Category: News

January 8 2015

SolarReserve, ACWA Win Bid to Build South African Solar Plant

Acceptance of the bid means the companies can now proceed to financial close, expected this year, and the signing of a power-purchase agreement with state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. The Redstone plant, near Kimberley, is expected to start working in early 2018, California-based SolarReserve said today in a statement on its website.

January 7 2015

Self-Powered Waste-to-Water System Solves Sanitation, Gates Says

Janicki Industries Inc., with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has developed a system, the Omniprocessor, that converts human feces into electricity and clean drinking water.

January 7 2015

Google, Prudential Investing $157 Million in Utah Solar Farm

The 104-megawatt Red Hills facility is being developed and will be operated by Scatec Solar ASA, the Oslo-based company said today in a statement. The plant will sell its power to PacifiCorp’s Rocky Mountain Power under a 20-year agreement and is expected to begin operating by the end of the year.

January 7 2015

Fracking Data Sought by Environmental Groups in EPA Lawsuit

Fracking involves the injection of water, chemicals and sand below ground to extract oil and gas from shale formations. The process has been criticized as environmentally dangerous, even as its use has driven U.S. natural gas production to new highs amid litigation across the country.

January 7 2015

Stem Adds $12 Million From Total, Exelon to Close Series B Round

Stem now has raised more than $40 million to expand in the U.S. and abroad, Chief Executive Officer John Carrington said today in a telephone interview. A November agreement to provide Edison International’s Southern California Edison utility with 85 megawatts of capacity may become a blueprint for future deals in other U.S. states.

January 7 2015

EPA to Delay U.S. Carbon Rule for Power Plants Until Summer

Janet McCabe, the EPA’s top official for air pollution, said the agency will miss this week’s legal deadline to issue a final rule for new power plants. A more contentious rule to cut emission from modified or existing plants will come out “mid-summer,” and not as scheduled in early June, she said.

January 7 2015

TerraForm Power Buying 21 SunEdison Solar Plants for $47 Million

The 21 projects acquired from SunEdison are in seven states and have long-term contracts to sell electricity to customers including schools and businesses, Beltsville, Maryland-based TerraForm said today in a statement.

January 7 2015

EnBW Sells Offshore Wind Stake to Macquarie for $853 Million

EnBW sold 49.89 percent of its shares in the Baltic 2 facility that’s currently being built to Macquarie Capital, the Karlsruhe-based company said today in a statement on its website. The project is expected to be fully operational in the first half with 80 turbines and a total capacity of 288 megawatts. It will produce enough power for about 340,000 homes.

January 6 2015

Obama Keystone Veto Threat Spurs Democrat’s Plea for Deal

A bill to sidestep a federal agency review was the first legislation Republicans introduced as they took control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 2007. The measure has enough sponsors to pass but not enough to override a veto.

January 6 2015

Brazil Approves $9.6 Million Financing for Solar-Panel Factory

Pure Energy, a unit of the Brazilian builder Cerutti Engenharia, will use the funds for a plant in the northeastern state of Alagoas, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico & Social said in an e-mailed statement today.