Boeing Jet Assembly Factory 2.6 MW Solar Installation

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/UNI-SOLAR-R-Powers-Boeing-pz-3760797518.html?x=0


UNI-SOLAR(R) Powers Boeing's Dreamliner Assembly Plant in South CarolinaPress Release: Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. – Wed, Dec 7, 2011 9:52 AM EST

Companies:
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Dec. 7, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --United Solar, the global manufacturer of UNI-SOLAR(R) lightweight, flexible solar modules and a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (Nasdaq:ENER) announced today that Baker Renewable Energy has completed the installation of a 2.6 megawatt (MW) system containing its photovoltaic laminates on the roof of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner jet assembly plant located in North Charleston, South Carolina.

"We are very pleased with the results of the project. The design, installation and commissioning of the system went as planned. We are very proud of the team effort put in by SCANA and Baker Renewable Energy to execute this for Boeing," said Jason Epstein, Executive Vice President of Baker Renewable Energy.

As one of the largest rooftop solar installations in the United States, the 2.6 MW project is expected to offset both a significant percentage of the building usage and 3,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. In addition, the energy generation is projected to be over 3,950 MWh per year and is enough to supply power to nearly 870 homes. The assembly plant was operational this past July and the first 787 Dreamliner to be built there will take flight in mid 2012.

"United Solar is proud to have been selected by Baker Renewable Energy for this 2.6 MW rooftop installation, highlighting Boeing's commitment to clean, renewable solar energy," said Julian Hawkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of ECD, parent company of United Solar. "UNI-SOLAR PV laminates are engineered to be building-integrated, ultra-lightweight and non-reflective making them ideally suited for large buildings around airports where low profile, lightweight, and low glare solar solutions are needed. The Baker Renewable Energy team has done a world class job bonding our laminates to Boeing's membrane roof and executing on this project."

View a short video courtesy of South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and Baker Renewable Energy at http://bit.ly/UNI-SOLAR_Boeing_Installation.

United Solar has more than 25 years experience in the solar industry, is the largest manufacturer of lightweight flexible solar panels in the world and has been awarded nearly 70 United States patents for various technological advancements.

About United Solar/UNI-SOLAR(R)

United Solar has been a global leader in building-integrated and rooftop photovoltaics for over 25 years. The company manufactures, sells and installs thin-film solar laminates that convert sunlight into clean, renewable energy using proprietary technology for which the company has been awarded over 70 U.S. patents. UNI-SOLAR(R) brand products are unique because of their flexibility, light weight, ease of installation, durability, and real-world energy production. The company also designs, manufactures and installs rooftop photovoltaic systems, which enable customers to transform unused rooftop space into a value-generating asset. With the Open Solar(TM) initiative the company is seeking to build a community of solar innovators who will commercialize new products using the underlying, patented UNI-SOLAR technology. For more information on United Solar visit uni-solar.com or follow UNI-SOLAR on Facebook.com/unisolar and Twitter.com/uni_solar.

About Baker Renewable Energy


Baker Renewable Energy is a premier provider of renewable energy and green building strategies in the southeast. We offer a full line of residential, commercial, and governmental solutions, built on the foundation of 97 years of quality service and installations in the construction industry as a Division of Baker Roofing Company.


Baker Renewable Energy, A Division of Baker Roofing Company, is a full service engineering & procurement renewable energy contractor. Baker has been a construction leader for nearly 100 years since it’s founding in 1915. Since then, Baker has grown to become one of the largest, and most recognized specialty contractors in the nation; with such recognitions as Engineering News Records SE Specialty Contractor of the year (2011).

Solar Power project gets private funding

$1B-plus solar power project gets private funding:

A California-based solar company announced Wednesday that it has lined up enough private financing to begin what it says will be the largest residential solar photovoltaic project in U.S. history -- powering as many as 120,000 military housing units.

SolarCity sought a loan guarantee last year from the U.S. Department of Energy to finance part of its five-year, $1 billion-plus plan to install, own and operate rooftop solar panels for privatized U.S. military housing communities nationwide.

DOE offered a conditional commitment Sept. 7 but couldn't finalize the loan before its 1705 program expired Sept. 30. The DOE program has been scrutinized after lending a half-billion dollars to now bankrupt solar manufacturer Solyndra.

SolarCity, based in San Mateo, Calif., didn't give up. It continued to work with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch to attract private investors for its SolarStrong project, receiving advice from equity firm US Renewables Group.

"This is uncharted territory for residential solar. The fact that SolarStrong can move forward without a federal loan guarantee is a clear indication that long-term incentives such as the investment tax credit are working," said Lyndon Rive,  CEO of SolarCity, in co-announcing the terms of the financing with BofA Merrill.

FOLLOW: Green House on Twitter

Rive expects the project to create thousands of temporary and full-time jobs, allow privatized military housing developers to save money on energy costs and help the U.S. Department of Defense—the single-largest energy consumer in the U.S.—secure more of its energy needs from renewable sources.


'via Blog this'

Solarcity: $1B-plus solar power project gets private funding

$1B-plus solar power project gets private funding:


California-based solar company announced Wednesday that it has lined up enough private financing to begin what it says will be the largest residential solar photovoltaic project in U.S. history -- powering as many as 120,000 military housing units.

SolarCity sought a loan guarantee last year from the U.S. Department of Energy to finance part of its five-year, $1 billion-plus plan to install, own and operate rooftop solar panels for privatized U.S. military housing communities nationwide.

DOE offered a conditional commitment Sept. 7 but couldn't finalize the loan before its 1705 program expired Sept. 30. The DOE program has been scrutinized after lending a half-billion dollars to now bankrupt solar manufacturer Solyndra.

SolarCity, based in San Mateo, Calif., didn't give up. It continued to work with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch to attract private investors for its SolarStrong project, receiving advice from equity firm US Renewables Group.

"This is uncharted territory for residential solar. The fact that SolarStrong can move forward without a federal loan guarantee is a clear indication that long-term incentives such as the investment tax credit are working," said Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, in co-announcing the terms of the financing with BofA Merrill.

FOLLOW: Green House on Twitter

Rive expects the project to create thousands of temporary and full-time jobs, allow privatized military housing developers to save money on energy costs and help the U.S. Department of Defense—the single-largest energy consumer in the U.S.—secure more of its energy needs from renewable sources.


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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

SAN MATEOBANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH 

SOLAR POWER 

SOLYNDRA

SOLARCITY

from USATODAY:

Plastic bag ban pits Hailey, Idaho, students against Hilex Poly

Chu balks at apologizing for Solyndra deal

Clean tech companies get venture capital, public support


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Krugman: It's time for solar power

Solar Power has been my pick for the future of alternative, sustainable energy for a while now - years not weeks.  China has weighed in on solar by with aggressive trade practices to kill competition, distorting pricing and otherwise upsetting the course of the industry built up around solar power. Its not a walk in the park to see how to invest in this area.  Lots of money has been lost already by investors and companies bankrupted....


Solar Power
By PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES
Updated Monday, November 7, 2011

For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it. Moore's Law - in which the price of computing power falls roughly 50 percent every 18 months - has powered an ever-expanding range of applications, from faxes to Facebook.

Our mastery of the material world, on the other hand, has advanced much more slowly. The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago.


The success story you haven't heard about is Solar Energy

But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That's right, solar power.

If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.

These days, mention solar power and you'll probably hear cries of "Solyndra!" Republicans have tried to make the failed solar panel company both a symbol of government waste - although claims of a major scandal are nonsense - and a stick with which to beat renewable energy.

But Solyndra's failure was actually caused by technological success: The price of solar panels is dropping fast, and Solyndra couldn't keep up with the competition. In fact, progress in solar panels has been so dramatic and sustained that, as a blog post at Scientific American put it, "there's now frequent talk of a 'Moore's law' in solar energy," with prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7 percent a year.

This has already led to rapid growth in solar installations, but even more change may be just around the corner. If the downward trend continues - and if anything it seems to be accelerating - we're just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panels becomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal.

And if we priced coal-fired power right, taking into account the huge health and other costs it imposes, it's likely that we would already have passed that tipping point.

But will our political system delay the energy transformation now within reach?

A large part of our political class, including essentially the entire GOP, is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers' money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar.


So what you need to know is that nothing you hear from these people is true; solar is now cost-effective. Here comes the sun, if we're willing to let it in.

 

Krugman is a columnist for The New York Times.

Source:
http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Krugman-It-s-time-for-solar-power-2257045.php