Posts from ‘April, 2009’

solar storms could damage power grid with devastating consequences.

April 21 (Bloomberg) — Investec , the South African investment and private bank, said it may invest in Australian solar thermal and geothermal energy projects as it seeks to participate in emerging renewable energy ventures.

Cell phone addicts, listen up: The dreaded low-battery beep may soon be a thing of the past. Sharp has just unveiled the world’s first solar-powered cell phone. Ready to get charged?

At least one in every 100 white dwarf stars may be orbited by asteroids and rocky planets, new observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest. The finding could mean that these now dead stars once hosted solar systems similar to our own.

Los Angeles County has rolled out with a new online mapping system that allows residents and businesses to determine if solar panels would work well on their properties.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada’s main electric utility says it finally has met state guidelines set in 1997 for use of renewable energy. NV Energy is crediting a number of projects just coming on line for its subsidiaries, Nevada power Co. in Las Vegas and Sierra Pacific power in Reno.

ARLINGTON, Va., April 17, 2009 — SkyBuilt power, the leader in transportable and rapidly deployable renewable energy systems is working closely with military and civilian government agencies to solve some of the toughest energy problems.

Nevada’s main electric utility says it finally has met state guidelines set in 1997 for use of renewable energy.

The vast expansion of wind and solar power planned by the Obama administration and congressional leaders is fraught with chal…

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) has long invested in renewable energy sources, including geothermal, wind and solar. Earlier this week, the utility company reached for the stars in announcing the first-ever deal of its kind: The California power utility, says spokesperson Jonathan Marshall, plans to purchase clean energy generated by a satellite beaming solar [...]

Applied Materials’ mystery solar customer comes up short.

SpectraWatt Inc.–the solar-cell spin-off of Intel Corp.–has moved its operations from Oregon and will establish the company’s first factory and its new headquarters at the Hudson Valley Research Park in Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

In a major blow to Applied Materials, the Santa Clara company has disclosed that the $1.9 billion solar panel deal it announced early last year — believed to be one of the biggest such agreements ever signed — has been trimmed back to just $250 million because of the soured economy.

Occidental Petroleum and First solar, operating on opposite ends of the spectrum, were picked by the math-based Adaptive Allocation Fund.

Today’s solar market can be a very volatile place. One Bay Area solar company on Tuesday announced plans to build a power plant in Colorado, the second-largest plant of its kind in America. Meanwhile, another local company revealed that a $1.9 billion solar…