Compiled by Ann Rascalli

SolSource Helping Military Go Green

 Denver-based SolSource has been busy in recent months. It opened an office in Breckenridge earlier this year to grab a share of the increasingly robust Summit County solar business, as we reported in Colorado Energy News last week, and the company also signed  its biggest military contract, a $5.2 million deal to install the largest solar power system at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora. London-based engineering firm AMEC plc is SolSource’s partner on the project.

The 1.2-megawatt solar power system will be located on six acres next to the airfield’s control tower and runways and be capable of generating 1.2 megawatts of power, or about 2 percent of the military base’s power demands, when completed in June of 2010.

The U.S. military brass is on a green push, mandating that bases get at least 3 percent of their electricity from renewable resources in fiscal 2009, 5 percent by the end of fiscal 2010 and 7.5 percent by 2013. “This project will help us get there,” said Major Eldrick Hill, Buckley’s civil engineer. We’ve done several smaller projects. This is the largest that we’ve done. It’s going to be a win-win.”

The State of the State’s Solar Industry

Mark Jaffe of the Denver Post  asked Jim Welch, CEO of Bella Energy and president of the Colorado Solar Industries Association, to assess the state of Colorado’s solar industry. Not surpisingly, Welch described the installation market for 2009 as  “very flat.”  Even with the price of solar panels dropping, most people are “holding tight to their money,” he said.

Welch did note that things are starting to pick up in the fourth quarter, in part because of stimulus money from the Obama administration starting to hit the street, and tax breaks helping to generate more projects. Welch contends that things would be much worse for the solar industry if the “Prsident and Gov. Ritter hadn’t put clean energy high on their agendas.”

Overall, next year looks better, according to the CEO, but the industry is still seeking a revised agreement with Xcel Energy. The utility is planning to reduce its Solar Rewardsprogram from 17 megawatts in 2008 to 8 megawatts in 2010. Because the program represents 90% of the solar business in Colorado, the industry is lobbying Xcel to raise the limit.

One of the most interesting comments from Welch came when he said the national renewable-energy standard would be more important to the solar industry than a climate bill.

Business Leaders Urge National Policy Support of Solar Power

The wide deployment of solar power across the nation hinges on federal policies that mandate renewable power and government spending to promote the technology, utilities and manufacturers told Congress late last week.

“America’s ability to develop thriving domestic renewable solar power depends on this,” said Stephanie Burns, the CEO of Midland, Mich.-based Dow Corning, which produces the polycrystalline silicon that is a component of solar panels.

Executives from California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and San Francisco-based NextLight Renewable Power joined Burns in urging the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming to promote solar power with federal tax incentives, spending and policy.

Solar power currently makes up about 1 percent of the nation’s electricity supplies, according to the Energy Information Administration. It has been hindred by the nation’s outdated electrical grid, construction costs and, in some cases, environmental barriers to building solar installations.

“The clean energy revolution will not happen magically,” said panel Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., who wants to see the nation transition from primarily fossil-fuel energy to renewable power sources. “We need to put in place … the right permanent policies on the books to ensure we complete this revolution.”

The executives urged Congress to sustain a production tax credit used to finance renewable projects and continue a new federal program that gives companies direct cash grants to pay for about 30 percent of the qualifying cost of such projects. So far this year, the federal government has committed to doling out more than $1 billion in the renewable energy grants that were authorized by the economic stimulus package. The industry representatives also urged Congress to establish a national mandate that forces utilities to derive a portion of their electricity from wind, solar, hydro and other renewable sources. A dozen states already have such an imperative.

Colorado Plains Town Getting Solar Manufacturing Plant

Principals in a kickoff to E2Logicx s planned solar manufacturing plant in Brush launch balloons from the field that will become the company s headquarters and manufacturing plant. CEO Fida Hossain is in the right foreground in a suit and sunglasses. (John La Porte/Fort Morgan Times)

Brush is to be the home of a new solar power equipment manufacturing plant and headquarters by next summer.

The <I>Fort Morgan Times</I> reports the project will create about 250 construction jobs during the building phase and about 130 direct jobs and numerous spinoff jobs within the next five years, said officials of E2Logicx Solar, building contractor General Steel and financing company Helm Lending Group East.

Groundbreaking is planned for sometime this winter, with construction to start shortly thereafter. The target date for completion is July 2010, said Fida Hossain, E2Logicx president.

The company is seeking $20 million in financing from various sources, including government grants and private lending groups, to build a 30,000 to 38,000 square-foot facility at Interstate 76 and Hospital Road, company, contractor and finance officials said.

“We have 46 acres available,” said Hossain, adding that other companies with visions of “green” construction and energy would be welcome to locate there.

In addition to putting a manufacturing plant on the site on Hospital Road, E2Logicx is moving its headquarters there from San Bernardino, Calif., Hossain said.

Solar Business is GE’s ‘Next Wind’

General Electric plans to give its solar business a charge in two years with the introduction of panels with the same solar cell material used by industry cost leader First Solar.

In 2011, the energy giant expects to produce solar panels made with cadmium telluride, a thin-film solar cell material, said Michael Idelchik, vice president of advanced technologies at GE Global Research at the EmTech conference here on Wednesday. The company now sells solar panels that use silicon solar cells, but its long-term bet is on thin-film and specifically cadmium telluride because it offers the cheapest cost per watt, he said.

Last year, GE’s energy division took a majority stake in Golden, Colorado-based PrimeStar Solar, for its cadmium telluride cell technology. GE is now developing a product around that aimed at utility and commercial customers.

Solar at GE is a relatively small part of its sprawling energy portfolio which covers everything from nuclear power plants to natural gas turbines. But GE expects that solar has the potential to grow rapidly, as its multi-billion dollar wind business has done over the past five years.