain they can produce energy from solar panels at night! If nothing else solar panel farms can keep squeegee kids employed all year around.
Are these solar energy companies real businesses?
Or are they set up with the purpose of harvesting grant money and subsidies?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
In all likelihood some of each. Some formed out of idealism and others out of greed. The world of capitalism is seldom entirely one or the other.
So instead of ordinances to disrupt power and command and control, all the chicoms need are OWS protesters and spray paint.
All this to battle plant food.