Obama Administration Moves Past Solyndra, Updates 'Solar Energy Zones'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Thursday identified 17 sites in six Western states as prime candidates for solar energy projects on public lands, continuing a push for solar power despite the high-profile bankruptcy of a solar panel maker that received a half-billion dollar federal loan.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the latest "Solar Energy Zones" refine and improve on a draft released in December that identified two dozen areas in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

[Check out or Energy Intelligence blog.]

Five sites in Nevada, four in Colorado, three in Utah, two each in California and Arizona, and one in New Mexico were identified as ideal for solar development.

The sites comprise 285,000 acres, down from about 677,000 acres in December, and reflect the department's judgment that the targeted land has the highest potential for solar development with the fewest environmental conflicts.

The plan is intended to promote development of large, utility-scale solar projects on public lands that will generate thousands of megawatts of electricity. The zones are intended to maximize electrwicity generation while minimizing conflicts with wildlife, cultural and historic resources.

Salazar called the announcement a "giant step forward" as officials step up efforts to promote solar power, particularly in the West.

The administration's push for renewable energy has come under attack since California-based Solyndra Inc. closed its doors two month ago after receiving a $528 million federal loan. The company declared bankruptcy and laid off its 1,100 workers.

The new plan, which is subject to a 90-day public comment period, "establishes for the first time a blueprint for landscape-level planning that will help facilitate smarter siting of solar energy projects," Salazar said in a conference call with reporters.

[Read about the Republican case against Solyndra.]

It also proposes to open an additional 20 million acres of public land to future solar development.

While California has only two projects — both near the Arizona border in the southeastern corner of the state — it has more than half the total acreage, with 153,627 acres. Nevada has the next-highest acreage at 60,395.

Salazar and other officials said the plan aims to reduce conflicts and delays in approving solar projects, by identifying areas that have been "pre-screened" to show they are near transmission sites and have few in any environmental conflicts. The sites are also considered to have strong sunlight, with minimal rain or clouds.

Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said the new plan "provides more clarity' on how projects can proceed and gives potential developers certainty that they will be working in areas that the government considers suited for solar power.

The new plan is based in part on more than 80,000 comments received after the draft plan was announced in December. The seven sites that were dropped from the draft plan include two each in California, Nevada and New Mexico, and one in Arizona.

None of the seven sites had attracted significant interest from investors and either had looming environmental conflicts or were far away from transmission lines, Hayes said, adding that he is confident the remaining 17 projects will be attractive to utilities and other developers.

The department has 79 applications for solar projects on public lands pending and expects to approve as many as 14 next year, officials said.

Four public meetings on the plan are scheduled in November and December.

Home, Architecture and Furniture

Traveling Info

Read More

University of Maryland Wins Solar House Competition

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Nineteen university teams from around the world turned West Potomac Park on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., into a futuristic neighborhood last week at the U.S. Department of Energy's fifth biennial Solar Decathlon competition.

The only guidelines? Design, raise money for, build, and live in a self-sufficient house that runs on solar energy. Houses were judged on 10 criteria, including affordability, market appeal, comfort level, architecture, and, of course, energy efficiency. The wide-open guidelines led to a wide variety of houses. Students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the California Institute of Technology built something they call CHIP—a hyper-insulated, roomless structure that looks more like a tennis bubble than a house.

"We wanted to create what tomorrow looks like," says project engineer Fei Yang. "We want people to know that this isn't a house you stick a [solar] panel onto—it was designed from the ground up to be like this."

Other teams, such as second-place finisher Purdue University, went more traditional. Their white house looked like it could be on any midwestern street, complete with a one-car garage and an American flag on the porch. More entries fell somewhere in the middle—a team from Appalachian State University designed a "homestead" made up of a series of smaller buildings. But it was a Chesapeake Bay-inspired house made by a team from the University of Maryland that won the competition, narrowly edging Purdue.

The contest was close because the Washington area was rainy and overcast for most of the nine-day competition, giving teams little energy to work with. David Lee, communications director of the Appalachian State team, says it came down to energy management. "Five dollars of electricity is going to determine who wins this competition," he says. "It's a two-and-a-half year, $900,000 project and it comes down to $5 of electricity. It's a little mind-boggling and stressful."

Still, most houses generated enough electricity to be lived in for the week. Andrew Gong, electrical engineering lead for the CalTech team, says team engineers studied historical weather data for the past 50 years. They designed their house to compete in the worst historical weather conditions; their house barely outpaced that.

"If it was sunny, we'd be way over that target," he says.

Most teams had more than a hundred students working on the house, from engineers and architects to communications directors and business managers. Contest director Richard King says students who entered the competition are well-positioned to enter the job market.

"This group [of students] is going to get hired above others. To supplement their classroom education, they're doing this hands-on project," he says. "It's like starting a small business to form a team and put it all together."

Lee says that several of the Appalachian State team members had already received job offers. "The Solar Decathlon attracts a lot of industries," he says. "It's not just solar panel manufacturers that come here."

King says every two years the competition gets more fierce.

"They keep learning from each other. They're learning how to design it better over time. Each time, the bar gets raised and these houses are better and better," he says. "It's wonderful workforce development."

 Have something to share? Send news and submissions to stem@usnews.com.

Home, Architecture and Furniture

Traveling Info

Read More

Mass protest at China solar plant

Riot police were brought in to remove protesters from outside the solar panel factory in Haining City Hundreds of villagers in eastern China have held three days of protests at a solar panel plant over pollution fears.Around 500 people started gathering at Zhejiang Jinko Solar company in Haining city, Zhejiang province, on Thursday.
Some of protesters stormed the factory, overturning several company cars and destroying offices, officials said.
Residents in the nearby village of Hongxiao said they became concerned after the deaths of a large number of river fish.
One 64-year-old villager told the Associated Press that the factory - located close to a school and kindergarten - discharges waste into the river and spews dense smoke out of a dozen chimneys.
"The villagers strongly request that this factory be moved to another area," he said. "I am very worried about the health of the younger generation".
Factories closed
Four police vehicles were reportedly damaged in demonstrations on Friday, and dozens of police officers were seen being brought in to keep control of the situation.
Chen Hongming, a deputy head of Haining's environmental protection bureau, was quoted by Chinese news agency Xinhua as saying that the factory's waste disposal had failed pollution tests since April.
The environmental watchdog has warned the factory, but it had not effectively controlled the pollution, he added.
The company is a subsidiary of a New York Exchange-listed Chinese solar company, JinkoSolar Holding Company. Both firms have made no comment about the protests or pollution allegations.
In a separate incident, Shanghai on Friday ordered the temporary closure of two factories in the east of the city amid lead poisoning fears.
The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said in a statement that a "small amount of children living in the Kangqiao area... were found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood in early September".
The factories affected include a large lead-acid battery plant operated by Shanghai Johnson Controls International Battery Company - a unit of the New York-listed industrial giant Johnson Controls.
Johnson Controls said it had suspended production at the site and was co-operating with the authorities, but insisted it did not believe its plant was the source of the problem.
The battery plant was named a "national model enterprise for occupational health and safety" in 2006, and has lead emissions at about one-seventh the Chinese national standard, the company said in a statement.

Read More