Seeds of Revival in Wind and Solar?

By Kate Galbraith

After several gloomy months, experts say that the stimulus package is beginning — just beginning — to revive interest in wind and solar power.

“I call this the green shoots period. We’re seeing new growth,” said Ron Kenedi, a vice-president of Sharp Solar, who noted that December, January and February had been “miserable.”

“I call this the green shoots period. We’re seeing new growth.”

— Ron Kenedi,
Sharp Solar

Mr. Kenedi referenced a large-scale institutional solar project (which he declined to name) whose financiers walked away late last year. Now, he said, banks willing to invest have arrived, and “they’ve unstuck their project.” He also noted that the Department of Energy has issued its first (and long-awaited) loan guarantee, to the solar manufacturer Solyndra.

In addition, Mr. Kenedi pointed to stimulus money that will soon be flowing to state governments through conservation-oriented block grants, so that smaller-scale solar projects might show a pickup in activity.

Craig Mataczynski, the president of Renewable Energy Systems Americas, a wind developer, was more circumspect (as was the head of General Electric’s Ecomagination arm, in an interview on Wednesday).

“I would characterize the situation as ‘the fog appearing as if it is starting to lift,'” Mr. Mataczynski said in an e-mail message. A good sign, he said: “Talk of additional projects that people are looking to build.”

However, he added, the industry is still looking for clarity on how a new Treasury grant program (an important stimulus measure for renewable energy that turns tax credits into straight grants) will work. “We are also noting that the financing of projects already slated to go forward is taking extra time to get done,” he said.

Keith Martin, a lawyer with Chadbourne & Parke, said that a recent call he had conducted with bankers had yielded a consensus that the stimulus had generated more activity, if not yet money, in the renewables sector.

“There are lots of proposal letters and term sheets circulating,” he said in an e-mail message. “The mood is improving, but it has not translated yet into closing and fresh capital flowing into deals.”

Comments are no longer being accepted.

iara March 26, 2009 · 9:48 am

start reading again about solar my love…

todd March 26, 2009 · 9:51 am

This is all nice but What About the NYC MTA??? They need a grant from the fed!!!!

Lyle Vos March 26, 2009 · 10:11 am

Unfortunately, the opportunistic Al Gore has tarnished the climate change debate. His State of Fear antics has pushed off the transition to more efficient uses of energy for decades.

Ron Weisinger March 26, 2009 · 10:23 am

good article to read

Jordan March 26, 2009 · 10:28 am

You think banks would line up to invest in wind particularly, there is almost no risk, people will always need electricity and there is a fixed value asset behind the loan. Even though wholesale electricity prices are extremely low ($55/MWhr) there is still profit in generating power with wind ($35/MWhr production cost) at the utility scale without any subsidy. Coal and natural gas are struggling to be profitable with energy prices this low ($55-$60/MWhr production cost).

Nuclear is a total waste, at $150/MWhr production cost plus the government having to pay to store the waste ($500 million/year payouts to power plant owners who aren’t able to offload their waste to the Yucca Mountain waste repository).

osisbs March 26, 2009 · 10:34 am

There are two kinds of states in the USA. Those with progressive governments who will soon reap the benefits of free electricity, thriving populations and a robust economy and those who are taking bribes from the coal lobby and promoting the lies that wind and solar do not work. I live in the latter and right now my house is shaking from the 9th coal train this hour to rumble past my house. By the way, people in coal-rich Wyoming pay no taxes whatsoever.
If your state isn’t throwing up wind turbines all over the place, you’re going to be left behind.

pierce moffett March 26, 2009 · 10:47 am

Fossil fuel prices are down right now because there’s a global recession on. But once the economy picks up, oil prices will shoot right back up to where they were, and wind and solar will again become more competitive.

Ruth Matilsky March 26, 2009 · 11:01 am

In our quest for renewable energy it is important to take a close look at the proposals of developer who want nothing more than to make money. Wind energy in NY is a legacy of Enron.

For six years and more, rural people in New York State have been battling wind developers who want to destroy our hills in order to reap tax subsidies for themselves — Make no mistake — commercial wind development is an expensive scam with serious health risks to the environment. Speaking out against wind is like speaking out against motherhood and apple pie, but time will show that it is nothing more than a 21st version of the emperior’s new clothes.

The wind developers sell ‘credits’ to polluters who keep on polluting. At the same time, wind “energy” is intermittent — wind turbines do not produce at the times the electricity is needed. They fall down (this happened in New York a few weeks ago), they kill bats (the turbulence created blows up their lungs). And the low frequency noise drives neighbors crazy.

The bottom line is that there is a pitiful amount of electricity created by the 400 foot t all turbines and way too much damage to make them worthwhile.

variation on John Donne March 26, 2009 · 11:07 am

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the wind blows,
It blows for thee.

Todd Hengel March 26, 2009 · 11:21 am

The greatest argument for solar and wind power has yet to be made by the Feds. At its most basic level, it is a matter of National Security. We must remove ourselves from dependency on Arab oil. PERIOD!

jerryd March 26, 2009 · 12:15 pm

Solar thermal engines not only make electricity but also heat, hot water saving even more. The fact they can also run on wood pellets or any other fuel too means they are better than PV.

These are just 5hp steam engines with a 200sq’ trough type collector, a 3kw induction generator that grid ties without an inverter with a back up burner so can me mass produced for under $3k/kw easily.

Dominik Zynis March 26, 2009 · 3:40 pm

I stopped by the Think Equity think Green conference yesterday, and it appeared to me that things should be reviving in another quarter or so. Some of the equipment manufacturers were seeing purchases of new technologies which leads one to believe that companies are investing for the next big demand cycle. And silicon manufacturers are using the down time to install new equipment. Most estimates were that it would start by end of Q3. Their is still considerable inventory and the end user sales that were stagnating were primarily in the small to medium project space where financing has all but disappeared, companies selling to residential were not largely impacted unless they depended on financing or leasing facilities, and it appeared that large projects were still on their way for the most part but had taken a hit as well due to the financing situation. Some semiconductor equip industry veterans who have turned their business to solar still saw the industry tripling in size by 2012 from the 2008 number GW produced, and left room for upside.

At this point I think it really all links back to capital coming back into this sector, with the gov’t backing this industry up investors should get a shot of confidence. Unfortunately, they might have to circumvent the usual methods as many of these banks are defunct.

Dominik Zynis
Editor
//www.chloregy.org

Sean March 26, 2009 · 3:53 pm

Let me paraphrase this article in a single sentence:

“The corpses have piled up high enough that the rest of the green companies that survived can reach a bit higher.”

stop killing wilderness! March 26, 2009 · 5:19 pm

why aren’t people here and elsewhere fighting much harder for DEMOCRATIC power – where we the ratepayers are the producers and are paid fairly for feeding clean energy into the grid. the cost to everyone is WAY lower that way, since Big Energy Boondoggles are not built and charged back to ratepayers (what a deal – we pay 100% of the cost and own nothing, not even free power!).

what america needs is a fair feed in tariff policy so WE can have energy independence. from OPEC and Bright Source. Big Wind, Big Solar and Big Transmission are a total scam, and will RIP US OFF while killing our wilderness meanwhile, the DOE already proved that 190% of our electricity can be generated right where it is needed – on existing rooftops and urban brownfields, even if we use super-cheap thin-film PV.

so why are we sacrificing our open spaces, our health, our planet’s health (look into the SF6 spewed by powerlines, and the gas burned and water wasted by Big Solar), and our properties (the eminent domain for Big Energy profits will be staggering)? WE could be improving our property values, getting monthly checks, creating jobs and saving the planet, all for much less money.

I’m telling you. feed in tariffs have worked incredibly well in 48 other nations. they are the answer. we must stop killing our wilderness for private profits.

Jed N March 27, 2009 · 9:08 pm

Solar energy is the way of the to the future, solar heating comes in many forms, this site explains some of them.
//www.sunsohot.com

Tenney Naumer March 27, 2009 · 9:35 pm

Don’t worry, we will get those feed in tariffs. It is all coming together. Change is in the air. I love it!

Will March 28, 2009 · 10:27 am

Solar only works when the sun shines! In most places in the U. S. that’s about 20 percent of the time. In the desert SW you can get 35-40 percent capacity out of a solar investment. A project in Fla. recently profiled in the media cost its investor $800,000 per KW. (And that project was benefitting from feed-in-tariffs [basically a government subsidy].) Nuclear can be built for $2,000 per KW — and the fuel is half a cent per kilowatt-hour — and the plant can run 90 pecent of the time, i.e. when it’s dark, raining, snowing, cold, etc!

Wind is the best renewable technology but check out a U.S. wind map and you will find that there are few locations that provide the capacity factors to make these investments worthwhile.

Ruby April 10, 2009 · 9:27 pm

Solar is the largest energy resource. Moreover the sun is responsible directly or indirectly for generation of ALL forms of energy. As for Will’s statement that “solar only works when the sun shines,” and his paltry estimate of 20% of the time…he is wrong on both accounts. Solar energy may be stored in battery banks (off-grid or on) and drawn from them anytime (e.g., cloudy days, at night). New York, for example, averages about 5 peak solar hours a day. Since most people use limited energy at night s it more realistically averages out to 40% irradience not 20%. A photovolatic panel can also generate electricity even when it is cloudy out, by the way, via diffusion or reflection for example.